So most of us have probably been told that you shouldn't open too many credit cards or that credit cards can even ruin your life. My parents told me this at a young age that using credit cards would lead to debt and that I should never open one. Now here's the truth when properly educated credit cards can transform into being some of the most powerful allies in your own. Financial Journey I Currently have four of the dream vehicles that I had on my wish list: a Toyota Tacoma a Ford Raptor and RS7 and my Huracan Evo I've also lived in multiple luxury apartments and this past year I turned the key to my current dream home.

So how did this all happen with Just Credit cards? Before we talk about how you can get started and we discuss the powerful strategies and My Little Secret Sauce that helped me to get to where I'm at now as a millionaire in my 20s fully utilizing credit cards. we need to start with the very Basics and the first step of how this all works. Now look, there's no ,000 credit program or course for you to buy. My goal here is to educate hundreds of millions of people and that's also one of the reasons why we have been able to gain over a million subscribers here here on this channel.

Now the only thing I ask of you is if you learn anything new at all in this video, share it with someone you care about in your own life. subscribe if you want to learn about it more in depth and just drop a like down below. So let's get started with the basics. So say you're making a purchase, you're going to the grocery store, you're at the checkout counter, and then there's going to be typically two payment options.

If it's cash, it's straightforward. You hand over the bills and maybe you get some change. But if it's a card, then you have a choice. You can use your credit card or your debit card with a debit card.

It's like electronic cash. Every swipe or chip insertion pulls money straight out of your bank account. Now with a credit card, it's a bit different. Think of this as a mini loan.

Anytime you use it, you're borrowing money up to an approved limit. From the bank to the cashier. It's all the same. But behind the scene, that's where all the magic happens.

Think of a credit card as a short-term loan. Every swipe incurs a merchant fee charged by the credit card company. So Visa Mastercard AMX If you've ever heard of any hole-in-the-wall restaurants, typically for some reason, they're usually Asian restaurants and they're like, we Do not accept your American Express. It's because American Express charges the business a bit of a higher Merchant fee than some of the other credit card processors like Visa or Mastercard.

Now my favorite way of learning this is just imagining a triangle at one corner. It's you. Handsome, beautiful, and very smart. Yeah, yeah, that's you.

And at the other corner. you. have a credit card company. and then the third, it's a business.

And guess what, it's a win, win, win. So credit card companies are raking in profits from interchange fees also known as those Merchant fees And the business. Well, they've made a sale so they've already collected their money and you you're able to earn rewards, cash, back points, and get even other benefits like extended warranty, fraud protection, and more. I Remember when I first got into the credit card game I was wondering: how in the world can Banks afford to pay out a couple hundred to a couple thousand with those welcome bonus offers? Look, if you grow up financially struggling your entire life, anytime you hear something that sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

So how does this all work and why are we able to earn rewards? Well, basically Banks make money in a variety of ways, but one of their main source of incomes come from The Interchange fees they make from each swipe and they're able to then pay us out a fraction of the profit. They also get in the form of points and cash back. So now that you know how credit cards work, let's dive deep into some of the mistakes that you need to avoid. Otherwise, none of this will ever work out.

So to succeed and win in this game of credit cards, you must never carry a balance on your card. The best way to do this is to make sure that you always spend within your means and you stay organized with your accounts. When you happen to be 2 to 3 years into the credit card game and your late stage where you have 10, 15, 20, or even 30 cards, you need to make sure that you know your monthly income and your expenses so you never get caught on your back foot and you have to pay a balance. And that's when you can start losing and instead of coming out on top with free money, you end up actually paying money back to the banks.

The best way to overcome this is just to treat your credit card as if it's a debit card. If you only have $10 in your bank account, most likely you're not going to be going out and buying Gucci flipflops with whatever money you have left. There are some people out here that assume okay, if I got a proof for a $5,000 credit limit I can spend it up to that amount and then I can worry about this way later on because that future version of me. yeah, they you know they're going to be more Rich they got more time I'll let the future version handle that.

No, No, No. So please do not do that. Since the beginning of getting a card and entering the game, make sure you do it properly where you only spend within your means and you set up automatic payments to get deducted from your account. Rule Number two: Never cancel a credit card.

Many people make the mistake of closing inactive credit cards, but whenever you close your card, a lot of people don't realize this. But you reduce your age of accounts and you can further impact your score negatively. Now look, there are certain exceptions. We will talk about this, but generally the rule of thumb is if you apply for a credit card, try not to close it.

There are other options that you can do where if it has no annual fee, just keep the account open, turn on automatic payments, cut up the card, don't use it, and it won't cost cost you a single penny to keep that account open and to continue building your credit Score. Now, if you have a credit card with a high annual fee and you don't want to keep paying it because you actually don't use that card, then you can do things like downgrading that card to a no annual fee card or even product changing it to a one that has a lower annual fee. Rule Number three: To win in this game and to not lose, you need to understand your credit card terms. So if you got five different credit cards and you don't know which credit card is going to give you the best reward for a certain category, you're going to be missing out.

