So it's been about three years since I last made my video talking about the absolute power of the American Express Trifecta. It's been a couple years, so why not go ahead and update the information to that video and give you all of my thoughts and the information that you need in order to know everything about the AmEx Trifecta So in this video, I'm gonna go over what credit cards now make up the American Express Trifecta I'm gonna go over the pros and the cons of this setup. I'm also going to be telling you exactly what the best strategy for the setup is and I'll share with you the difference between whether or not this is better than the Chase Trifecta which is also another very popular setup amongst credit card enthusiasts. And last but not least, I'm gonna give you my Straight Up Bottom line: Conclusion on what you should actually be doing for this year.

Now the three cards that make up this setup is the AmEx Gold Card which has a 250 annual fee, the American Express Platinum Card which now has a 695 dollar fee. Since I made the video. back then, the annual fee has gone up tremendously. And last but not least, for the third card, it is going to be the American Express Blue business Plus at a zero dollar annual fee.

With all three of these credit cards in Your Arsenal pretty much your purchases in these spending categories are gonna net you a lot more money than if you were to just spend it on regular ordinary cards. As an example, the American Express Gold card. It's gonna cover you with anything regarding to food. So if you're eating out at a restaurant worldwide, or if you're shopping at U.S supermarkets on up to twenty five thousand dollars, they got you there.

If you're someone who's trying to use a credit card for the proper traveling spend, then your Platinum is going to be your best bet. For anything that doesn't fall within the category of eating out or then traveling, then you would use that third remaining card to be your what you would call a catch-all card to earn you two percent back on everything else. Generally, these three credit cards just line up in perfect synchrony because this captures a majority of the spend that people have for the year of 2023. Though I do think there is a little bit of a better version of that card and instead of doing the blue business plus I think it, it's also a viable option in order to consider the Blue Cash every day.

This is another no annual fee credit card that gives you three percent cash back at U.S supermarkets and also at gas stations. And on top of that, you'll get us online retail purchases three percent back on up to six thousand dollars per category per year. The one downside though about using the Blue Cash Everyday card is that you won't be able to transfer out those points to other travel Partners or to merge them with other membership reward Point earning cards like the Gold card or the Platinum Card I Do think though the Blue Business Plus card is still just a strong viable card and compared to most traditional cards that give you 1.5 x back as that unlimited category over a long period of time based on the principles of even compound interest, that two percent starts to add up over time. So to simplify this setup, let me share with you how I'd use this combination.

By the way guys, if you are interested in trying to get the blue Business plus and you don't know how to get a business credit card I've made a ton of videos on this and one of my most recent one ones. The Ultimate Business Credit Card Guide will walk you through it step by step back when I was first getting started out with credit cards and my old young little entrepreneur days I thought I wouldn't even qualify even though back then I had a business. But it turns out even if you don't have a full-on business or what you would consider to be a full running business, there are a ton of different ways that you can still qualify for a card like that. So how would I use this Trifecta of different credit cards? First of all, if I'm eating out or I'm doing any type of grocery shopping like I said, it's going to be the gold card if I'm traveling or flying, I'm going to use my Platinum card and if I'm doing all other spend I'm going to use my Blue Business Plus or my Blue Cash Everyday card.

Now keep in mind, before making any type of purchase on your credit card, you need to ask yourself these two things. First of all, are you working on a welcome bonus? A lot of people are scraping around trying to get an extra two percent back on their purchase, but if you're constantly working on those welcome bonuses for these credit cards, you can end up getting anywhere from 15 to even 30 percent back on your purchase. As an example, even during this time, we're seeing a lot of of credit cards that have elevated welcome bonus offers. So before going into your Trifecta of your wallet and then realizing okay, I'm gonna get two percent back on this because it makes the most amount of sense If you're working on any type of welcome bonus I'm sure I don't have to say this, but just a reminder that is definitely the card you want to prioritize.

Now, the second consideration that you need to take into effect before placing a purchase on a credit card is knowing whether or not how expensive that item is. Just to give you an example, if I'm buying something I would say like a high ticket item like my iPhone or you know, a brand new laptop I'm probably not going to be getting the two percent maximum cashback I could earn, but I'd opt to use a credit card that gives me something like purchase protection or even extended warranty. As an example, let me open up my iPhone this thing right here. This thing is shattered to a good degree because I chose to buy my phone on one of my credit cards I actually bought this on the American Express Platinum Card and it happened to get cracked I Get cell phone protection so instead of paying out of pocket to get this whole screen fixed, I would actually be getting the cost of this covered and pretty much it pays off the little cashback I would have gotten now before.

I Go into some of the additional benefits and just break down the whole meaning of the AmEx Trifecta If you guys are interested at all in applying for any of these cards, be sure to check out the link Down Below in the description or scan the QR code on your screen like always, make sure the offers are the best for yourself. but if you guys do use those links, it does support the channel significantly. So what are the benefits of using the American Express Trifecta Well, basically with this, you don't need to go card shopping and what that means is you don't need to worry about applying for many different cards. I Know some people who want to keep a simple, straightforward lineup.

you don't want to be anything like me where you got multiple binders of credit cards and you just want to have a simple wallet of the ones that you go to. The Simplicity aspect that you get from having a trifecta setup of cards is exactly the reason why people would opt for this rather than going for more. Another benefit is by using some of these cards that you'd be able to pull all your membership Reward Points together. If you frequently travel with any of American Express's Transfer Partners or you know you're trying to plan for that amazing big trip, this is exactly who it's meant for.

