How to Climb the US Bank Credit Card Tiers

So when it comes to credit cards there are a ton of different directions you can go chase Amex Capital One and even more but what usually happens though is people and even myself included end up getting all the credit cards with those different issuers but Overlook some of what I consider to be the best sleepers within the game so believe it or not U. S bank has some of the best products within the game and guys no talking about my credit card tier list and in that I talked about why U.S Bank was good and it turns out a lot of you guys didn't even know about them either upon further research it turns out not a lot of people have ever even made talking about the US Bank credit cards is going to be probably one of the most educational ones for anyone who doesn't know much about us paying credit cards.

We're going to go over the pros and the cons the best strategies to follow as well as how to maximize your chances of getting approved and on top of that which one of their credit cards you should actually apply for so let's start out with what actually got me excited about U.S Bank in the first place so one of the first things you'll notice about them is that they have really good reward rates with their cards let's take for an example the altitude go card where you can get 4X and they call this Flex perks points back on dining takeout and restaurant delivery you got 2x back on groceries streaming services gas and EV charging and then 1X back on everything else on top of a welcome bonus and other benefits if we compare that card to the American Express Gold Card which I consider to be still one of my top three credit cards for the last.

Four or five years you'll see that they have some pretty similar benefits but with that the American Express gold card is what I consider to be a higher mid-tier card or this card with U.S Bank is an entry-level no annual fee card so yeah you're getting similar benefits to a product that you would have paid 250 a year to hold all for zero dollars now one thing to note about American Express is that their membership Reward Points gives you flexibility in transferring it to get even higher value but with I'm sure what you guys have heard for the first time Flex perks are these even worth anything well you'd be surprised with the proper right Redemption you can get up to 1.7 cents or even more for the points that you earn which is still very competitive to what you get with Chase Ultimate reward points or even American Express membership points what I really like about the U.S Bank ecosystem is the fact that they also allow you to Target a lot of different spending categories pretty much if you're able to get the Arsenal of different products that they have you can hit a wide variety or just think of like you know instead of a little sniper you got just a big shotgun or even just a big fishing net all right maybe that's a better example you got a big fishing net to hit a lot of different spending categories where they all work in conjunction with one another because they are within the same bank as a further example look at the Shopper cash Rewards Card which gets you six percent cash back on the first fifteen hundred dollars each quarter with two retailers of choice you also get three percent cash back on the first fifteen hundred dollars each quarter in one everyday category of your choice as as well as 1.

Cashback on everything else now in a card where you're earning six percent cash back on or a card where you're able to choose or you're getting three percent cash back on you'd think you'd have to at least pay like a 95 annual fee but that again comes at you with no annual fee at all when I'd compare this to is a card like the Capital One saver one card or even the Chase Freedom Flex because those cards really are great but the cashback you earn is still limited to just a few categories with a US Bank Shopper cash rewards card what I really like about it is just the fact that you can customize it to fill out the categories of how you spend at your money even with all that we still haven't even talked about a US bank card with an annual fee and that's because their comparable cards are still way cheaper than a lot of the other competitors so we already talked about the AmEx gold the 250 annual fee compared to the zero dollar annual fee to the U.S Bank altitude go card but there are some other products so the U.S Bank altitude Reserve is their Elite tier offering pretty comparable to the Chase Sapphire reserve the AmEx platinum or even the Capital One Venture X card now while all of these Elite Tier credit cards with some of these other issuers are still rather High the altitude Reserve comes at a whopping just 400 a year and look guys I know that annual fees are also a big barrier for a lot of people with higher Tier credit cards so being able to save even just a little bit of that every single year could still be a great option for a lot of people now guys I like to keep it real on this channel although there are a lot of great points that we're going to go over even further with U.S Bank there are still a few things on why they're not the absolute best within the industry now. 

I wouldn't necessarily call these cons or complete downsides it's just how this Bank tends to operate and things that you should know about so first of all U.S Bank is a very conservative lender they're modeling for how much credit they give you relies on the amount of rotating credit that you have with them already and how you decide to spend it so basically it just means that they tend to be pretty picky about giving out their money and ideally you'll want to have a relationship already established with them and order to get approved easier for some of their cards now you might be wondering well Brian how do I establish a relationship if I don't have any cards with them in the first place and this is where one of their branches might come in handy well first of all they have a lot of branches if they don't have any branches in your local area you can just go ahead and sign up for a free banking product show them that you are a responsible lender and over time this can definitely boost your odds in getting a credit card eventually down the road one of the best tips and tricks that you can master in order to get good relationships with some of the banks is to start out just with one of their beginner products that cost you no money to hold sign up for it get a checking account leave that account funded and then over time apply for one of their beginner credit cards and then move up the ladder this is exactly what I've done with an issuer like JPMorgan Chase where first I got the Chase Freedom unlimited card then I got the Chase Freedom Card and then this was before the Chase Freedom Flex I eventually got that credit card down the road I had open a bank account I then got their Platinum business checking.