As an example, if I got the MX platinum card and I didn't know that this is a good travel credit card and I go ahead and I buy groceries on it when I could have used my AMX gold card instead which gives me 4X back on grocery stores. It's just really those little changes where over time it can add up to give you a lot more in back. Think about it getting One X points versus 4X points. The choice is clear.

Now the last cardinal rule that I have that you should never do is trying to game the credit card companies. I'm talking about those strategies like buying heaps of gift cards or engaging in manufactured spend. Some folks get the idea to buy a ton of gift cards or make large, unnecessary purchases just to hit that minimum spend requirement or to get that welcome bonus or to rack up just a general amount of point. Now look, this stuff was real popular, like four or five years ago, But there's a reason why a lot of people don't do this anymore.

Credit card companies are no rookies. They literally have dedicated hires to make sure that systems are in place to detect this kind of behavior. And by the way, they are not fans of it. So if you get caught and the odds are high that you will, it will lead to Serious consequences like having an account shut down, forfeiting your hard-earned points, and potentially harming your relationship with a card issuer.

So the main takeaway from this is play it safe, play it smart, and just follow the rules. Even by following the pathway of what the issuers have set up, you can still rack up heaps amount of points. My rule of thumb is look: if I wouldn't buy 50 gift cards with cash. Don't do it on your credit cards I Just don't think it's worth the risk, the stress, or the potential.

Fallout This video here is not about cheating or scamming the system in any way, but it's to leverage credit cards to enhance our financial lives through more education. Our goal here is to not complicate your lives to make it easier, so keep it clean Savvy And strategic And from all the things I'm going to teach you in this video, if you follow it along the way, you're going to be able to earn millions of points, get that free travel, and earn a lot of the same benefits that I did so in this next section here, let me give you the full step-by-step game plan on the best way to get started today. I'll be sharing with you how I applied for my 19 total credit cards that acred me over 3 million points I'll give you the updated and revised credit card road map that I would follow today and by following my exact strategy that I fully optimized from my half decade experience within being in the game, you're going to make an estimated $6,550 minimum cash back in your pocket. So I know that's a lot of money and for some it sounds too good to be true.

But I'll break it down so that you see how this whole credit card Journey unfolds. So I mentioned earlier on the topic of not gamifying the system, you know, trying to level up the proper way. That's also how I see the entirety of your credit card journey in the beginning. you're at level one, You're new, starting fresh.

You probably have little to no credit history, and it's like being a rookie in a game. You've got basic tools, but the exciting part is every move you make counts now over time. As you begin to use your credit cards wisely, making purchases and paying them off on time, you're essentially earning experience points. now.

every new level that you meet could unlock a new credit card, and each one offering better perks and rewards than the last. After building up your experience, grinding through, making several smart moves and leveling up, you can find yourself at the top tiers of the credit card world. And it's like reaching the elite levels in a game where you're not just playing, but now you're having fun. You're dominating, and you're enjoying the passive benefits from all the work that you've done.

You work your way up You eventually get better weapons AKA better credit cards and they become more and more powerful over time. So what is that? First level and what do the elite tiers actually look like? So the different levels we talked about I See C Ms tiers and we have six different tiers within the credit card world. You first start off with your baby cards. You then go into your beginner cards that have no annual fee.

Then you go into the mid game cards. This is where you're like level five, level 10. Okay, you're starting to see some annual fees you need to pay. Then you have your business credit cards a little bit of a different Beast a little harder to get approved for and then you get your premium cards.

You open yourself up to some of the best credit cards out on the market. And then you got your Elite cards. This here is like those Pokemon that you can never actually get Like they're so legendary and rare. You need to really, really be special to be able to get one of those cards.

Now we'll talk about Elite cards. We'll talk about how you could get it if you really wanted to. But before we do that, let's break it down. So first, within the baby cards, you have three different credit cards.

You got secured cards, credit, Builder cards, and student cards. Now the way a secure credit card works is you're pretty much giving the bank your own money and they'll use that as your credit limit. Secure credit cards are the very first step for anyone who's not able to get approved for a regular, unsecure credit card. How works is: I'll give the bank say $500 they'll use that as my credit limit and if for whatever reason I decide not to pay off the credit card on time or I run away with that money because I don't have a good history of paying off my debts, then they'll go ahead and just keep that $500 as collateral.

Now, think of this as your baby steps in earning the trust from some of the banks. Luckily for most people, you actually don't need to get a secure credit card. You should be able to get a regular credit card with a lower limit, but this is generally going to be for people who have really bad credit scores. Over time you pay it off, you build that trust, they'll go ahead and release you that deposit you gave them and they'll turn your secure credit card into an unsecured credit card, which is now where the banks are loaning you money and you pay off the banks on time.

Now the second baby card is a credit Builder card and this is becoming a bit more popular these days. And that's because similar to a secure credit card, this is still a step up where you're not giving the bank a deposit on that credit card, but instead you're taking that $500 and you're putting it into a checking account with that same issue. Sure! So a good example of this is the Chase Freedom Rise card. If you happen to get denied for all of Chase's products, you'd probably want to go for this one because they clearly State on their website that if you deposit about $200 into their checking account, it's going to significantly improve your odds of getting approve for that card.

