Recently, I've gone down the credit rabbit hole but in the back of my mind I've been wondering if optimizing your system is really worth all the time and effort? I can see how the hobby can be enjoyable in itself but I was wondering how big the upgrades really get.
Doing some quick napkin math, maybe the upper end of how much you spend on your credit cards is around 2k/month. Again, I'm a beginner so not really sure what a "good" rate back is but 3% seems like a generous rate to aim for. 3% of 2k -> $60 back a month (or $720 a year).
Now considering most people can just get a 2% cash back card and get $40 (or $480 for the year) with 0 brainpower, I'm wondering if the extra $20 is really worth the effort of managing multiple cards and staying on top of the perks of different cards?
Not trying to diminish the hobby, just genuinely curious about the "upper limit" of how much value you can get out of putting effort into your credit cards. Is my napkin math wrong in some way? Is 3% too conservative of a cashback rate? I'm not super well-versed with travel rewards so totally possible that I'm missing something of value there. I also didn't consider churning/SUBs and I'm not sure how significant a factor those are.
Would love to hear any stories of how optimizing your credit cards has been especially helpful if or if you do think it's just a fun hobby without a lot of intrinsic upside.
I'm pretty young so I only have the Chase Freedom Unlimited and Amazon Prime Visa cards. CFU because it's a solid cash back card + 3% on drug stores and dining and eventually, with a CSR or CSP, I (think) I can transfer the points and get some good travel rewards. I have Amazon Prime Visa because my family/extended family shop at Amazon a ton + I use Amazon Fresh + I'd have Amazon Prime regardless+some of my favorite shows are on Prime Video.