Account then once I started making some money I got their private client bank account and then from there they all offered me a quarter million dollar line of credit that I can use for my business at any point at any time and then on top of that they've also offered me a lot of things like wealth advisory one of their big boy bank managers also you know has constantly been in contact with me over the past few years and getting me to go out to their DC location and even more now in order for me to get to the point  where I'm at now Private Client bank accounts I have my own advisors and if I ever need a customer support rep I don't actually have to go through the customer support line I have a person who's the manager of the customer reps that I can call directly this all started for me building up my relationship showing them that I am a worthy customer and then over time they just reached out to me with some of these offers that allowed me to get higher tier status with them now more specifically with U.S Bank.

I would also reframe it in a different way don't think of them as a conservative lender but just think about them as a bank that wants to reduce the amount of risk that they would have involved if you came on so whether it's funding an account or proving what's on your application these small things can help them realize that you're not a high risk borrower and you should also be increasing your chances of getting approved for any one of their products even more importantly than that we talk a lot about how you can get approved for  any credit card and the way you can do this is by working against the algorithm and working with a real human and this is through the reconsideration line to plead your case in the case that you ever do get denied aside from that U.S Bank also tends to give out lower credit limits especially on a lot of their beginner cards this ties in with what I mentioned earlier with them being a conservative lender because they first want to monitor how you use their credit if you're able to pay it back before then extending you even larger limits down the road on the other hand of that here's what's crazy someone got approved for only a 500 credit limit despite having much higher limits on other cards so what they did was call the reconsideration line and they were told to apply for a credit limit increase and when they did that they got approved for a limit of ten thousand dollars so the whole point to make is even if you get approved if you get a really tiny credit limit don't think that is one and done you can always use a reconsideration line you can always request a credit limit increase it's one of the techniques that we talk about a lot on this channel in order for you guys to improve your credit score and maximize your credit cards and U.S Bank seems to be pretty friendly if you are able to do that so never be afraid to call some of these Banks it doesn't matter if it's with U.S bank or any other issuer go ahead and try because the worst that can happen is for them to say no now out of all those things that I mentioned about U.S Bank the one and only thing that I have a critique on is the fact that their Flex perks actually don't have any Transfer Partners now although you can't transfer it out on the positive note their points allows you to get better Redemption rates through their own travel portal where I've seen 1.

Cents per point being a common Redemption so basically what this means is also if you aren't too big into traveling this card actually might not even be terrible because if you like to focus on like cash back or just getting easy qualified redemptions using their portal is simple it's straightforward and you could do it alright so in this point let's go over their star order credit cards working our way up to some of their best credit cards and the sequence of how I would apply for them so first of all you have the alt to go secured credit card which has a credit limit between 300 and 5 000 with this card you'll get 4X Flex per points back on dining takeout and restaurant delivery you get 3x points at grocery stores and grocery delivery services streaming services gas stations EV charging and then you also get a 15 annual credit on streaming services like Netflix and Spotify on top of that there's also a Cash Plus secured Visa credit card that they offer where you get five percent cash back on up to two thousand dollars quarterly in two categories of your choice which is really nice flexibility Freedom America U.S Bank you also got two percent cash back on one category of your choice and one percent cash back on all other eligible purchases so with these secure credit cards as most guys should know secure credit cards are meant for absolute beginners people who may have no credit score or they have really shot up credit and with not the best credit score you're actually getting a ton of benefit it's because if you look at the traditional secured credit cards.

