Now, although there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer when figuring out which credit cards you need, I think I've perfected the formula on the five essential credit cards that everyone should at least carry within their wallet before. I've done a lot of videos like my Top Five cards, my Top Seven cards. this one is really just the top five essential cards that every single person can carry in their wallet. So the first card I have on this list is going to be the Chase Freedom Flex.

So the Chase Freedom Flex. Ever since they came out with the revamped Updates this has still been one of my favorite cards to use and I use it almost every single time I go out and this is because this card here has no annual fee and they offer five percent back on different categories rotating throughout the year. Now for the first quarter of 2023, you can earn up to five percent cash back on bonus categories which include Target grocery stores excluding Walmart and then fitness clubs and gym memberships. While gas prices have also dropped quite a bit, this was actually one of the staple cards that I used whenever I was filling up any one of my cards because just a few months back they're offering five percent cash back whenever I filled up using this card.

Just a quick little tip too, just because spending money on gas seems to be a huge expense for a lot of people. So what I do is Wombo Combo Shell's membership program alongside the Chase Freedom Flex card when it's offering that five percent back and I can get anywhere from 10 to 15 savings. As an example, where on your screen you'll see that with Fuel Rewards which is part of Shell that you can save up to 10 cents per gallon on your fill up whenever you stop by on a specific day which is usually Tuesday. So on top of that, using the Chase Freedom Flex card is going to give you three percent cash back for dining including takeout and delivery services.

You get three percent back on drugstore purchases and one percent back on everything else. This card here is just simply put, it's a no annual fee card that offers a punch. It's also worth noting while the reward percentages are still pretty hard to beat, another amazing benefit at the time of filming this video is that with this card, you can find yourself getting a pretty solid welcome bonus which is after spending two hundred dollars, you'll get 5 500 back onto your account within the first three months of spending to swing the deal even further. you know I preach on this channel a lot that you should never be carrying any type of credit card debt.

Maximizing credit cards doesn't work. It cancels out if you have credit card debt and you're paying interest. But if you happen to be in some unconditional situation outside of your favor right now, the Chase Student Flex is also offering zero percent intro APR for 15 months from account opening on a purchases and balance transfers. Now, just like any credit card, you don't just sign up and then get automatically approved.

You actually have to apply and then they have to take a look at your credit profile or your credit score and then they give you an offer of whether you are accepted or not. If you have any type of interest within applying for the Chase Freedom Flex card, I would at least recommend you to have a score of over 670. It is worth noting I've seen people with a 650 credit score getting approved, but if you want to have at least an 80 chance of getting approved have at least a 670 score and if you have anything above 700, you should be good to go. Now the second card here on my list for today is going to be the OG American Express Gold Card.

Now it's no secret that within the year of 2022, food prices and grocery stores and restaurants have skyrocketed. In fact, after the most recent CPI report, food inflation is now at 10.6 Food is just getting ridiculous with their costs and you need a card where you can count on reliably so that you are able to maximize every penny that you're spending towards inflation. Now, Fortunately enough, the American Express Gold card is the perfect card for that. I've had this card since they revamped it.

This is the most used credit card that I have in my wallet. And let's start with just a quick few benefits. So one of those benefits is the fact that you can get up to a hundred twenty dollars in Uber cash if you have the gold card. This is pretty nice.

So if you use Uber for actual calling Uber like the travel service or if you use ubereats, this will still qualify you for that benefit. The way this works is you have 12 months in a year. They pretty much give you an additional 10 credit every single month to apply to whatever meal that you may be ordering. Now on top of that, you do get another 120 dollar credit.

We're pretty much at select dining stores. You'll be able to find yourself getting a free meal every single month. And for this, I like to personally use it at Shake Shack There's one in my local area, but even when I go to places like Cheesecake Factory it's nice being able to see that additional credit getting posted onto my account. That right there pretty much recoups about 240 dollars worth of the annual fee.

So you're effectively paying only ten dollars a year in order to hold this card if you're good about using those credits every single month. But the main kicker is this: with the American Express Gold Card you're getting a very solid welcome bonus at the time of filming this video. and you're also getting that Forex back at restaurants and US supermarkets. If you happen to be a traveler, you enjoy a good vacation and you may not have any other card.

You still can find yourself earning 3x membership reward points if you book any flights directly with Airlines on Amixtravel.com So back in February of 2022 I had booked a hotel stay at the Ritz Carlton uh, over in Los Angeles right by the crypto.com basketball stadium just to go watch the game and I remember I pulled up they had like a special little Written Letter and this is because I booked through Amex travel and then they gave me one of their biggest presidential Suites even though I booked just a regular sized room, it's little things like that. Where the suite was so amazing it would have costed maybe one to two thousand dollars a night. So even if you just do the calculation of the benefits you get back from that and then paying a 250 annual fee that you get back in a lot of the credits already, you're essentially just getting free money by signing up for a card like this. Now right now you can find yourself getting a 60 000 membership reward Point offer where you spend four thousand dollars in the first six months of card membership before they came out with some of these really awesome promotions.

