My All-Time FAVORITE Credit Cards

Lots of you guys, it's great here! So, I realize I've been slipping up a lot lately. I've let a lot of you guys down, and this is just unacceptable. And that's because it's been way too long since I've made a credit card video—four months ago, to be exact. And that changes today!

Now for those who are new to the channel and haven't seen my previous credit card videos, well, my name is Graham Stefon, and I am addicted to credit cards. No, but seriously, they, like, credit cards are actually like a weird hobby of mine. I know it sounds kind of weird to say that these metal and plastic squares are a hobby, but yeah, it's true. Like, I collect these, like some people collect Magic the Gathering.

Because the thing is, if you know how to properly use these, you can use them to get a lot of free stuff, like free plane tickets, free travel, free hotel, free airport lounge access, free food—free just about anything! It's entirely possible to use these cards to your advantage if you just know what to do. Because, like I said, no one loves free stuff and credit cards more than I do.

It's also with these cards that I have not paid for a single plane ticket in over three years, and I've traveled throughout North America multiple times, and I have not paid for a single thing! It's just all just go right here for free. So, with this, I'll be going over my all-time favorite credit cards, why they are my favorite, exactly what I got for them, how you can use them, as well as, long as you just destroy the like button for the YouTube algorithm.

No, but seriously though, actually hitting the like button or commenting down below for the YouTube algorithm helps push the videos out to an even larger audience. And then we can continue taking over the world one subscriber at a time. So, with that said, let's get into the video!

So let's begin with the first grown-up credit card I've ever got, and that would be the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Now, I got this card because it's known as what's called a charge card, meaning that it's meant to be paid off in full each and every month. Now, I never advocate ever carrying a balance on any credit card, but this one specifically is meant to be paid off each month in full.

Now, because of that, and because it's known as a charge card, it technically doesn't have any preset spending limit. This means it won't negatively impact your utilization any time the credit bureaus calculate your credit score. So technically, any money spent on this credit card is not going to negatively impact your credit utilization, unlike any other cards that have a preset spending limit.

And that's why I specifically chose this card as my first, like, grown-up real adult credit card. I'm not gonna lie, I also wanted to get some free stuff too, and this is the perfect card for me to get free stuff with. For example, there's an offer out there where you can get fifty thousand points after you spend two thousand dollars in the first three months.

And of course, now you might be wondering, well, how much is fifty thousand points worth? And it really depends on how you redeem them. If you just want to use those points to cover your American Express bill, then typically those points have a value of 0.6 cents each, which means that fifty thousand points is going to be worth about three hundred dollars.

And if you want to redeem those points for a gift card, then typically you can get up to one cent per point, meaning that fifty thousand points would get you about five hundred dollars depending on who you redeem the gift card with. But, of course, I've found a more magic way of redeeming American Express points, and that involves transferring those points to their affiliate known as Aeroplan.

Then once you're on Aeroplan's website, you could pretty much book a round-trip ticket anywhere in North America for twenty-five thousand points. So that means that fifty thousand points is, for the most part, worth two round-trip plane tickets anywhere in North America with a value anywhere between five hundred and maybe even fourteen hundred dollars, depending on where you're going—entirely for free, just for signing up for the credit card!

Now, in addition to that, there's also so many other advantages that just make this card a really good deal. For instance, you will get a one hundred dollar per year airline credit if you choose to check your bags, or in-flight meals, or purchases, or anything of the like. You're also going to be getting purchase protection up to ten thousand dollars per occurrence if one of your purchases is lost, stolen, or damaged shortly after you buy it.

They're also gonna be extending a warranty for you, up to two years, on eligible products. So if you go and buy something and it gets lost, stolen, damaged, or it breaks, chances are they will take care of that for you. There's also a bunch of other perks with the card as well that's just too much for me to mention, but I will link to all of the information down below in the description if you guys are curious.

Yes, of course, this card does have an annual fee of two hundred and fifty dollars. But honestly, that pays for itself so many times over with the rewards and bonus points you get just for getting a card! And it's really for those reasons that this is one of my favorite credit cards out there—not only for the rewards, but also to help build up your credit as well.

And, of course, link in the description for anyone who's interested in learning more about that card. Secondly, we can't mention the American Express Gold without talking about one of the cards I use for pretty much everything, and that would be—cue the spooky music—the American Express Platinum. This card is pretty much like the grown-up version of the American Express Gold but on steroids.