This is another great way to build your credit score fast and to also become eligible for other cards within that issuer. Now the third baby card is going to be a student credit card and it's actually how I got started within the space, Student credit cards don't offer you welcome bonuses. Generally, these are going to be geared more towards students who are the earliest within the Journey of getting into the credit card game. They're going to come with lower limits which are great for the beginners and it's very straightforward to get started with.

They don't make it difficult or all this Hassle and usually they'll give you these cool little incentives like if you get good grades now. I Remember with one of the issuers I did not get good grades and I said I got good grades. Is this even worth talking? Okay, this is past Brian Jung All right the past Me: I was a little gangster back then, but yeah I did not get straight A's and I said that you know I had a 3.0 GPA I don't think I did and they didn't verify I thought they would but I still got $25 back. So yeah, now that I think of it I owe one of these Banks 25 bucks.

but it's okay they make it back from those interchange fees right? Anyways, after those baby cards, you can move up to the starter cards. and keep in mind there are some people who just go into tier 2 and they don't even ever need to worry about tier one credit cards. These are all going to be no or low annual fee cards. By the way.

these are generally the cards that are also going to start giving you welcome bonus offers. If you want to accumulate a lot of points, it's actually going to come from the welcome bonus offers Because generally if you do the math on how much money you get back, say as an example, the Capital One saver one card. If you spend $500 on this card, they're going to give you $200 back. meaning you're actually getting 40% cash back, which is a huge amount compared to the general 3 to 5% on average you'd be seeing on most cards now.

Starter cards are great because you literally don't lose anything. Just set up automatic payments. Follow rule one that I mentioned earlier and you'll be good. Even a lot of the pros that I know who've been in the game for over 10 years.

They have many, many, no annual fee cards and they just continue to accumulate those welcome bonus offers because those are the type of cash back and points that you can really stack up fast. Now after your tier 2 starter cards, we then get into the tier three mid-tier cards and this is where things get a little bit more fun. Within These Lineup of Cards The annual fee now goes up on the lower end. it's going to be about $95 a year to hold and on the higher end you could see something like the AMX Gold car which has A2 $50 annual fee.

The reason why these cards are special is because sometimes these cards are actually a bit harder to get and that's because they give you a higher credit limit, they give you more benefits and they cost a bit more to hold. So even for the MX gold card by paying $250 a year, you're now going to be getting additional credits. You get $10 Uber Eats and Uber credits. Every single month you get $10 restaurant dining credits at their select locations like Shake Shack and GrubHub and even with some of these other cards here on this list like World of H which is one that I own I'm able to stay at a Hyatt Hotel one time a year completely for free and if that hotel room costs $150 to $200 and I pay a $95 annual fee, you'll then be able to calculate.

Okay, I'm now getting even more positive value from holding these cards. Now say you don't even utilize any of those benefits even if you sign up for these cards, as long as they give you a welcome bonus offer where sometimes you're going to be able to get $300 to even $800 cash back, you're still generally breaking even if the World of High Card is giving me 60,000 high points one to one, those are worth $600 If I subtract $600 from $95 I'm still coming out about $400 in profit. and yeah, I Know my math was completely off there. it's $500 I'm making sure that you guys are paying attention.

Now after your M TI your cards I'd say you have your business cards. These here are going to be a little bit harder to get just because technically you need to own a business. But what a lot of people fail to understand is that the term of business is very broad. So here in the US the government, the IRS They qualify businesses as sole Proprietors as Freelancers and we're actually living in a country where it's more favorable to be a business owner even if you work a 9 to5.

So whether you're a tutor, you've walked a dog before on Rover Uh, whether you've done Uber Eats instacart delivery driver or you have a Consulting gig someone asks you for advice a VMO you $50 or $100 for your time. You're technically going to be a business owner or even a s proprietor. So a few things that I love about business credit cards you can earn a lot of points. Generally, they give you way more in their welcome bonus offers.

A lot of these business credit cards actually don't impact your personal credit. So as an example, if I got the chase Inc business Cash card and say I was starting my business for that first month if I don't pay off my balance in full generally if you did this on a personal card, you would see your score go down the very next month. but with these business credit cards, they actually don't report it onto your personal credit reports. So if I had a little bit of a balance on one of my chasing cards, my personal credit history would still look squeaky clean.

Now, the reason why they do this is because business is usually a bit separate from your personal finances. and I know back when I first got started within the Drop Shipping and e-commerce space. look I had no money to start my business Okay I remember having to buy inventory for my store and running Facebook ads that first year? I got into the space and as someone who didn't have any startup capital okay, I wasn't on Shark Tank Raising money from other people I realized that through the use of business credit cards, as long as I paid it off within that 12 Monon no interest period that I could be utilizing a completely free line of credit. So that's what I did.

and then I paid it off and it worked out great because eventually I was able to turn that business into a marketing agency which eventually allowed me to start a YouTube channel which eventually allowed me to get to where I'm at. Now looking back, the very first thing that allowed me to scale to where I'm at now was from the proper use of business credit cards. and that starts with education. I Really wish they taught a lot of this stuff in school.

