One points blogger has laid out his entire credit card lineup: 26 open cards with a combined $7,979 in annual fees. The write-up, published on One Mile at a Time, is a rare transparent look at how a heavy-duty rewards traveller decides which cards to keep, which to cancel, and why the scary fee total matters less than it seems.
The portfolio leans on three issuers. Chase takes the top spot with nine cards, including both the personal and business versions of the Sapphire Reserve at $795 each, the Ink Business Preferred at $95, and four no-fee cards like the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited that mostly sit in a drawer. American Express follows with six cards: the Platinum and Gold for their credits and dining returns, the premium Hilton Aspire ($550) and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant ($650) hotel cards kept almost purely for free night certificates and status, plus a no-fee Blue Business Plus. Citi rounds things out with four cards, among them the new $595 Strata Elite and the $695 AAdvantage Executive, though the author admits he may trim this group soon.
The interesting part is the decision framework, not the card list. Every renewal comes down to three questions: did the welcome bonus justify signing up, does the spending return beat alternatives, and do the perks outweigh the fee? Cards like the Hyatt card ($95) survive because the anniversary free night alone covers the cost. The business Sapphire Reserve is likely heading for cancellation because it overlaps too much with the personal version. Premium cards with big fees are only worth holding if the credits and benefits actually get used, which is why he calculates value card by card each year.
He also pushes back on a common fear: that opening lots of cards wrecks your credit score. His score sits in the top couple of percent nationally despite 26 accounts. Payment history counts for 35% of a score and utilisation 30%, while new credit inquiries are just 10% and typically drop off reports after 24 months. Keep utilisation under roughly 20%, pay on time, and hang onto a few old no-fee cards, and frequent applications are far less damaging than most people assume.
Why should a casual traveller care? You don't need 26 cards to copy the logic. The useful takeaway is the annual audit: if a card's free night, credits or status don't clearly exceed its fee, downgrade or cancel rather than renew on autopilot. No-fee cards are usually worth keeping open for your credit age, and overlapping premium cards are the first thing to cut. It's points strategy for normal people, just demonstrated at an extreme scale.
