My first year journey into the world of cards and points: From snooping to maximizing rewards

Before I joined TPG in March 2022, my knowledge about credit cards and the world of points and miles was limited. Authorized User? What is that? Free Night Prize? Don’t know. Chase’s 5/24 Rule? Never heard of it.

I come from a family of relatively few travelers, vacationing to Outer Banks in North Carolina every summer but only going abroad a few times and without any real sense of how credit cards can be. How valuable it is to the casual tourist.

That quickly changed when I started working with the credit card experts and TPG’s points and miles team, who taught me the basics—things like issuers. big cards, how to maximize your redemption and the most important things. 10 commandments about credit card rewards. It makes me a more knowledgeable employee but also helps me in life — allowed me to go from absolutely no credit history to a comfortable credit score of over 700 in just over a year.

What follows is a step-by-step guide on how I did it and a simple blueprint on how you can do it too.

First, some context: My parents weren’t exactly what you would call point and mile enthusiasts. They have exactly one (1) credit card, one cashback card from the bank of their choice. My father, being a frugal man, didn’t care that I had a student credit card in college or was added as a authorized user on their card. (For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t trust me either.)

So after I graduated, I basically had no credit history to speak of, saving up some payments on my college apartment and some utilities. In a sense, that’s not too bad — starting with a clean slate — but I’ve certainly been a little behind eight balls in trying to build a credible profile for organizations. release.

The next step, according to our plan: get my own card. For me, that means getting the Discover it Security Card, one of the best value security cards on the market, with the same perks as usual Explore it.

Secured credit card, in essence, are credit cards that require you to make a security deposit to use them, reducing the risk of the issuer while also allowing people with limited credit histories to build cards. In my case, I made a deposit of $2,500 to get a monthly line of credit of the same amount.

Discover it Secured offers the same earning rate as Unsecured Discover it: 2% cashback at gas stations and restaurants and 1% cashback on everything else, with full refunds within the first year your card with a card matched by Discover. In my case, I got about $150 in cash—and that doubled to over $300 by the end of my first year. Not bad.

Information about the Discover it and Discover it Secured cards has been independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

A few months later, I applied and landed Apple Card3% cash back at select carriers (including Apple), 2% when you use Apple Pay, and 1% on everything else.

Those rates are good – but not great – returns for a cashback card. However, I feel it’s the right card for me for several reasons.

First, I eat out a lot and almost always use Apple Pay when I do. The same goes for all of my major online purchases. I also appreciate the simplicity and ease of use of the Apple Card interface. Plus, there are no fees of any kind.

Finally, I was able to take advantage of a targeted offer that gave me a $75 cash bonus when I received the card. Again, that’s not great, but in my opinion it’s better than no bonus at all, and I’ve been enjoying the card’s simple benefits ever since.

It’s also one of the best credit card lessons I’ve learned in the last year: A card is only “worth it” if it gives you value. If you don’t travel a lot, consider a cashback card. If you spend a lot on a certain spending category, find a rewards card for that.

For example, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express 6% cash back at US supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year) and on streaming services. If you spend big on groceries and watch a lot of Netflix, it’s a card that fits your lifestyle.

Information about Apple Card has been independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

I’m almost 18 months into my credit card journey, with many miles ahead. I still don’t have a premium card like Chase Sapphire Reserve or Platinum Card® from American Express. I was also rejected a while ago because Chase Sapphire Priority Cardwith the issuer citing my lack of a long credit history, despite my high credit score.

My plan from here is to buy a mid-tier annual fee card like Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card(see rates and fees) completely immersed in the world of points and miles. The goal is to take advantage of that card’s welcome bonus (obviously) and use that mileage to pay for my next big trip, maybe this holiday season or next summer.