I Know they don't Maybe I can really become Professor Jung One of these days at a university teaching about credit cards? Probably not. Let's be real, probably not. Now the next next tier is going to be tier five and these are your premium credit cards. These are going to be the ones that offer you luxury benefits in travel categories and it's going to be amazing for anyone who does take a lot more flights throughout the year.

You're also going to notice that the annual fees are significantly higher, so this means you're going to be earning a lot more benefit, but always just make sure that you are still getting outsized. Return on the cards that you have I've seen the mistake of other people just being so anxious and wanting to get these cards just to fill up their wallet. So it's like the heaviest wallet in the world with all the premium Tier credit cards. but then they don't travel and then they end up costing them money by holding some of these cards for me personally.

I have the Platinum, Card, the Chase Sapphire reserve, and I also have the business Platinum So even right there, I'm paying over $1,500 in annual fees if I wasn't traveling that much I would probably cancel one of those cards. but as someone who travels at least a few times for a year, I can still calculate that I'm getting positive value now. A lot of people are also going to assume premium credit cards are harder to get just because they have a bigger line of credit, they give you more benefits and they have a higher annual fee. but I've seen more people get approv for the Platinum Card than for some of the tier 2 or tier three cards that we went over.

Your miles may vary. It depends on the time of year as well. Uh, but moving forward from that we have tier Six. This is going to be your Elite Tier credit cards and arguably the hardest ones to get.

As an example, the JP Morgan Chase Card You're going to need $10 million in assets if you even want to be qualified to get invited to apply for this card and then for the card on the left, this is Centurion card. Rumors are for this card, you need to spend an extraordinary amount of money whether it's $100,000 per month or $200,000 per month or even half a million dollars per month. I've seen data points all over the board and all I know is this. Back then it was a lot easier for most people to get invited, but now it seems like they've tightened it up and a lot of people are having a harder time getting invited even when they're spending a lot of money on their cards.

For the Centurion card, you're going to be paying a $5,000 annual fee by the way. and for the first year you get it, you have to pay an Initiation fee of $10,000 Now a lot of people assume that the these Elite tier cards are the ones that they need to get and I do not want a lot of you guys to get caught up in this whole world of oh if I can't have it, it's got to be good and it makes you want to have it more. Look, these cards don't offer the best benefits in the world. even the Centurion card you would expect.

It gives you like 20% cash back on Louis Vuitton or Gucci or you know, some rich place that rich people go to. but no, it's very similar benefits to the platinum card or the JP Morgan cart is very similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. After all these years years, I've realized that these cards are more of just a flexing status card. It is amazing and cool anytime I see them but they are not going to be moving the needle for you if you're someone who's even making a million dollars per year.

The main attraction of these cards is that they offer you really good service so you get your own dashboard. You usually have a customer support rep where they can handle a lot of really cool requests from you. so if you're trying to sit down at a sold out Michelin star restaurant. generally if you're a card holder and you call the Centurion customer service line, they have a much higher chance of actually getting you a seat than if you didn't have this card.

But even with those benefits, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around whether or not these cards give most people positive value. So now that you have an idea of just how the credit card tier system works, what is the best sequence to go about it? Cuz there's a lot of different cards And let me give you the exact answer here. So if you take a look at your screen this was my card sequence that I started about 5 six years ago. You'll see card number one I went into the Uber card after that, the Chase Freedom unlimited card, the Sapphire Preferred Card the business Prefer card and I worked my way up to now having the Chase Sapphire reserve the built Master Card and what you'll notice about this is I actually followed a strategic strategy that allowed me to get credit cards at a consistent Pace.

The thing about this game is that if you apply for credit cards too early, you could actually get denied. but if you wait too long, you're just going to be extending the Tim length of completing your credit card sequence. This here is the outdated one from 6 years ago. That was the best at that time in my opinion.

but this is the new recommended credit card sequence. After all the research that I've done, that I would follow instead. So the first credit card I would actually get is the Capital One Sa One card. This card here I've named it many, many times on my channel as the best no annual fee credit card to exist and that's because right now they have a benefit where you can earn 10% cash back on Uber and Uber Eats and you also get a free Uber one membership and you also get 8% back 5% back 3% back on their resped categor.

So it's a really good card. it has no annual fee. You also have the No APR promotional offer and you get a very solid wel bonus offer now. Capital One is also a great issuer to get started with because they are a bit more inquiry sensitive so they actually prefer customers who don't have that much history and are just now getting into this game.

So after the Capital One saver one card I would actually recommend the Chase Freedom Flex card another no annual fee credit card and this is a great option for you to start out with Chase because it then opens the doors for you to get other Chase cards down the list. Now keep in mind there's a rule called the Chase 524 rule. That rule means if you want to get approved for a car card with Chase you're limited to having five cards within 24 months if you want to get approv for any one of Chase's cards. So Chase implemented that rule many, many years ago so that people aren't trying to apply for all these cards all at once and they make you reconsider adding Chase into your lineup earlier on.

what this means is, if I already had four or five credit cards in my Arsenal then I applied for another card within a 2-year period I'd probably get automatically declined now in between applications. the most early I would go is one month in between application. Now that's pushing it a bit, but every time I've done it I've had no issues I know some people wait a minimum of 3 months which I think is rather too long. so I'd say the average of that wait two months in between applications one month.