What they offer it is nothing compared to what you'd be getting with some of the U.S Bank's products before I'd always mention a different product for having a good starter secured card but after doing a bit more research on U.S Bank I realized that this might be even the best secured credit card to exist out on the market the thing with secure credit cards is that you need to put a deposit down on that card in order to use it but eventually it can turn into an unsecured card which is then just regular credit card hi Astro why are you here oh you're here to give the audience a reminder by the way if you guys ever want to check out any one of these cards you can support this Channel at no cost to you this helps our team our editors helps us as a company at no cost to you check out the links Down Below in the description if you want to learn more about some of the US Bank credit cards or if you ever decide to apply for a credit card you want to support the channel for whatever reason first of all just make sure you have the best offer possible and if a friend has a referral link use their code that is always going to help them too but anytime you use those links it definitely supports us as well now moving forward we have a few other cards we need to mention so altitude go Visa card and then the Cash Plus card both of these cards offer really good benefits but the points can also be redeemed for travel so if that's something you value I'd recommend starting with the altitude line up here will the altitude go Visa card you'll get 4X Flex Points back on dining take on restaurant delivery you get 3x points on grocery stores grocery delivery streaming services gas stations EV charging 1X back on everything else you also get the 15 annual credit so this is the unsecured version and unlike that product though you also get a welcome bonus offer of 20 000 points after spending a thousand dollars in the first 90 months and on top of that you get a zero percent APR offer on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months too the Cash Plus Card pretty much has all the benefits that we talked about the secured version we also have it on the screen here where you can see it where you can also get a 200 welcome bonus after you spend a thousand dollars in the first three months this card also has a welcome bonus offer of 200 if you spend thousand dollars in the first four months and you can also get an even longer zero percent APR period with this card at 15 months no annual fee Point flexibility and a pretty solid issuer I don't think you can go wrong with even considering these to be a new set of beginner starter cards to get started with now the next tier of cards we have we have three different options for you to choose from this is the collection of mid-tier cards so first of all you have the Shopper cash Rewards Card which offers six percent cash back on up to fifteen hundred dollars quarterly at two retailers of your choice you get three percent cash back on up to fifteen hundred dollars in one category of your choice in the 1.

Percent cash back on everything else and this card also has a welcome bonus offer of 250 after you spend two grand in the first 120 days or about four months this card also gives you no annual fee for the first year but after that you then pay a 95 annual fee now this card is pretty unique in my opinion where I think it competes as one of the best catch-all credit cards especially if you tend to shop at the same a place the other thing to be mindful of is that you have to pre-select your category and stores before the quarter starts so that you don't miss out on the rewards up next is the U.S Bank Flex perks gold AMEX card whoa whoa whoa whoa that's cool this might actually be a little bit of a surprise to you and yes credit card issuers sometimes they work together so it's like Amex and U.S Bank they just came together and they had a baby this is because you can find this product on American Express's website and it's actually pretty incredible with some of the benefits they offer you get 5x on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly through the flex first Reward Center you get 3x on dining and takeout Services you get 2x on Airlines and gas stations on top of that you get 30 000 Flex Points as a welcome bonus offer after spending two grand within four months of account opening now these rewards are comparably very similar to the altitude go card but the 2x back on airlines is where you're gonna find a bit more utility and as an additional offering last but not least they have the altitude connect a Visa card which is one where you get the same 5x on

Prepaid hotels and rental cars you get Forex points on travel gas station EV charging get 2x points on grocery stores grocery delivery dining and then 1X back on everything else instead of a 15 annual streaming credit on top of that you'll get a 30 credit for annual streaming service purchases very similar to what we mentioned but what I love about this card is that you get a pretty strong welcome bonus offer it's going to be more than double of what we mentioned before where you get 50 000 bonus points after spending the same amount two thousand dollars in the first 120 days on top of that with this card you get airport lounge access you got TSA pre-checker global entry and a hundred dollar saving credits reimbursement for that you get cell phone protection up to six hundred dollars if you guys have been following Along on my credit card content for the last few years you'll know that that has come in handy for me I think I've cracked my iPhone twice I don't know how it always happens but every time I do I pretty much get it replaced completely for free with my credit cards after paying that deductible now this credit card sounds any similar to the one we mentioned it's because they are but in this instance you're actually getting Forex on travel which is a lot better than the 2x you would have seen now with those few credit cards because of all the great benefits you're getting from the travel protection and the cell phone protection it seems like it's an elite tier card but it's not you actually have even more.

Ultra bougie a lead to your credit card which is their final product which I would say is like their boss you know Super Saiyan blue product which is the altitude Reserve card all right so guys this card is insane and I don't say that or toss that around Loosely for no reason let me tell you why so you get five x points on hotels and rental cars booked through the flex perks portal it's not bad but you get 3x back on travel but your US bank card to Apple pay or apple wallet whatever you want to call it or Android Google pay and you use that when you go shopping you're going to be getting 3x back on your purchase I thought this was crazy so I had to verify this information over on Reddit and yes this is true as long long as you used your phone to pay it's gonna code AS 3x so think about all the times where you shop at Dick's Sporting Goods Lululemon like all these retail stores that actually don't give you a multiplier back you're getting 3x that's crazy that is huge that is probably one of the most slept on categories that you can get look I I don't know about you guys but nowadays I tend to use my Apple pay for like nearly everything and I rarely carry my wallet around me unless I need to so I just think that's such a great benefit right there on top of that you're getting pretty solid welcome bonus offer 50 000 points after you spend 4 500 within the first 90 days or about 1500 a month for the first three months if you want to break it up.