Now alongside those benefits, I will say everything has its disadvantage and when it comes to the AmEx Trifecta it doesn't get excluded off that list. The biggest disadvantage I can think of when it comes to this setup is the fact that if you go somewhere like you're trying to eat out and the only cards that you have is the AmEx Trifecta and they don't accept American Express Yeah, I I Guess you're pretty much starving. On top of that, the AmEx Trifecta also has a pretty high annual fee of 945 dollars a year now. Some credits can also be harder to use.

so if you are brand loyal to another card setup or you know if you don't be using Uber versus you know you use a lot of GrubHub and doordash instead. it might be harder to find complete value from using the AmEx Trifecta as well. Now stay tuned for my bottom line because I'm pretty much just going to share with you all the solutions even to some of the downsides that I mentioned. But before even going into that I Want to share with you what the best strategy for the AmEx Drive would be if you're interested in going for the setup.

First of all, the most important thing that you need to do is to analyze your spending habits and how you want to use the car. A lot of people end up just jumping the gun and they hear the word Trifecta They're like, all right I need to complete this three card setup and they don't know what to do next if you're someone who doesn't eat out frequently. If you don't travel that often, this setup is not going to make that much sense for you. I Like to ask myself these type of questions like what is my dream vacation? when do I plan on taking that dream vacation and how would the American Express card or ecosystem help me achieving that? Your spending should dictate which Trifecta cards you can focus on getting first and once you decide upon that I Believe completing them is pretty easy.

Once you've targeted the best cards for your needs, this is pretty much the time that you start your Trifecta But keep in mind you start this process One credit card at a time. So as an example, say I want to go for the AmEx gold offer and I'm able to hit that welcome bonus offer just really quick. Maybe within the first week I'm not gonna apply for a new credit card. after that, you want to space them out I say it's recommended one month minimum, but ideally maybe every two to three months that you'd want to apply for a new card.

Once you do that, you move over into the Platinum card and then once you do that and you get the welcome bonus, you can then complete your setup. This is a process that often takes anywhere from even three months to even six months or longer. Don't try to rush it, don't go for it all at once overnight because this could risk your account from getting uh, disapproved. Or you know how, the other word is pretty much banned.

You could pretty much get banned if you end up applying for too many cards all at once. The next thing you want to do is just start using your Trifecta cards. Once you've completed, the welcome bonus offers that you're pretty much gonna have the decision on knowing which card to use at certain times. Once you start accruing some points, say you get the welcome bonus offers you have hundreds of thousands of points.

Then the next step to take is to find ways to redeem those membership reward points. This is pretty much the step where you're going to be stretching your Redemption points even further. So instead of just getting like 4X back on dining, if you're able to get a good Redemption off those points you earned, you could essentially be earning anywhere from five to even 10x points by the end of your entire spending cycle. By the way, it is so important for you guys to recognize that every credit card you get comes with perks and you want to make sure that you're able to maximize each perk that you're getting.

So familiarize yourself with each card's benefits before using them. Other than that, American Express is also known to be like a coupon book because they have so many different ways that you can redeem additional cash and this pretty much allows you to break even from that annual fee you're paying almost instantly. By the way, a strong competitor of the American Express Trifecta is also going to be the chase. Trifecta And here's what you need to know between the two: both Amex and Chase work in very similar ways.

You sign up for three different credit cards and the same issuer. You then use these cards to take advantage of special earning bonuses or more generous reward Redemption offers to decide which one's better for you. I would say if you're likely able to max out most of the available American Express credits the AmEx Trifecta even though it's more EXP expensive, it's going to be more valuable if on the other hand, you don't ever shop at Saks Fifth Avenue you don't like to use Uber you barely eat out then I would say Chase is by far the better Trifecta To go for what I've realized over the past few years is that Chase just makes it very seamless and easy to use all of their benefits. while with American Express they require you to put in a bit more work.

On the other hand of that, I think American Express just gives you much better status. Literally gives you much better status at some of these hotels, but it also gives you a lot more Prestige and being a card holder with them I Know a lot of you guys may not care for those things, but there are definitely people in this world who do. And if you value what, I would consider the flex value of some of these cards American Express wins almost every single time. So ladies and gents, here's the conclusion and here's the bottom line of what I've learned over the past few years: I Personally believe at this point, the trifecta is kind of pointless unless you really prefer brand loyalty and you really just want Simplicity I Believe having a combination and different variety of other credit cards to fit your own personal spending needs is always going to outweigh the benefit of you making more money, getting more protection, getting more benefits, and just overall positive.

Roi As most you guys know, I've been within the space for I Think it's been over half a decade now and with that being said, I've spent a lot of time for this year trying to perfect the formula on what I would consider just the essential staple of cards that you would need. I Recently made that video, so if you somehow haven't checked it out, be sure to watch it as well. If you want to learn more about some of the other credit cards like I said, check out the links Down Below in the description and if you guys do plan on applying, it does support this channel directly whenever you guys use those affiliate links. And on top of that, if you guys want to go ahead and join our private Facebook group community, be sure to check out the link Down Below in the description we got over 30 000 members.

we talk credit card, We help you guys out. It's a great community and I love for you guys to join. And if you guys did find any value in this video, be sure to drop a like subscribe and also follow me on Twitter and on Instagram if you haven't done so already. That being said, see y'all soon.

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