If you want to give it a shot, you should be fine. Now if you happen to be paying a lot of money and rent, I wouldn't even wait about 2 to four months before getting the built card I would even consider getting the built Master Card first and then getting the Capital One Saver One card and then the Chase Freedom Flex card because ultimately these three cards are going to line you up to build your credit hit history to get approved for your first mid-tier card. That here is going to be the Chase Sapphire Preferred. This is a great mid-tier starter card for anyone who's looking to get their first annual fee card with a decent amount of benefits that you don't have to stress out about trying to spend on the Chase.

Sappire Preferred is also going to open the doors with Chase for you. If they see that you have the Freedom Flex and then you have an annual fee card with them, it's going to make the process of getting the chase Inc Business cards a lot easier. Now this here is like an upgraded version of pretty much what I did back then. but as soon as I got my Sapphire preferred, that's when I was looking right at the chase.

Inc Business Preferred Cards Because of the 524 rule. Once again, at this point you're still going to be under 524 And what's cool is there is an exception to that rule where if you get a business credit card, it's not going to add on to the 524 rule either. So if you ever wondered, well, Brian how did you get so many cards with Chase in a short period of time, Well, it's because these three cards did not add on to the 524 Rule and at this point I was still at 424 so I got the chase half I preferred. Then I got the Inc business cash in the Inc business unlimited.

At the time of filming this video, These offers are elevated and Chase will go ahead. maybe a few times a year. they'll bump up the offer a lot where you're earning like 880,000 or 990,000 points which is the equivalent of $800 to $900 cash back on the minimum side that can really start to pile up and then after that what I did was get the Inc business Preferred Card This card here has an annual fee of $95 and at this point you haven't paid that much in Annual fees. These two cards have no annual fees.

These two cards have no annual fees. The built Master Card has no annual fees and at this point you're just paying $190 Now when it comes to getting business credit cards, if you don't own a business, I Know it can be a bit more intimidating and tricky, but luckily for you I've made multiple videos even 5 years ago I made my first business credit card video back then I will link my most recent Ultimate Business Credit Card guide. That one has over half a million views. Right now we've helped out thousands upon thousands of people being able to get approve for their business credit card.

So watch that because I go step by step through the application process, setting up your LLC setting up your So proprietorship which is also for free. by the way, getting your EIN and making sure that you know the exact steps of getting approved. Now if you're someone who really doesn't want to get a business credit card, you don't spend that much money, you have an option of actually then just going into the American Express Gold card. Now this right here is a staple daily driver because I assume most people have to eat right? Unless you're from another planet, you don't eat.

If you're eating, you have to buy groceries or you're buying food at restaurants. Now this card is going to give you 4X back on that. And this is also a card that affects effectively has a $10 annual fee if after you're maximizing the $240 in credits that you get every single year. I Love the Gold Card! I Still have it as my daily driver and this was actually a very exciting point because the feel of the American Express gold card is so different to any of the credit cards before.

After the Gold Card you're going to have a choice of getting your first premium Tier Credit card This is going to be the Platinum The Reserve or even the Capital One Venture X out of the three. If you don't travel that much, go for the Capital Inv Venture X card because it pairs well with the Capital 1 Sa One card where you can change and transfer the cash back into points and then use the Capital One travel portal for your bookings. By the way, the Capital One travel portal I'd consider it to be Op. It is very solid.

They do price match guarantees, they give you alerts you can cancel it I mean it is very flexible compared to other portals that I know of. Now if you travel a decent amount but not a crazy amount, get the Chase Sapphire Reserve Okay, the credits on this is super easy to use and you're already within Chase's ecosystem. And if you really want to just ball out and be someone who's maximizing all their benefits, you can get the platinum card or even just get all three if you really travel that much. For me personally, what I did was I got the platinum card and that's actually because I was mindful of the Chase Sapphire rule where since I got the welcome bonus offer on this, I would actually have to wait 4 years before being eligible for my next welcome bonus offer and that's why I chose to get the Chase Sapphire Reserve way later on.

So this here is an offer that's stated in their terms on that fine print and it's noted you can only collect bonus points on Sapphire branded Chase credit cards every 48 months. Keep that in mind before applying for any of the Chase Sapphire cards. But generally what's really interesting about Chase Sapphire preferred is that it actually gets higher welcome bonus offers than the Chase Sapphire Reserve. If you just want to maximize this though, wait about four years until after you apply for this card and then get the Chase Sapphire Reserve maybe later on.