How much you have to spend you got to spend a decent amount for this and instead of four months you got three months but fifty thousand points is still rather easy for most people to get if you're spending fifteen hundred dollars a month most people are able to spend that much in groceries or even just like a single rent payment goes out if you know how to use the credit cards properly you would be able to maximize that now the only downside with this card and something you should probably know by now because we talked about it annual fee annual fee is huge it's a lot but when you look at the 3x back on mobile wallet purchases you look at the welcome bonus offer and you look at the variety of different travel protection and perks you get I believe clearly the value in this card is there combine that with the fact that if you're able to get even a one to one point five cent Redemption you'd be getting not just three percent back on every purchase you make with your Apple pay you'd be getting up to 4.5 percent back on every single purchase all right so Elite tier cards we're done that's all they have to offer wrong because they actually have a bunch of great business credit cards too to complete their Suite of products so they got three you're on your way of collecting those welcome bonus offers don't sleep on their products here first they have the triple cash business rewards card.

It's a simple clean easy to use card you get three percent cash back at gas station charging stations you get 3x back on office supply stores you get cell phone service providers and restaurants to get you three percent back and on top of that you get a 100 monthly credit on software subscriptions like QuickBooks and they'll offer you a 500 welcome bonus after you spend four thousand five hundred dollars in 150 days by the way that comes at you with no annual fee so you know if you're able to just score the 500 welcome bonus offer that's 500 you put back into your pocket and this card won't ever cost you a single penny to hold assuming you never pay interest but I assume that all of you guys already know that never get into credit cards if you're going to carry credit card debt I'ma always mention that on top of that they have the business leverage credit card which gives you a two percent cash back in your top two spending categories automatically on top of that you'll get 750 in rewards after you spend seven thousand five hundred dollars in the first 120 days and this one will come with an annual fee of 95 which is actually waived in that first year if you are a busy bee a busy business traveler get the US Bank Business altitude connect card because this is going to give you 5x points on prepaid hotels and cars booked directly within their rewards portal you get 4X points on travel including airfare hotel gas EV charging stations on up to a hundred fifty thousand dollars in Combined annual spend and then you get.

Two x points on dining takeout restaurant delivery services and cell phone services what I like about this card is that they also give you a 25 statement credit on ride shares within two billing cycles and not to mention you also get 60 000 bonus points after you spend six grand in the first 180 days or about six months of holding this card so this card here is going to give you the highest welcome bonus to offer out of all the products that they have and I believe for good reason too I mean it's their Flagship business High tier Elite card and if you have a lot of business credit cards you've maxed out all those points you're at the end game of the credit card life cycle I don't see why not why you wouldn't get one of these cards and then consider downgrading it later on now that card I mentioned has an annual fee of just 95.

Every single year and it also gets waived within that first year by the way if you have never heard about business credit cards you think you can't qualify for one you'd be surprised I've helped hundreds of thousands of people get approved for business credit cards to completely change their life all for free okay I'm not selling y'all some you credit cards and the only thing I ask for you to do is to share it with a friend if it found you value if you can drop a like on it and also when you apply for those business credit cards check out the link Down Below in the description before applying because that supports this channel significantly and that's what allows me to make this content all for free for you guys so now that we've covered all of these card products and what makes these cards unique what strategies should you use to maximize all of the benefits should you just apply for the secured all the way to that business eventually down the road or you know is there a certain way that you want to approach this well let's go over it here so when it comes to U.S Bank products there are two paths that you want to choose the path to the travel Level side and the path to the cashback side the most important thing is to figure out your own priorities do you want to travel in the next one to two years or maybe even five years or are you someone who just likes sticking in your local area ain't nothing wrong.

