Cards Opened in 2025
Me/Hannah/Player 1
- American Express Personal Platinum: This was the first card I opened in 2025. I strategically opened this card because:
1. I already had an Amex Gold Personal (read this post to learn more about the Gold and about Amex Family Rules. (Note currently January 2026, the best offer for the Gold Personal is 100,000 points! I would decline if you after offered less than 85,000 points. When applying, you'll receive your point offer before you formally accept and have your credit pulled).2. We decided in January that we wanted to book Costa Rica for Summer 2025 and I knew I wanted to use American Express Points to transfer to Hilton and use Hilton Gold Status (given by simply holding the Personal Platinum), to book Tabacon Resort and get the 5th night free for having status!
(The 5th night free was a $500 value for Tabacon; which is really helpful considering this hard now has a heft annual fee of $895. Just this one trip basically offset half the cost of the annual fee (although it was $695 at the time I opened))
(People say not to open credit cards for one specific trip, but I did! For me - I knew I would immediately use one of the benefits and also use the SUB points in the future).
I earned 125,000 points for this card.
- American Express Business Gold: I actually opened this fairly quickly after the Personal Platinum. I figured out our estimated personal federal taxes in February and realized that with the amount we owed, I could open a credit card with a higher minimum spend than what our normal day-to-day expenses would cover. Yes, there's a small fee to pay federal taxes with a credit card; but for me - spend just a couple hundred dollars to earn 175,000 points as I did and then use those points to book 2 Business Class seats; valued at $10K, was well worth it!
**Amex Tip: American Express personal cards generally have a 6-month period to hit the minimum spend, whereas Amex business cards are a 3 month spend. I knew that over a 6 month period, we could hit the spend on both cards, which is why I opened them overlapping. We focused all of our spend on the Business card and once we hit that, we still had a few months left on the Personal card.**
- Chase Ink Business Preferred: After being forced to take an 18-month Chase Ink Business card credit (by Chase, I couldn't get approved for a new Ink in that long of a time frame. Probably because of how many Inks I opened in 2023!), I FINALLY got back in their good graces! And with good timing - I got this card just before Costa Rica and it has no foreign transaction fees!
I earned 90,000 Chase points for hitting the minimum spend and since P2 referred me, he earned 20,000 points from the referral!
- Chase Ink Business Cash: Chase announced that they were changing the referral program for business cards and also announced an elevated offer for their no annual fee business cards; so I took advantage of both while I could! (Learn more about Chase no annual fee business cards here and how to rethink if you are eligible for business cards here). P2 referred me to this card, so he got points too!
I earned 90,000 Chase points for hitting the minimum spend and since P2 referred me, he earned 20,000 points from the referral!
- Citi American Airlines Business: At the end of the year, I knew we'd want a new card with holiday spending and travel; but I wanted to branch out. American and Alaskan Airways are known to have great points redemption but are not transfer partners of the banks I had flexible points at (Amex, Capital One, and Chase); so I decided to branch out! Diversifying points, especially flexible points, can go a long way! I opted for the business card because of the Chase 5/24 rule (read here more on points basics). It also has a $95 annual fee, but it's waived the first year!
I caught an elevated offer for this card and earned 75,000 sign up bonus, plus 5,000 points for the minimum spend; which is pretty great for a $0 annual fee the first year!
now on to my P2!
Ben/Player 2
(It's probably worth noting, although maybe already assumed - but I have permission and access to apply for cards for my P2 and manage all of our cards accounts. I basically warn him when I'm going to apply for a new card on his behalf and also manage which cards are in his wallet/what to spend on)
- Capital One Venture: P2's first card of 2025! You can read here why I picked this card. Note - that late 2025 Capital One changes the Venture-Family cards rules and now you need to open the Venture card before VentureX if you want to be eligible for sign up bonuses on both cards.
P2 earned 100,000 points with this card, thanks to an elevated offer.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Business: This was a brand new card that came out June 2025, along with a big minimum spend. This post talks about the card benefits and how I planned for us to hit the minimum spend and offset the large annual fee.