And I gotta warn you, this card is not for everybody. It's a lot of card to handle, but if you can handle it, the benefits could be pretty staggering! Like the American Express Gold card I just mentioned, the American Express Platinum operates in a very similar manner. It's meant to be a charge card, which means you put money on it and pay it off in full at the end of every single month. And it doesn't have any preset spending limit, within reason, of course.

Like, it's not like you can go and spend like five hundred thousand dollars on a Ferrari and then drive it out of the country and then just never appear ever again and disappear and change your name. Not like I've thought about this, by the way—I have not thought about that. But if I did think about that, you know, you can't do it.

But it does offer some pretty great advantages, which is why I use it so often. Now first, let's talk about the signup bonus. When I signed up for this credit card, I got sixty thousand points. Now yes, I did need to go and spend five thousand dollars in the first three months to get those points, but I was right in the middle of a home remodeling project anyway where I was spending like twenty, twenty-five thousand dollars. So I figured, you know, I may as well just open up the card, put some of the remodeling materials on the card, and get free stuff where otherwise I wasn't going to get anything.

And like I said, when you redeem those points through Aeroplan, sixty thousand points are really worth anywhere between six hundred and up to fourteen hundred dollars of free travel. And by the way, just for the record, I want to throw this in there is that the current signup bonus has actually been raised to seventy thousand points, not sixty right now, so just want to mention that for anyone who is interested.

Now, in addition to that, this card also gets you into one of my favorite places in the entire world, besides Costco for the free samples during lunch, and that would be the American Express Centurion Lounge. These are just really upscale airport lounges in select cities that are just insanely nice. I'm talking like all-you-could-eat food and all-you-could-drink drinks, and in Dallas, they actually give you free massages.

So anytime I find myself in an airport with one of these lounges, I could easily get like fifty to sixty dollars worth of free food and free drinks, plus a free massage, and then try to take more food to go. I don't know if you're supposed to do that, maybe not, but I like trying to take food to go!

Now in addition to that, you also get a hundred dollar hotel credit on select hotels, you'll get discounts on other hotel services, a two hundred dollar airline credit towards any airline of your choice, and then you'll also get top-of-the-line purchase and loss protection. For example, last year I had my brand-new twenty-five hundred dollar MacBook Pro computer stolen from the back of a car. They just went in, smashed the window, and stole the backpack with my computer inside of it. And thankfully, American Express was able to cover that through their loss protection feature on the card.

Even though I really hope I will never need to use that ever again because that was a horrible thing to have to go through, it's nice knowing that at the very least it's there in case I need it. As far as downsides are concerned, this card is not cheap. It's five hundred and fifty dollars a year to have, and to be eligible to get the card, they usually like you to have a good credit score combined with a strong income.

Although if you will actually use the benefits, I really believe those benefits will strongly outweigh and pay for the annual fee many times over. Like just for my stolen computer, that ended up paying for the annual fee of this card for almost the next five years, not to mention all of the other free stuff that I was able to get from having a credit card. So again, that's one of the reasons why I keep this card and why I use it so often.

Not to mention, their customer service is really top-of-the-line, top notch. It's really honestly some of the best customer service I've ever seen on a credit card. And now we have my third-favorite credit card that I always carry on me at all times, and that would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Now this one is easily the crowd favorite in terms of credit cards because what they did at the time when they first came out was revolutionary.

They offered a hundred thousand points for signing up. They also offered a metal credit card, and they just mass-marketed it everywhere. This card was so good that you literally couldn't turn it down because the offers were just insane! You had to get this card. In fact, I believe that it was because of this credit card that American Express began issuing metal cards as well, and they completely restructured their reward system just so they had a chance to compete with this card.

That's how good this card was when it first came out. I think now Chase has come to realize that this card was just too good and they weren't as profitable as they originally thought they would be, so they began dialing back some of the rewards over the last year or so. But regardless, it's still a very good card to get. For example, now they're gonna be giving you fifty thousand points when you spend four thousand dollars in the first three months.

And when you go and redeem those points for travel through Chase, fifty thousand points really has a value of about seven hundred and fifty dollars. In addition to that, they also give you a three hundred dollar a year travel credit, and the term travel is used very loosely. It can be applied to anything from a parking meter to an Airbnb, to an Uber, to a hotel, to a plane ticket, to pretty much anything involving a moving thing.

And the best part about all of this is that you get access with this card to the Priority Pass airport lounges. And even though the Priority Pass lounges are not as nice, maybe it's just a little bit more crowded than the American Express Centurion Lounge, it doesn't mean that you can't just go and get like all-you-can-eat food and all-you-can-drink drinks, including free iced coffee.