It was only three months where you were able to spend four thousand dollars and then you get less of a membership reward bonus where it would be maybe 30, 40, or 50 000 points. Right now you're getting sixty thousand points. It's more than what I got for back in in the day and then you have six months in order to hit that required amount. Not only that, but the reward points that you get from these welcome bonuses they're called membership reward points and they have several different ways that you can use it and one of the most easiest and convenient ways is simply to just transfer it to even Amazon where for one point to one cent you can find yourself redeeming these points for very solid, easy value if you are interested in signing up for this card.

Just like the Freedom Flex Surprisingly, even though this card has a much higher annual fee, I've seen a lot more people with less credit scores getting approved for this card, but I would recommend you to have a score of at least 700. but I have seen people with a 680 credit score getting approved for this card too. Just keep in mind the higher your credit score is, the odds of your application getting approved will increase. I Got the gold one and I got the rose gold one in here and they're both metal.

Well, the next card on this list is going to go back to Chase and there's a specific reason for this: I'm going to share after I Go over these cards and how they all work in synchrony. So the Chase Staff I Preferred is what I consider to be more of a beginner's travel credit card. Now if you want to go more on the extreme end, you're going to have the Chase Sapphire reserve and the American Express Platinum Card or even things like the Hilton Aspire or even the new kid on the Block which has been surprisingly very solid too As another travel card Choice the Capital One Venture X The Chase Sapphire Preferred allows you to still reap traveling benefits without having to commit to a huge annual fee. The reason I chose this card is because I want a balance of things I Know, even back when I was in college, I wasn't doing that much traveling.

but I feel like everyone still takes an out of town trip every once in a while. but this card here allows you to reap a lot of that benefits. It allows you to put your foot in that door and allows you to maximize something called the chase Trifecta which we'll get into soon. So with this card here, you can earn up to 3x points on dining.

3x points on online grocery purchase says 3x points on select streaming services. You know these don't really compare to the AmEx gold where you're getting 4X but you're going to be getting 5x points on when you purchase. Travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal now. I Would say the point earning category on the Travel side isn't as strong as some of those higher annual fee cards, but the reason why I believe this is an essential is because this pairs so well with the Chase Freedom Flex card where if you are able to accrue those points, you have access to that Chase Ultimate Rewards portal where you can find yourself getting even more deals where if you do book travel, if you book a hotel, if you book an airline or just anything related to that category, you can see a boost on your points and the amount of money that you spend you're going to be pretty much getting a discount.

On top of that, you get some additional benefits like an annual 50 Hotel credit you get no foreign transaction fees and you are also provided with good travel and purchase coverage. Now the cost of owning a card like this is going to be 95 a year, but you have to. To keep in mind there is one benefit here which I absolutely love and that is going to be the 60 000 bonus points offer where you're gonna have to spend four thousand dollars in the first three months from opening your account and that can go towards 750 worth of travel value if you book it through the Ultimate Rewards portal now to be approved for the Chase app our Preferred Card you're gonna need a credit score of at least 700. Like I said, it's possible for you to get it without this.

It's going to be the common theme for a lot of these cards, but I recommend at least having a 700 if you have anything above a 720 should be said, the next credit card on this list is going to be the Chase Freedom Unlimited. Now this card here is what I consider to be the all-around catcher. If you have any type of expense where you can't find it fits within any one of those categories. The Chase Freedom unlimited card allows you to pick it up for 1.5 percent back, so you're pretty much getting half a point back, but that does accumulate an add up over time, especially for this being a no annual fee card.

Now, the Chase Freedom unlimited also has a pretty unique welcome bonus offer, something that I have not seen in a very long time where if you spend five hundred dollars, you'll be earning a 200 bonus in the first three months. Plus, you can earn five percent cash back on the grocery store purchases as well with this card on up to twelve thousand dollars spent in the first year. So by maximizing this benefit, you can get up to 600 cash back, which would equate to a total of eight hundred dollars cash back. Aside from that, you're gonna be getting 1.5 cash back from everything else.

But on top of that, they went ahead and added some additional benefits like earning three percent back on dining at restaurants. You get three percent back on drugstore purchases, five percent on travel purchase through Chase Ultimate Rewards You'll notice that there is now a bit more overlap with the Freedom Unlimited and the Freedom Flex Before the Chase Freedom unlimited was what you would say more nerfed, there weren't benefits to this level, but you know since the past few years it looks like they have gone up and raised the value. They've buffed it up and it makes it even more beneficial and another reason for you to keep within your wallet as an essential for this card. I Would recommend you have a score of at least 670..