So what I did was I Got the Platinum Card I messed around with all these other cards here in between that period. Got the business platinum card and then got the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Last, you can pretty much see my entire sequence here and the way that it would work within this new recommended credit card sequence that I've laid out for you guys is to just get a bunch of different Hotel credit cards. Hotel Credit cards are great because they have many different tiers.

so if you stay at Marriott properties a lot, you can just get the highest annual fee credit card with Marott Bonvoy. Or if you don't stay at Marriott Hotels a lot. Maybe you stay there once a year if you go to the city and you're able to get positive value from that card. So within the card lineup you have a lot of different options.

You have world of Hyatt Marriott Bonvoy. IHG You also have Hilton too. This is completely up to you. It's personal preference.

if you have status at one of those hotels, this might help you make your decision even further. But I'd say a lot of these Hotel credit cards are great because you get the welcome bonus offer. You can downgrade or even close your credit card. I Know it breaks one of our Cardinal rules, but in some cases it does make sense and it's okay for you to do it after that.

I Don't know about you guys but I shop a lot on Amazon So this is where I got my Amazon Visa card and the business Prime card I Threw that here in the list just because these are small credit cards. you don't earn crazy welcome bonus offers. But if you have trouble finding a credit card to use on things like Amazon and you're a big Amazon spender, this would obviously make sense for you. Now, this sequence here can take you anywhere from a full year to even four years, and after this, it's completely up to you.

You can discover the Bank of America lineup of cards, you can go into the US bank cards or you can just double down on even more American Express products. The great thing about credit cards is that this SE sequence is not the perfect sequence in the world. This is going to be completely up to how you spend, how much you travel and what you value. I Personally think this is just an easy allaround for someone like me and I'd assume a lot of people are like me.

You know you and I got a lot in common right now going back into the first credit card within the sequence. If for some reason you can't get approv for a Capital One card, what you can do is actually go for an alternative like the Chase Freedom Rise card. The Chase Freedom Rise card can actually replace the Chase Freedom Flex card and this this is that card that I mentioned earlier where if you go ahead and you open a checking account and deposit about $200 in there, it's going to increase the chances of you getting approved for one card within chase. Another place where you can flip-flop a little is if you really don't pay rent.

The chase R unlimited is also another alternative where this one actually has a welcome bonus offer and it really works well and synergizes with the entire setup. I talked about. Now by the way, if you're interested in applying for any of these cards that I mentioned in this video, be sure to check out the links down below. You can check out some of my my recommended cards, just make sure the offer is best for you.

but for anytime you use those links, it directly supports my channel. So I can continue making videos at this quality for you guys. By the way I really appreciate anyone who uses those links. It really does make a difference.

So now that we know the road map now that we know how you can get started I Wanted to talk about two secret tips in getting approved for a new credit card. So what's really cool is back in the day when I first got started, people were charging a lot of money just for this little bit of information here. So I'm going to give you you know I don't know it's worth $1,000 in info but I'd say it's like at least $100 So if you apply for any of the cards and you happen to get declined, here's what will happen. You will get a letter in the mail about a week after you've applied and all the credit card companies by Nature will go through a process of telling you why you got declined.

So sometimes it'll be your credit history was not long enough or sometimes it's just your credit score sucks or you just have too many opened accounts in a short period of time that's going to help you get a better understanding of why they declined you, you and the next thing you're going to do is to call a reconsideration line where you talk to a live agent in rep who has the power and authority to reverse that decision when you get declined. By the way, it's not like all these people clicking a button going through it every single day. It's actually just an algorithm that is flagging your account that you shouldn't get approved based on the metrics that they set. Now I Know Reconsideration Line has helped out a lot of people because you can plead your case and talk to a real human and let them know.

Look it says: I got declined because you know I opened five credit cards but all my credit cards I paid in full and I really want to work with you guys as an issuer because I actually don't like the other issuers that I was with. You could also plead your case Hey Listen I know I don't have the best score right now, but that's because of this situation. Or listen I know that my credit history is short, but that's because I just graduated college and I would still love to try out this credit card you guys have to offer. If you don't get lucky, do something called Hucka, Hang up and call again because you're going to talk to another rep and they might be the one that actually reverses the decision now.

Would do this more than five times I think after that, uh, it gets a little repetitive and you should actually wait and reflect before applying for a new card. But I've seen people who tried five times and on that fifth time they had their decision reversed. Now the next quick tip is piggybacking. So obviously you see my fiance I was we're picking some apples here.

She's piggybacking me the way piggybacking works within the credit card world. If my fiance does not have the best credit score in the world, I can go ahead and add her as an authorized user onto my account and I'm going to be transferring my credit history my power, my reports that I've had and give it on to hers. So if you have really bad credit, you've made some mistakes in the past, but you have a family member who has an 850 credit score. If they add you as an authorized user amongst one of their cards, they don't ever have to give you the card.

You don't have to ever use their card. if they just add you onto it. they can go ahead and basically transfer the power to you. And they're almost in essence piggybacking on the effort and the positive things that you've done with your credit score.

So those are the two main strategies in getting approved for a card if you happen to get Decline and how you can actually improve your credit score extremely fast. When you improve your credit score then apply for a card and the chances of you getting approved now have gone up significantly. So now that you probably have your first credit card, we need to talk about how you can unlock your card's full potential. So one of my favorite strategies in unlocking your cards potential is maximizing the welcome bonus offers that you get.

