If you want to get into the credit card game, rather that be with just 1 card, or 10+ cards, there is a golden rule that you must follow. NEVER carry a balance and pay interest! Always pay off your balance each month to avoid paying interest. You'll always pay more in interest than you would earn with points.

1. When you are getting started, you want to make a few decisions such as "Do I want to get points for travel or do I want cash back?"

2. Once you answer that question, you'll then want to look at your current spending habbits, and see which categories you spend in the most. For example, gas, groceries, entertainment, dining etc. Then you'll want to look for cards that offer multipliers in those specific categories

3. If this is your first credit card, then you don't want to apply for just any card, as many won't approve you. You'll want to look at starter cards such as the Chase Freedom Rise, Capital One Savor One Student, or Discover IT cards.

4. If you are currently struggling with paying off other loans or credit cards, then stop...do not apply for new credit cards. Focus on paying off your current debt and making better choices with your spending habits.

5. As a rule of thumb, you want to keep your credit card applications spaced about 3 months apart. You can go faster than this, but this is generally considered safe.

6. Try to time your credit card applications when you have a large purchase coming up. You do this to maximize the spend on the card during the first few months so that you can receive the welcome offer as the offer usually comes with a minimum amount of spend you must hit within a certain time period.

7. What is a charge card? A charge card is like a credit card in many ways with a few key differences. A charge card has no pre-set spending limit, and you must pay it off, in full, each month. There is no option to carry a balance and just pay interest.

8. Generally speaking, you don't want to cash out points for anything under 1 cent per point. Most programs have ways you can get at least 1 cent per point in value. If you are not into traveling, and just want a cash back setup, then focus on programs that allow you ways to cash out the points at at least 1 cent per point

9. You should definitely create a free account with each of the 3 major credit bureaus. This will allow you to keep track of your credit reports and scores, but more importantly, you can place freezes on your reports. I keep all mine frozen until I am about to apply for a card or something that would need to run my credit. Once done, I freeze them again. This can help prevent unauthorized accounts being opened in your name.

Capital One has some great cards, however, they are very peculiar in who they will approve. Data points show that they don't like to approve if you have very many recent credit inquiries.

1. You will not be approved for a Capital One card if you have previously been approved for a Capital One card in the past 6 months.

2. They also will pull all 3 credit bureaus when you apply for a card. Some can get away with freezing Experian, so that you only get pulls on your Trans Union and Equifax.

3. One rule you'll see mentioned fairly frequently is that Capital One will only approve you for 2 personal cards. This rule doesn't seem to be applied universally as there are plenty of people that have been approved for more than 2.

4. Capital One will also report some of their business cards to your personal credit profile, which is not the industry standard in most cases.

1. The biggest Chase rule you will need to know about is the 5/24 rule. This states that Chase will not approve you for any card (I'll touch on exceptions later) if you've been approved for 5 personal cards, from any issuer, within the last 24 months.

2. Exceptions to 5/24 are the Amazon card and potentially cards with limited time promotional offers.

3. Another limiting factor for Chase applications is that you will only be approved for a max of 2 Chase personal cards within a 30 day span.

4. Similarly, for Chase business cards, you will only be approved for 1 card in a 30 day span.

5. Chase used to allow you to receive the sign up bonus for a specific sapphire card once every 48 months, however this has changed as of July 2025, and now they have once in a lifetime language. We will have to wait and see what “lifetime” actually means. (American Express has lifetime language on many cards as well but datapoints show that “lifetime” means something like 7-10 years)

6. You can still get the welcome bonus on the Freedom cards more than once. These are available after just 24 months.

1. There is a 5 credit card limit. Notice this is a credit card limit. Charge cards like Green, Gold, and Platinum do not count towards this limit.

2. There is "family language" on some lines of credit cards. This means that if you get a card within a specific family of cards, then you can get the welcome bonus for that card only if you haven't received the welcome bonus for any higher tier cards in that family. For example, their charge cards state that you can go Green then Gold, then Platinum, and get all the bonuses. However, if you get the Gold first, you can't get the Green bonus. If you get the Platinum first, you can't get the Green nor the Gold bonus.

