Stan The Credit Frog

Here, we take control of rewards through expert credit card strategies!

These videos provide actionable tips and tricks for maximizing rewards and outsized redemptions, helping you achieve your true potential with credit card rewards. From advanced credit card strategies to personalized credit card consultations for my viewers' credit card setups, my goal is to help you unlock your best credit card strategy and get the maximum value from your everyday spending.

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Stan The Credit Frog

🌟 Live Stream Announcement!! I'll be going LIVE with my good friend Joe on his channel ‪@Thecreditcardconnection‬ on Sunday, Sept 21st at 6:00pm PST!

We have a lot to discuss, especially the *NEW* Amex Platinum refresh, but if you have any specific questions for me or Joe, let me know down in the comments below! Looking forward to seeing you in the LIVE!

3 months ago | [YT] | 40

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Stan The Credit Frog

🌟 Live Stream Announcement!! I'll be returning for this SPECIAL EDITION Live Stream with my good friend Uncle Luke on his channel: ‪@LukesPointsandMiles‬ on Thursday, Sept 11th, at 3:30pm PST!

I know I've been away for a bit, and A LOT has changed with credit cards!! Drop your questions in the comments below, and Luke and I will provide TWO (very likely) different perspectives to help you navigate this new credit card world. Looking forward to seeing you all in the LIVE!

3 months ago | [YT] | 122

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Stan The Credit Frog

🚨 US BANK UPDATES. I received the following information by email this morning about my US Bank Altitude Reserve and US Bank Smartly cards. I've also received many DMs, comments, and emails about how this affects my personal credit card strategy, so I wanted to comment on that as well.

💎 US Bank Altitude Reserve Updates
[Image 1] The email details new benefits (not completely shown in this post), notably 10X points back on hotels and car rentals and 5X points back on flights booked via the Travel Center. They also confirm the ability to "transfer your Altitude Reserve points to other airline and hotel loyalty programs," although the specific transfer partners are not mentioned.

[Image 2] This shows the nerfs coming to the card on December 15th, 2025. As expected, there's a monthly cap on the mobile wallet category, the $325 annual dining/travel credit will now become a Travel Center credit, and travel redemptions will now be capped at 1cpp, which includes Real-Time Rewards. It seems to be implied that non-travel redemptions will be variable, but most likely LESS THAN 1cpp (it says "you'll get the most value when you redeem your points for travel"), but I'm sure none of you reading this post redeem your USBAR points for non-travel redemptions anways.

👉 My Take and Personal Plan for USBAR
This is a huge blow to the USBAR. While the 3X mobile wallet monthly category cap is reasonable, it's irrelevant because without the 1.5X boost to RTR, this card's appeal as a SINGLE BEST catch-all cash back credit card is effectively dead. There's still an opportunity for this card to be decent, depending on its transfer partners, but I agree with the assessment/prediction made by ‪@MattClausen‬ , and I expect the transfer partners to be similar to the ones offered by Wells Fargo.

As my USBAR is renewing in September, I plan to use the annual $325 travel and dining credit within that month and then PC/cancel within 30 days to recoup the $400 annual fee. I'll likely try to product change the card to an Altitude Connect, but if that's not possible, I'll cancel the card outright. RIP USBAR!! ☠️

🏴 US Bank Smartly Card Updates
[Image 3/4/5] For the US Bank Smartly card, I got the good letter 👍! My US Bank investment account can still be used for the asset requirement to qualify for the total 4% cash back on everything, with a cap of $10,000 each billing cycle. This is confirmed in the fine print that USBI accounts are included. As for the purchase restrictions, the only ones relevant to me are insurance and tax. Just as a DP, I wanted to leave my spending numbers on this card. Here's my monthly spending on the Smartly card for the first half of 2025:

Low: $1,200
Median: $3,400
Average: $3,300
High: $6,200

Given this trend, the spending cap won't likely affect my use of this card, although a lot of purchases on the USBAR will now go on this card instead, so we'll see if that holds true.

👉 My Take and Personal Plan for US Bank Smartly
This card will continue to be my catch-all credit card, earning 4% cash back on all purchases. Insurance/tax payments will be moved to my BofA UCR at 2.625% cash back. I'll continue to use my BofA CCRs, PayPal Debit cards, and Citi Custom Cash card to earn 5-5.25% cash back on select everyday categories. As for purchases abroad, my hope to use a combo of the US Bank Altitude Connect and BofA UCR. As my BofA UCR was a product change from the BofA PR Elite, my UCR terms did not report any FTFs so it should work, in theory, but I have yet to test that in the wild.

Anyways, those are my updates. I apologize for the length of this post. I did consider making a video, but I wouldn't have gotten around to it in a timely fashion, so I decided to make this post instead. I hope this helps those of you who, like me, had the USBAR and US Bank Smartly v1 cards, and are wondering what to do next for your own credit card setup!

Talk soon,
Stan TCF

5 months ago | [YT] | 187

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Stan The Credit Frog

🌟 My fellow credit card content creator ‪‪@TheRDGuarantee‬ ‬invited me and a few other creators to pick our DREAM WALLET setup from the chart below. We had "$12" to spend. What did I choose?? Find out in his video here: https://youtu.be/M6xMc5D8eJc?si=0Nsjl...