Questions and Answers

Hi Ben,
Was wondering if you had an opinion on which credit card(s) to choose when the situation is:
Re-locating to Orlando in beginning of 2017. Partner has good credit, as non-us citizen I don’t have credit score, yet. When choosing credit card(s) the main factors will be:
Annual medical expenses in range of $15.000 – 25.000 (this is post-tax costs, after insurance cover)
Weekly commute on United, Delta and Jetblue between Orlando and following cities: Minneapolis, Newark, Boston and Baltimore.
The cost of airfares and hotel will be processed through central travel account and therefore not via the credit card(s). Travel related spending on the credit cards will be misc. travel expenses like car rental, gas, misc. hotel expenses and 3 round trips to Europe every year.

Hi Hasse, welcome. I don’t know of any card that bonuses medical expenses so you are best off with a card that is rewarding for everyday spend like the Citi Double Cash, Fidelity Visa, Chase Freedom Unlimited or AmEx Everyday Preferred. With that amount of medical expenses I would also recommend taking a close look at maxing out any pre-tax health savings account your workplace might offer.

With regards to travel card I’d take a close look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve, and Citi Prestige and Premier. All offer solid rewards on travel in general but the Premier also has the advantage of bonusing gas. Good luck with your decision!

I think you’re probably best with the CitiDouble cash to get 2% cash back on your medical expenses. For all the miscellaneous travel, I’d get the Citi Premier card since its 3x points for travel including gas, 2x points on dining and entertainment and 1 point per dollar for everything else.

If you have flexibility when choosing flights, I’d also recommend trying to lean towards only 2 different airlines and not all 3. Each of those airlines flies non-stop to 3 out of 4 of those destinations from Orlando.

Flying weekly for a year will give you a sizeable chunk of miles as well, the old fashioned way.

Sounds like you travel to Europe regularly so I’d look more at focusing on United and Delta (JetBlue doesn’t fly there, yet).

It might take a little more than a year, but eventually you’d have enough from your flights alone for almost any European redemption for you and your partner.