I'm several years into a couple of businesses and have had credit cards all my life but never optimized. My spend/credit is high enough that I should, and I haven't applied for a new credit card in years. I've done a full day of research and now have a bunch of questions and thought I'd ask for advice.

Some general background and questions. I also answered the general questions suggested in the 'ReadMe' at the end of the post:

• I spend a large amount on CCs; hundreds of $K.
• I prefer cash back generally if it's a good rate and don't care about southwest. It seems like I can optimize for about 5% cash back.
• Are there any super-good offers going on now or expected in the near future given decrease spend from many due to COVID?
• I don't care much about annual fees, just want the best card.
• If what I should be doing is signing up for the 5/24, do people generally agree with Kevlarlover's flowchart? https://kevlarlover.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Card Recommendation Flowchart v15.html
• I have excellent longevity with cards and basically never cancel them bc I don't know about churning. Should I wait to cancel until after applying for the next 5? I am also considering converting/upgrading cards though I know this means I don't get the sign-up bonus so will need to understand the trade-offs there.

more random/less important questions:

• I see Ink Business Preferred has a limit on points of $150k/yr, what do you recommend for people who spend more?

• I have the Chase Inks for the 2 businesses that don't have the annual fees, but want to upgrade to Chase Ink Preferreds, but I understand it's not best to do a product change and just to get two Inks?

• how does Chase implement the 25% bonus for travel booked on their site for Ink Preferred, vs 50% bonus for CSR? Don't all my Chase Rewards points go into the same account?

General questions answered below:

Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date)

My Cards - all opened years ago, limits are between $2k-$20K: AmEx Bonvoy (for both businesses, not personal) Bank of America Cash Rewards Signature Visa Citi Diamond Preferred Chase Slate Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (personal and one business. The other businesses was cancelled a year ago for lack of activity) Chase Ink Business Unlimited - for both businesses. Thinking of additionally getting the Ink Preferred as a next step as the flowchart recommended it Chase IHG - I'm an authorized user on this from a business partner Capital One World Mastercard USAA - forget the name but a general one that gives cash back of about 1.25% I have some other airline CCs like SouthWest, AA, Delta, but don't really feel a need to optimize these, and don't care about the SW buddy pass. (have an alaska one from that CC that I don't use for example)

FICO Score: About 800

Oldest account age: 20 years

Chase 5/24 status: no applications in the last 24 months.

Income: in the hundreds of K/yr

Average monthly spend and categories:

dining $500/mth

groceries: $500/mth

gas: $300/mth

travel: $500/mth

Amazon: $500/mth (note, on web services it's about $10K/month)

other: other spending includes student loans, rent, utilities (rent is via check, other things are maybe $600/mth)

Business spend - Linkedin, Rackspace, bing, facebook, etc - tens of $k/mth

Open to Business Cards: yes

What's the purpose of your next card? Start optimizing my spend onto the best card(s), get the max benefit possible. I'm open to cash back or points, or splitting it up. I'm not a big spender on myself so I lean towards cash back I guess but seems like you can get that with points cards too.

Do you have any cards you've been looking at? My current thought is to get a few AmEx Gold's for 4x points on the top 2 categories, then the Schwab for 1.25x into cash for 5% cash back. Also want to get a non-Amex, whatever's best, maybe Ink Preferred, CSR (should I really also get CSR and CSP?).

Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card? Fine with whatever.

As another poster who sought advice said, please feel free to completely rip into my credit card options/offer any advice. I definitely should have optimized and sought advice starting about a decade ago.