P2 earned 200,000 points with this card. (Annoyingly, the referral program for this card changed just two days after P2 applied; so we didn't get referral points for this card)
- Chase Ink Business Preferred: I opened this for P2 right before our October Anniversary Trip, when Chase announced that business card referrals where changing. The card didn't have an elevated offer like the Ink Unlimited and Cash; but it also doesn't have foreign transaction fees; which made it perfect for our trip!
P2 earned 90,000 Chase points for hitting the minimum spend and since I referred P2, I earned 20,000 points from the referral.
- American Express Gold Personal: I actually had hoped to get this for P2 prior to our October trip, but I applied three times for P2 (using my referral link) and each time P2 was only offered the standard 60,000 points. Because I knew there were 100,000 points offers out there, I had P2 open the Ink Preferred for the trip instead. About a month later, I randomly decided to apply, again partially because this card has a 6 month minimum spend period, and surprisingly P2 was offered 100,000 points on the first try!
We're finishing up this minimum spend now, and P2 will earn 100,000 points. I earned 15,000 points for the referral.
Cards Closed in 2025
You can read more on when and why to close (or downgrade) a card in this post. Closing a card doesn't necessarily mean you forfeit the points, you just need to plan accordingly and know your options!
Me/Hannah/Player 1
I closed 3 cards in 2025. Two of those cards where Chase Ink Business cards that were more than a year old and holding them seemed to be prohibiting me from getting approved for new Ink cards.
The third card I closed was my Southwest Personal card. I closed this card 12 months after I had opened it. The annual fee hit again and since I already hold a Southwest Business Performance card (which I decided to keep due to Southwest 2025 changes; this card gives me seat selection at time of booking); I knew I didn't want or need to pay two Southwest card fees.
Ben/Player 2
I closed 5 of P2 cards in 2025. Four of those cards where Chase Ink Business cards that were all more than a year old and holding them seemed to be prohibiting P2 from getting approved for new Ink cards.
Similar to me, I also closed P2's Southwest Business card and we kept P2's Southwest Personal card for the ability to continue to check bags for free. P2 *should* (we're still waiting for it to hit) earn A-List status for 2026; which would allow him to pick seats at time of booking.
Summary
In 2025, we opened 9 cards total as a household; two of those cards with higher minimum spends than our usual! We closed 8 cards; which leaves us with a current told of 12 cards open for me and 7 cards open for P2. (I feel inclined to say that of my 12 cards opened; 3 of them are more than 5 years old and held strategically for their benefits as well as my overall credit length history: two freedom cards for quarterly bonus and an United card for free checked bags and cardmember price savings on flights)
In one of my next posts, I'll talk about which cards we have open, what I plan to close in 2026 and what cards I currently plan to open in 2026.
If you're curious how we used points in 2025, we went on 11 trips (big and small). You can read our 2025 travel recap here.
**General Strategy Tip: I didn't necessarily plan for this to happen, but after we started to get denied for new Chase cards (more on declines here), due to opening so many in a short amount of time, I branched out to American Express for new cards and I branched P2 out to Capital One. Now in 2026, we're going to flip-flop banks and refer each other to cards at the "opposite" banks. This will allow us to keep holding some of these cards and earning sign up bonuses, but also allows us to close the cards that are more than a year old that we aren't gaining from based on benefits vs annual fee. Read more about closing and downgrading cards here)**
**2-Player Mode: As you can see, I really take advantage of referral points when opening a new card, so that collectively as a household, we are earning up to 20% more points with every card we open! If you have a friend or family member who's also interested in points, I highly recommend taking turns referring one another to earn even more!
If you consider opening any of these cards, I can't thank you enough for using my referral links (all of the cards listed above are clickable referral links). This is completely free to you and provides me with a point kickback so that I can keep traveling on points and sharing the world of points with you! Thank you!
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Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!