With that sometimes I'm in a homebody mood too and you don't want to travel at all regardless of what you choose and maybe you don't even choose and you want to go for both here's what I'd recommend first of all start with the travel path first you can get the alt 2 GO card and start earning Points Plus that welcome bonus offer after that you'll want to wait a minimum of two to three months before applying for the next card and when you do you might even see a credit limit increase if it hasn't happened already and you'll also have a better chance of getting approved for other products down the road now after you pick up your next set of cards you always want to wait you know a couple months to make sure you don't apply too frequently and too often and that you're at least hitting those welcome bonuses like I said after that you can find yourself getting the altitude Reserve card which is the elite Tier credit card in the meantime during that whole process once you've gotten yourself set up with a business in there there you can also get yourself the business altitude connect card and then even look towards some of the other products as a downgrade path or even applying for those to get additional welcome bonuses too once you add up all the welcome bonus offers from those cards you're already at 210 000 Flex Points which is worth well over three thousand dollars minimum not to mention that you'll also be earning at least 3x on nearly every single spending category underneath the sun especially mixed with that 3x on digital wallet purchases from the altitude. 

Reserve card now if you wait the recommended three to six months between cards this pathway will take you about two years to get all five of these cards but you could apply for it you know every two months and you could reduce that timeline down to about 12 months now say the travel World ain't for you well you could also go the cash back path and with this you'd first want to start out with the Cash Plus Card remember this card here is the one that most amount of people saying got really low limits for so be prepared to call the reconsideration line and prove your income and ID to get a higher credit limit from there you want to wait a few months and then eventually get the Shopper cash rewards card now this path will depend a bit more heavily on whether or not you decide to get those business credit cards earlier on but in the case that you don't you can also get the triple cash rewards card and then wait two three months and then leverage the business credit cards of the U.S Bank lineup now the path that I'm just mentioned has less value in the welcome bonuses only adding up to about Seventeen hundred dollars but where it shines is in its flexibility this is because not only can that cashback be used for pretty much anything you want but you can also customize your earning categories on nearly every single one of those cards that I mentioned alright so at this point you should know pretty well on how U. S Bank operates you know what credit cards align with you the best or even like some of the special perks that you may not have heard about before but I want to leave you with five important things to remember if you do decide to pick any one of these cards up what are those benefits after you want to tell them so first make sure that you're able to use those Flex Points or you at least have a purpose for it Flex Points are pretty easy to redeem and they can get you really good rates on travel as well as other merchandise and gift cards now not many Bank points.

Actually worth 1.5 cents through their own portal so I'd be sure to use these especially for hotels and rental cars where other cards have Transfer Partners that dilute the value in those areas now the next thing is don't be afraid to use that reconsideration line you know if you don't get approved if your credit limit is not that high you can always call the number and get additional help another tip is don't apply for a credit limit increase if you're looking to apply for a new card right away because of the way U.S Bank operates looking at your revolving credit it might come up at a red flag or they might even reduce your overall credit limit on the next card that you apply for if you decide to go that route it's also worth noting that they might be less likely to approve you for a new card if you do get an approved credit limit increase so instead what I would do is wait a few months prove that you won't spend 100 of your limit and pay off your balances on time in full and then naturally over time these Banks and issuers will give.

You a credit limit increases automatically without you having to do anything just remember about what we talked about earlier this bank really relies on trust coming from their users and their consumers and if you're able to reduce that risk and help them trust you even more you'll make this process a lot more easier another thing to note is that these cards aren't meant for subprime borrowers so if you have bad credit or you have really low experience with credit cards U.S bank because they're conservative they may not approve you so I highly recommend that you guys have a score of at least 680 and definitely above 700 if you want to improve your chances of getting approved if you need to start with Capital One and Amex who are more friendly to people with less credit history there's nothing wrong with that start with them first work your way up with the issuers and then eventually look towards US Bank last and final tip keep your utilization low I mean what I always do is set up my payments to be on auto pay but if for whatever reason you're trying to take advantage of the zero percent interest offer you can make sure that you at least keep your utilization under 30 of your total credit limit. 

Now ladies and gents those are going to be the five main tips you want to stick with and you may also discover that U.S Bank is pretty amazing if you're able to stick with those tips maximize the benefits that we talked about and follow along on the Journey of different card products that they offer now if you guys need any help with your credit cards be sure to join our credit card Facebook group down below it's called the credit Society in there we're also starting a new company where you can get linked up with a credit card Matchmaker so if you don't know how to apply for credit cards if you don't know the pathway on which credit cards you should go for we're going to be helping you out it's a free consultation on top of that you're also going to get added to our newsletter where you're going to get daily credit card tips and tricks and anytime we have huge offers you guys are going to get notified of that as well be sure to follow me on Twitter and on Instagram and by the way guys I'm also going to be speaking at a little conference so one of my boys Ricky Zhang is doing a whole conference on travel hacking things about credit cards Point redemptions I'm gonna be speaking there if you guys want to check out the link for that down below in the description.