3. Cards also frequently have "life time language" for their bonuses. This means that once you get the bonus for a specific card, you can't cancel the card after a year and get the bonus again 3 year later. There are some data points that say this really isn't a "life time" ban on a second bonus, but more something like 7 years, but this is not confirmed by any means.

4. You can come across some offers that have no life time language. This means that you can get the bonus on that card again at a later date.

5. You can hunt for different offers on several cards. If you come across an offer that seems low, or just want to see what other offers are available, you can open a new browser window and try there, then try incognito mode on browsers. Just keep the highest offer window open, and cycle through to find the highest available.

6. When you have just the basic branded American Express cards, you are able to cash out your points for 0.6 cents per point, however, you could get the Morgan Stanley version of the platinum card and cash them out at 1 cent per point or get the Charles Schwab version of the platinum card and cash out at 1.1 cents per point.

7. Once you get your first Amex personal card, (in most cases) all subsequent card applications for both business and personal cards will result in only a soft pull. If you start with a business card, then (in most cases) all future business card applications will be a soft pull, but you will still get a hard pull once you get your first personal card.

8. You can typically only get approved to 2 credit cards within a 90 day period. This does not include charge cards.

9. You can typically only get approved for 1 credit card within a 5 day period. This does not include charge cards.

10. Pop up Jail: What is this? This is when you go to apply for an American Express card, and before your application is fully submitted, you get a popup that informs you that you are ineligible for the signup bonus, then asks if you'd like to continue without the bonus.

1. You do NOT have to have a registered LLC or anything official to obtain a business card. If you have a small side hustle, you can get a business card as a sole proprietor.

2. Typically, business cards do not report to your personal credit. You will get an inquiry for the application in most cases, but balances and such won't report to your personal credit unless you miss payments or have some other negative activity. (see entries on Amex hard pulls in the Amex guide and Capital One business cards in the C1 guide)

3. Business cards typically have higher signup bonuses, but also have higher minimum spend requirements to get those bonuses.

4. If the business card doesn't get reported to your personal credit, then it doesn't not affect your 5/24 status with Chase.

1. If you are more focused on cash back options, then you want to focus on cards that either earn cash back specifically, or cards that earn points that can be redeemed for cash back. Typically you don't want to cash out your points for less than 1 cent per point. So be sure the card you are getting has a way to do that.

2. In addition to just cashing out your points, different card issuers have different ways you can redeem your points for statement credits that would be worth more than cashing them out. For example, with certain chase cards, you can offset certain categories of purchases at 1.25 cents per point instead of the 1 cent per point you'd usually get.

3. For travel, you will likely be able to use the card issuers travel portal. The value of points in the travel portal varies by card and card issuer, but generally you'll get 1 cent per point.

4. Another way to use your points is to utilize transfer partners. Not every card issuer has transfer partners (ie Bank of America, US Bank), but many do (ie Citi, Chase, Amex, Capital One, Wells Fargo). Using transfer partners has the highest potential value for points, especially if you book luxury cabin flights. The way this works is that you can transfer your credit card points over to an airline or hotel. For example, you could transfer your Chase Ultimate Reward points over to Air Canada, and book an Air Canada flight with those points.

5. Diving deeper into the transfer partner program, you can actually book something like an American Airlines flight, using Chase points, by first transferring those points to British Airways. So although Chase doesn't have American Airlines as a transfer partner, you can still book flights by using what's call an airline alliance. There are multiple websites available where you can search for flights based on the points you have available and they will show you which transfer partner you can utilize and which alliance will allow you to book your specific flight. Doing this can net quite a bit of value for your points as it opens up many options.

1. You'll want to download the app for whatever issuer(s) are issuing your cards (Chase, C1, Amex, Citi, Wells Fargo etc)

2. Travel Freely - This app can help you keep track of your cards, signup bonuses, and your Chase 5/24 status in a clean UI

3. Experian - This app is free and will allow you to see your Experian Fico 8 credit score after creating your free account.

4. myFico - This app is free and will allow you to see your Equifax Fico 8 credit score after creating your free account.

5. CreditKarma - This app is free and will allow you to see your TransUnion and Equifax Vantage 3.0 credit score after creating your free account.