Remember we talked about those business credit cards. Well, if you look at the fine print on how much you have to spend on some of them, it gets pretty high I Know even back then when I got my first business credit card I was thinking more creatively I was like there's no way I'm going to be spending like $10,000 or $15,000 on my MX business platinum card to get this number I don't know how I'm going to do it, but there are actually ways. So one of the best ways to do this is to pay your taxes with your credit card. Now in order to do this, you're going to be charged a small fee.

It's about 1.85% with pay USA tax right now. by the way, not affiliated. This is like literally off from the IRS website. They have three different credit card processors.

You can use the other ones if you like, but this is the one that I personally used um in the last four to 5 years. So get a new credit card, pay off a part of your tax with that credit card, maybe then get another credit card, hit that welcome bonus offer and this is how you can quickly get a lot of points fast. Now the second strategy is to actually pay your bills, your vendors, your contractors with a different service provider. So back in the day we would use a company called Plastique and basically we would pay them using our credit card.

They would then mail out a check to whoever we were trying and pay with that amount and this is how people were actually able to accumulate points and to also hit those welcome bonus offers. Now after doing a ton of research, I came across another company called Melo This is pretty much an improved modern-day version of plastic and here on the top of their website they state, pay your bills with a credit card, use your credit cards to pay vendors, contractors, and all your business bills even when credit cards aren't usually accepted, so it's really easy to get started with them. Um, if you just press start Now on their website, I'll have a link Down Below in the description. You can set up account and if you have a vendor you know about or a contractor, you can go ahead and pay them using your credit card and then they'll send them a check.

Now the next. Advanced Strategy in accumulating a ton of points with your credit cards. It's not just the spend, it's not the welcome bonus offers, but it's the referral aspect that you get when opening a new card. So take as an example: you can earn up to 200,000 points per year if you max out the referrals on your Chase in cards.

Or you can also get up to $500 cash back per year with the Chase Freedom cards. and you just tell your family member your friend, hey, pick up this card. Just don't get yourself in credit card debt by watching Brian Jung's video first. Another example: if you refer someone at the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card you can earn up to 75,000 points.

That is the equivalent of $750 minimum cash back that you're getting. Now all that sounds great, but the question is, how do you then refer people? Well I Start with first family and friends and then I utilize social media. So this is exactly what I did earlier on to then go from a million points to a couple million points. By the way, my 3 million points one to one cash back is $30,000 I Can cash out anytime I Know that if I was able to do it in the Last 5 Years you guys can too and I'm sure $30,000 cash back can be life-changing amounts of money for most of you guys I know it would be even still for me.

Now utilizing the family and close friends thing is real simple. just bring up in a conversation: what credit cards do you have? How's your credit score? Do you want to make money and optimize your benefit? If you know you have your friend Jim Bob who has a 520 credit score and he is terrible with paying off his finances on time, Do not. Please do Not refer him to it. Okay, you could be ruining lives out here too, but if you know someone who's actually very disciplined with their finances and the only lack they have is an understanding of credit cards, all you have to do is send them a video like this.

I'll teach them for you guys and then send them your referral link for them to actually get signed up for that card. Get them to hit their welcome bonus offer. Score! Maybe $2 $300 free money right there in their pocket and that is usually the hook where people begin to realize oh wow, this stuff works so family and close friends even back then. look I don't have that many friends I Hate to say but even back then I had less friends and I was able to maximize my referrals every single year.

Second Method Social media. This is actually really powerful and something I did recently is utilize my Instagram So even if you have an Instagram account where you have like 100 to 200 followers, if you get just one or two people who watched your story to actually use your link, sign up for a card. after you explain the benefit, Fit that right there can start adding up to be quite a good amount. So one referral strategy.

this is actually brand new. Going into the year 2024 that I did personally myself that I find a lot of success in is using Instagram reels. So there's a video here on my Instagram reel and basically I gave the call to action in the video and in the comment section. comment down below 90k and I'll DM you a link to the offer.

Granted I have a lot of followers just from. You know what I do with social media, but I still had a decent amount I had 778 comments from that and if I assume that even even 1% of that converts into someone signing up for my link, it adds up to be a lot. So with the chase in card, you can earn up to 40,000 points for each business owner who gets a card and that's about $400 So as soon as someone commented 90k, I actually had an automation sequence where I'd send them a link in their own direct messages. From there, they can ask me any questions, I can follow up with them and make sure that they get the offer.

Now the second social media strategy is to utilize organic content. so if you post on Instagram story, that's one of example. But even writing blogs, If you're someone who loves writing, you can do that too. Or you could even have Ai help you write out.

These blogs get ranked or Drive traffic to that and then have your referral link as the call to action button down below after you've given people information. Third strategy is to make reviews on YouTube I Think anyone can do this? I did this and eventually scaled my channel to where it is Now here are two examples: I made a video reviewing the gold card. That video did over 100,000 views, but this is actually how I first started my channel. A little secret for you guys, but I I reviewed the gold card when it came out back when I had almost zero subscribers, got a couple thousand views, and eventually turned that into what it is.

