On the topic of keeping track - I have a spreadsheet (well I have about 40 spreadsheets, my wife's joke is I have one for everything) - but my one for tracking CCs has the following fields (Bold for ones I think are really important). (Also should note that I keep my list and my wife's list separate for tracking each of our 5/24 statuses, etc.)
1)
Issuer
2)
Card Name - Highlighted Green if a Biz card that does not affect 5/24 status
3) Last 4 Digits
4) AU - used this to track when we used to add spouse as AU on cards - no X's have appeared in this column lately
5)
Date Approved - the sheet is sorted by this column
6)
Date Cancelled - blank unless I cancelled the card
7)
Annual Fee
8) Annual Bonus - things like 6k SW points, free IHG night, etc.
9)
Signup Bonus - detail of the signup bonus I received on the card
10) Min Spend Amount
11)
Date Bonus Received - helpful with Chase where you're tracking 24 months to get the bonus again
12) Bonus Value - an approximation of what the signup bonus was worth
13) % Return - Bonus Value DIVIDED BY Min Spend - neat to see my return
14) Notes - misc notes not captured elsewhere
15) Ongoing Rewards - field where I capture any category bonuses (i.e. Grocery 3% or Gas 3%, or Freedom 5% quarterly)
When I cancel a card I highlight the whole row in a light red shade but don't move it or sort it differently. By counting backwards I can quickly determine how many cards I or my wife has been approved for in the past 6 months, year, 24 months, etc.
I have all of this information stored for all 62 cards we've applied for in this game. It's nice for informational purposes. For those tracking by hand...I'd consider moving to a spreadsheet at some point, especially if you're gonna get serious about the game. It will eventually become hard to keep writing it all down.
