Jean Chatzky (5:35)

Amazing. How many of these cards do you have?

Vivian Tu (5:37)

Like the Uber cards, the super special cards? I have two. So I have the Amex Platinum and I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. But I also have some, you know, I would say less exciting credit cards in my wallet that I got earlier and that I'm never going to close because I enjoy having a very long credit history.

Jean Chatzky (5:54)

Yes, a good idea. I have Chase Sapphire Reserve, but I downgraded the Amex Platinum to Amex Gold many years ago. Cause I wasn't using it. So there we go. Okay, here's a question from Yajera. She writes, I am looking for the best travel card out there. We charge everything. We pay it off every two weeks. So I wanna make the most of the benefits. We travel once a year overseas to visit family and then we do a few shorter trips in the US throughout the year. And once I've earned all those points, what's the smartest way to use them? How do you really get the most bang for the buck?

Vivian Tu (6:31)

Ooh. Okay, so unless you are a points aficionado and have the time to have like 80 tabs open and are comparing things, which by the way, many people do, I would just recommend you either use a site or a service. So there is a website called Seats Aero. And on this website you basically put in how many points you have on a certain credit card or a certain loyalty program and it can show you a bunch of award redemptions and then you can compare which are the more worth it for you. Another service that does this is like appoint me if you want, you can use their service and, like, they'll show you the best redemptions based on what you have. Or if you pay $200, somebody will just do it for you. And again, we talked earlier about buying your time back. I don't have the time necessarily to, like, sit for six hours, compare, and make sure that I'm getting the best deal. $200 feels like a small fee to pay for someone to have really done that. And Instead of spending 150,000 points, maybe I get to spend 50,000 points and I get to save the other extra a hundred thousand, and that's money back in my pocket again. So I would say, based on what you need and how much time you have and frankly, what kind of travel you're hoping to do, I would recommend using one of these aggregator websites. Typically, like, using them, Baseline is free. And then if you want, like, you know, concierge, white glove service, you pay for those. But it'll help you essentially just figure out, you know, what's worth your money.

Jean Chatzky (8:06)

Yeah, I subscribed to Point Me after paying them the $200 to do some tickets last year. I figured, all right, let me see if I can figure it out myself. I think I paid 80 bucks for the year. I've definitely more than gotten my money out of it. And I find it really, really easy to maneuver, not difficult. And I'm not, like, the best at this. I also think for somebody like her, depending on where you live, I mean, I have just gone all in on American Airlines, right? I have the credit card. I have the. I mean, I just. I have the business credit card. And in part, that's because when you fly out of Philadelphia, which is where I live, if you're not on American Airlines, it's like a weird day in February, right, Because it goes everywhere you have to go. And so for me, that has just made the most sense.

Vivian Tu (8:59)

Yeah, I think it really depends. Like, exactly to your point, if you know you're flying out of a specific hub constantly, say you live in Chicago, United owns you. Yeah, right. If you are constantly flying out of one of the New York airports, Delta probably owns you. Newark, New Jersey, United, South Florida, American. Like, there are definitely hubs for these certain airlines. But I would say that based on your flight patterns, you can make a smart decision of, do I get an airline credit card versus a more, I would say, overarching program. The reason why I don't have a specific airline loyalty card is because I have status quote unquote, on every single airline. It doesn't really do anything for me. And I am flying every which way, going to multiple locations, especially for work. So I actually fly across all of the airlines pretty evenly. But if, you know, I had a more traditional job where I had one place that I lived, at a job site that I was constantly going to, I would definitely recommend trying to figure out what airline would become your default.

Jean Chatzky (10:06)

We've got a question from Amy. She says I've had the same credit card since I was 18, and while my credit has improved over time, the interest rate on that card is still pretty, pretty high. I've never tried asking to lower it because I really don't know what to say. Do I just call and ask nicely? What does the conversation actually sound like? What do you think?