Now you also see an example of a Blog I just do the best credit cards of 2023 of what I would rate them, review them, and anyone who uses a link on that article, then I would get the referral bonus from that too. Now by the way, if you guys like the social media strategy stuff and it appeals to you, I'm actually working on a dedicated course right now to give anyone who's interested in the space, all the value, all the information, all the things learned in The Last 5 Years to scale this into an actual business. if you're interested in that, I'll have a link Down Below in the description where you can also learn more. Now with that being said, the next most important thing when it comes to the credit card world is actually redeeming your points for max amount of value.

The reason why this is important is because if you get a whole bunch of credit cards, you get a whole bunch of points, but you don't actually use it for high. Redemption Awards You could be losing out on a lot of value. so this is the difference of just getting one to one cash back with my 3 million points which is $30,000 but instead I could turn that into a hundred or $150,000 in free travel. And this is how I would do that when it comes to travel.

Redemption You have a few ways you have travel through reward portals, so I just go on. Chase Ultimate Rewards portal I Book a trip. maybe I get a hotel at a discounted rate using my points there. Okay, I double the value of my points.

but the second thing you do is to transfer your points out to a dedicated Transfer Partner So here's how the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal looks like you can just go through it and you can see that even my points right now is worth up to $17,700 if I book through the Chase Travel portal. Generally, these redemptions will range anywhere from 1 cent to 3 cents per point. Now through Transfer Partners these can range from 1 cent all the way up to 10 and I've seen even instances of 20 cent per point. So an example of this is trying to get a first class flight.

So here is a Japan Airlines New Suite. This actually came out like a few weeks ago and you'll notice here just as an example. if I went from San Francisco over to to Tokyo the cost of this trip would be $2,660 Equivalent through American Airlines first class, it would cost you 80,000 Points Plus $5.60 So if you do the math, it's pretty insane. 80,000 points is the equivalent of $800 and you're pretty much paying $800 for a $2,000 flight ticket.

If you guys like that, drop a like down below please. So how do you even do that? Like it sounds complicated but it's really not. I Broke it down into even three basic steps you would do here. So you go on American Airlines website.

You would then go to select redeem miles and then you would figure out which Transfer Partner to move your points to. They accept built rewards one to one or Marriott Bonvoy points 3 to1 when transferring. This is how it would look like. transfer your points to frequent travel programs 1 2, 3 and then book your reward travel.

Now by the way, finding a flight like this is not easy. Okay, it takes a little bit of work, but this is why I Wanted to talk about some resources that I also use. So a W hacker they've been around for a while. It gets you started.

it gets you ideas to see which Transfer Partners could work out for you for this. I would just put in like my home airport and say I want to go to South Korea because I missed the food there. that food was so good. Put that in there.

Okay, we're going first class here. Put in the details and basically it's going to load up the different options I have in transferring my points to get to that destination. The next resource that I personally love utilizing is flight deal alerts that I get from a various amount of websites. now the one that I use I'll also have it linked Down Below in the description if you want to use them too.

but this is pretty much what my inbox looks like where multiple times throughout the day. I get flight alerts and they also tell me which points I can use to transfer it out to get that deal. I'll give you a tip though if you have the time on your hands. If you love doing research yourself, you don't really need a resource like this, but this gives you a lot of inspiration.

It gives you ideas and I know. For me, this is definitely worth it just because I don't want to spend time doing the research I want to make time doing videos like this instead teaching y'all and what I love is. Sometimes they give me deals that I never would have known about before. You don't need to use this.

If you have a destination you have in mind, look up: The Transfer Partners do reverse engineering to see who can transfer to that and then find out which credit cards you can earn points on to. Then you know get the deal that you're trying to actually get. Now if you haven't. to be someone who doesn't like to travel, you don't care about none of that stuff.

All right, no travel, no prompt because with just cash back, $1 is still equal to 100 points. Even with Chase or even American Express they'll still give you that Redemption and you can still get a decent amount of cash back. Here's an example: 1,1 180,000 points in one of my accounts is still worth about 11,800 bucks. All right.

So at this point you should have a good idea of how the whole credit card game works, how to maximize the benefit, some of the tips and tricks in making sure you get approved, knowing which credit cards to start out with and also how to get good redemptions. What's next though, is some of the resources that I highly encourage you guys to sign up for because it's all for free. I Made a Discord you guys can join a credit card Community Talk all things credit cards there I Also have a Facebook group. It's been around for four or five years.

We have 36,000 members in there. Have any questions? join that group, ask your questions our members would love to help. We also have a email newsletter that you guys can join where I'll email you credit card tips, little tricks, little things that I know about um, any elevated offers on credit cards. I'll also be notifying you about that as well there.

so be sure to join our email down below now. I Mentioned this before, but anytime you use those affiliate links, it directly supports our channel. So I appreciate you guys doing that when you apply for a new card. and then if you guys want to check out any of our programs or courses that will also be linked Down Below in the description too.

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like share, subscribe. Follow me on Instagram @ Credit Brian and I'll see you guys soon! Peace out.