So last but not least, the number one credit card that I believe everyone should keep as an essential within their wallet is going to be the new Mastercard built card. So this card here is ranked number one on my list because in all my years of being within the credit card points of Miles game, I've never been able to find a good credit card to use for mortgage or rent now according to 2020. U.S Bureau of Labor Statistic: the top expense among American consumers in either category of discretionary or non-discretionary expenditures is housing. In this report, they're showing that rent and mortgage payments account for roughly 32.8 percent of all consumer spending.

It's actually one of the first credit cards that I've applied for in a pretty long time and when I got approved, they texted me that I got approved which is also pretty cool too. I haven't had any company do that All right. So as someone who has you know binders worth of credit cards, why did I even consider adding this one to my list? What am I seeing the value in? Well, first of all, I am month to month on my rent and rent here at least in Maryland is getting so expensive. It is one of the highest expenses that I have and I've always been paying an additional fee for using my credit cards, getting points where sometimes it almost breaks even it offsets it.

So the way the built card works is that you request a rent payment via the app and then what they will do is they'll mail a check to your landlord. This is very similar to what we had to do back in the day in order to get more points where you would pay your rent using a credit card, but then you would have to use an app or a platform like plastique. Now this pretty much simplifies the method of you being able to pay for rent using a credit card. It's really amazing what they do and it even shows that they cover the transaction fee if you go ahead and use this specific card.

Now my rent here it before it was not this expensive. but when I went month to month, they made a 20 to 30 premium on my monthly rent. It's about five thousand dollars a month. It is ridiculous.

I'm moving out soon. If I were to max out all my rent payments using this card when it first came out and I did it for a whole year, I would be paying five thousand dollars a month. Multiply that by 12 months and that would be a total of 60 000 points. Well this card here Maxes me out at 50 000 Points each calendar year.

But what's cool about Built is that they actually have a very flexible Transfer Partner program. They mentioned on their website that you can transfer your points one to one to many of our world class partners and this even includes things like American Airlines or Hyatt which I frequently use. The way I break it down. The easiest to understand is if I use this credit card and I pay rent with it I pretty much get a free first class ticket to any flight within the US Now for the build card, you actually Don don't need a high credit score I've read online and seen some data points from across people that I know who applied for this card that were able to get approved for it with under a 700 credit score.

This 5 card combination is going to utilize the power of the chase. Trifecta You're going to have utility with your Chase Ultimate Reward Points You're gonna be able to boost it up with the Chase app, I preferred and you're going to get additional support and backup. From what my favorite Daily Driver is, the American Express Gold card. you can have diversity with your points and then back it all up with the built MasterCard which is going to account for most people's significant amount of expenses and this is going to be rent.

now. Some key rules though going into the year of 2023 if you have any one of these cards, even though the AmEx Gold card is known to have the highest default cashback rates for the first quarter of 2023, keep in mind the Chase Freedom Flex is going to offer you five percent in grocery store spend on up to fifteen hundred dollars for the quarter which is going to be 500 a month in groceries. Keep an eye out on how much money you spend within the first quarter, but that's going to be your go-to card for food and dining and grocery stores and then you want to move over into the American Express gold card. Once you max out five percent back, if you take a look at your screen, this is pretty much how I've split up the pie chart where food and groceries is still a decent amount of people spend but rent mortgage that's covered if you are traveling the Chase app I preferred will be your card of choice.

If you are eating out, then you have the option of using the AmEx gold or the Chase Freedom Flex. If you have utilities, miscellaneous, or anything shopping related, you can then use any of the Chase Freedom cards for that I know. In previous quarters too, we've had some promotions where for Walmart for Target you're going to be getting a little bit of a bonus there too. So instead of carrying, you know, like a whole binder full of credit cards and then you're like trying to think okay, like what credit card am I gonna need in order to spend at the American Eagle today Not, you got your five essential credit cards right here.

But it is worth noting the built card is actually even more heavier than the American Express gold card. so if you're trying to flex on people with that one, if you're trying to add a little bit of weight in your wallet, you can keep it there. Obviously for your general all-purpose spending for gas, for food, for miscellaneous stuff, all of that is going to be covered with this rotation of cards. So ladies and gents that right, there is going to be the video for today.

If you guys found any type of value, be sure to drop a like Down Below on this video. Send this to someone who is into the credit card game or they're just trying to get started. If you guys do want to support this Channel At no cost to you, make sure you check out the links. Down Below in the description I have links to these cards if you don't want to use them, if you want to support your family member, your friend.

I Highly recommend you get a referral link from them first, but if you do plan on signing up for these cards, sometimes these referral links are actually even higher than the general welcome bonus offer you would see on Google And by the way, it supports this channel as well. Thank you so much like the usual and always have an amazing day and I'll see you all soon! Peace.