And these Priority Pass airport lounges are pretty much located in every airport out there. So chances are if you're traveling somewhere, it's got a Priority Pass lounge. And even if there's not a Priority Pass airport lounge, then sometimes this will even just get you a twenty-eight dollar free food credit at select restaurants. So again, all of that is basically just like free money.

And anytime I go into an all-you-can-eat place, I definitely eat all I could eat and I get my money's worth! Now, of course, all good things usually come at a cost, and the cost of this is four hundred and fifty dollars each and every year. But between the seven hundred and fifty dollars in free travel that you get just for signing up, plus the three hundred dollar travel credits, plus the Priority Pass lounge access, and a ton of other rewards and features of the card, the four hundred and fifty dollar annual fee pays for itself very quickly.

My fourth favorite card is a very, very special one, just because you don't really see it very often, and that would be the infamous JP Morgan Reserve credit card. This is also the same credit card that was in the unboxing video that just got an absurd amount of views. But for those who didn't watch the video, this card is issued to people who belong to the JP Morgan private bank—not to be confused with the Chase private client or Chase private bank, which is something completely separate.

Now, not always, but usually, to get access to the JP Morgan private and therefore get access to the credit card, you need ten million dollars in assets, hence the name the ten million dollar credit card. And even though I will admit this card is pretty much identical to the Chase Sapphire Reserve in terms of benefits, this card does have a few unique advantages.

First, I was able to get a hundred thousand points just for signing up for this card, which when you redeem that for travel is worth about fifteen hundred dollars. Now in addition to that, just like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get a three hundred dollar per year travel credit that you could apply to anything travel related, like parking, Uber, Airbnb, and anything of the like.

So already, right off the bat, I'm up to eighteen hundred dollars worth of rewards, plus you're also gonna be getting the Priority Pass lounge access. So so far it's like we're discussing a glorified Chase Sapphire Reserve. But one of the extra benefits with this card is that you get access to the United Club Lounge, which is about five hundred and fifty dollars if you purchased it directly through them.

So already, we've got over two thousand three hundred dollars worth of rewards just for getting the card! Now this does have a four hundred and fifty dollar annual fee, which is identical to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So it's pretty much redundant for me to have these cards since essentially they're the same thing, with this one just having a few extra benefits.

But regardless, for four hundred and fifty dollars for me to get all of these rewards and benefits, it's just—it's worth it. Not to mention, this is a pretty fun card to whip out every now and then to pay for something! Especially if you're gonna pay for something that's like a few dollars, and then you pay with this. If you go to McDonald's, you're like, I want something from the dollar menu, and you pay with this card! It's just kind of funny.

And finally, my last favorite credit card is a business credit card. I wanted to throw this in there for any business owners or for anyone who wants their own dedicated credit card for that, and that would be the Chase Ink Business Preferred. Now when I signed up for this card, they had an offer going where if you went into a physical Chase Bank branch, they would give you one hundred thousand points just for signing up.

So of course, that's what I obviously did! I just walked a few blocks from my office, went down to Chase, opened up a card, and there we go. I got a hundred thousand points, which has a value of fifteen hundred dollars worth of free travel! And the great thing about this card is that the annual fee is only ninety-five dollars a year, which spending ninety-five dollars to get back fifteen hundred in free travel seems like a pretty good deal to me!

As far as overall rewards go from this card, it's decent. It's really nothing special, although you will get three times points when you spend that money on social media marketing, advertising, and other business expenses, which is nice. But it's not necessarily as good as some of the other cards out there that I mentioned.

And really, as far as business credit cards go, this one is great just for the sign-up bonus and the low annual fee. But beyond that, maybe some of the other credit cards might be a little bit better, like the American Express business cards have a lot of great features and are pretty much identical to the personal cards. But I still really like this one because I feel like overall it's still a pretty good deal.

So those are the five favorite credit cards that I use the most often and exactly why I got them. And when you use those cards properly and also strategically, it's very easy to see how you can get some very insane rewards that you would never otherwise get with debit or cash. And also, at the same time, those cards end up helping boost my credit score so that I can continue to get the lowest rates anytime I go and finance something or invest in real estate.

So for anyone wondering exactly how to build up their credit score to the point of being able to do this, I have another video that I will just link in the description that shows you exactly what to do step by step on how to build up your credit score for absolutely free. So, I'm just gonna put that down below in the description for anyone who's interested, and as long as you just smash the like button!

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So again, thank you so much for watching, and until next time!