Your credit cards should
reward your life—
not rearrange it.
Firsthand analysis of premium cards, points, and perks, grounded in how people actually spend.
Worth your attention.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Amex Platinum: I Have Both — Here’s Which One I’d Keep
I pay $1,690 a year to keep both the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum, but I don’t use them the same way. The Sapphire Reserve is the premium card I actually want to spend on. The Platinum is the card I want to have for the benefits. Here’s why I still keep both — and which one I’d choose if I could only keep one.
Read analysisWhy My Amex Gold Is Basically Free
The Amex Gold costs $325 a year, but its dining, Uber, Resy and Dunkin’ credits can total more than the annual fee. That doesn’t automatically make the card free. For me, the reason it effectively is comes down to one thing: those credits replace spending I was already going to do.
Sep 6, 2026How I Use the Chase Sapphire Reserve $300 Dining Credit in San Francisco
The Sapphire Reserve’s $300 OpenTable credit is only valuable if it replaces dining I was already going to pay for. In San Francisco, that’s easier than it sounds. My strategy is simple: treat it as two $150 dinners a year, use it at restaurants I already want to visit, and never spend extra just to avoid “wasting” a credit.
Sep 6, 2026