Vivian Tu (10:27)

So my first question is, why does the interest rate on the card matter? Because if you are paying it off in full on time every month, you're not being charged interest, no matter whether the interest is 1% or 100%. So I would ask, please, if you can avoid it, pay your credit card in full on time every single month. Now, if you have a balance that you're rolling, you can certainly call and ask. Just ask nicely. Depending on who you get, depending on if they're running a promotion, depending on if you make some promises of like, hey, if I can get the interest down to 15% for the next 12 months, I can get this full balance paid off. Like your credit card company might be willing to work with, you might, big might, I don't know. Because different card offers, different financial services companies, different banks, they all have different rules. However, it never hurts to ask. My thing about the interest rate, though, is more often than not, credit cards have APRs of 20 to 30%. Regardless of where your card is issued from, you're paying a lot of interest to roll that balance. So first and foremost, you gotta try to avoid that. And if you are really, really committed to paying off that debt, it may even be wise to look into a balance transfer card or a personal loan just to get a lower interest rate so that you can get that debt paid off faster.

Jean Chatzky (11:57)

Absolutely. We are gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we've got one more question on what to do when you have too many credit cards and some are not their weight.

Jean Chatzky (12:07)

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Jean Chatzky (14:30)

We are back with Vivian Tu, author of the new book well Endowed. We've got a question from Jen. She says, I'm thinking of switching up some of my cards. I've got four a great credit utilization rate and a credit score above 800, so I'm not looking to close any accounts. But some of these cards are not pulling their weight. One's for an airline I don't fly anymore. One has a fee but no benefits. How do I go to switching to better cards without triggering a hard credit inquiry or losing my account history? I've heard something about calling the bank and asking to convert an existing card. Is that a real thing? And do you have any favorite options from Chase? Amex or Citi, the issuers I'm currently with. Gotta love a listener who clearly understands credit.

Vivian Tu (15:21)

Yeah, I'm obsessed. This person sounds like they are already well on their credit journey. Like they are doing really well. They've got a great credit score and just seem to be very credit worthy. So in terms of her four cards, I think she's right in the sweet spot. I typically say three to five cards is what the average person should have. I have five. In terms of calling your credit card issuer or the bank. You got it exactly right. More often than not, what you can do is actually downgrade your fee cards to no fee cards. So in Jean's case, you took a Amex Platinum, took it down to an Amex Gold. That is a lower fee. You can also go all the way down to like an Amex Blue or an Amex like everyday cash card. These are just, you know, no fee cards with fewer benefits. In the case of the airline that you don't fly anymore, there may even be be ways that you can still utilize those benefits. So if you rack up a bunch of miles on that airline, do those airline miles actually convert maybe to an international carrier, Maybe for that once in a lifetime trip to Japan or to Singapore or Thailand or wherever you want to go, or maybe somewhere fun in Europe. But like many of these airlines actually have partners. And so even if you're not flying that airline anymore, maybe you move cities or maybe you just, you know, you're not flying there anymore, it might be able to convert to something else that you could get a lot of value out of. But in terms of, you know, downgrading those cards. Yes. Get cards that don't have fees, especially if you're not using the benefits.

Jean Chatzky (16:55)

And I've always felt like it's okay to close cards occasionally. Like I'm not going to close the card that I've had the longest period of time. Right. I've been with Amex for 40 years. I'm not closing my Amex relationship. But if you know that you're not applying for a mortgage or a car loan in the next six months to a year. Yeah. Your credit score is going to possibly take a little bit of a hit, but it'll come right back up.

Vivian Tu (17:22)

Right.

Jean Chatzky (17:23)

And that is what we have for today. Vivian, I knew you were the right person to talk about this because I got the feeling that you were obsessed.

Jean Chatzky (17:31)

So thank you so much for doing this with us again.

Jean Chatzky (17:34)

Always a pleasure to see. I've got to say, I point people to you all the time when folks who are giving advice on social media are criticized and I just tell them to watch you because you clearly do your homework and your advice and your information is always top notch. So thank you for that.

Vivian Tu (17:54)

Thank you so much for the kind words. I had so much fun and it was so good to see you.

Jean Chatzky (17:58)

You as well.

Jean Chatzky (17:59)

Thanks for listening everyone. We'll see you next time. Time if you love today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast. Your feedback means the world to me. Looking to grow your investing skills and make smarter decisions with Your Money in 2026? Join HerMoney's investing fix, the twice monthly women's only investment club where expert stock pickers pitch ideas and you help build the portfolio. Since launching four years ago, our member driven picks have outperformed the S and P. Thanks to smart collaborative choices, we've got a strong track record and a community that's learning and winning together. Tap the link in the show notes and check out Investing Fix today. Her Money is produced by Haley Pascalides and our music is provided by Video Helper. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk soon.

Vivian Tu (18:59)

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