I've been with the Amex Membership Rewards card for years. It has a hefty annual fee of $125. but allowed for additional cards for family and friends at no extra cost. Amex used to have many promotions where you could earn double and sometimes even triple miles on all purchases made during a designated month or 6 week period. That's when all our maintenance fees got paid, even if they weren't due for months.
The Points can be transferred into many of the frequent flyer programs of the major airlines. They can also be converted to cash to pay off charges in your Amex bill, but at the rate of only $1.00 for every 20 points. After studying the Amex web site and the annual rewards catalogue, I discovered that you can now cash them out 1.00 for every 10 points when ordering Home Depot gift cards. So I liquidated a huge number of points to upgrade our kitchen and laundry appliances.
Then I began looking for a card with similar benefits that does not charge an annual membership fee.
After much searching, the best deal I found is the Chase Freedom Plus Master Card. I think they are trying to keep it a secret. Even when you know exactly what you are looking for, it's almost impossible to find info about it on their web site. When I called to get more info, the Customer Service Rep said that she had never heard of it, and she couldn't find it in her system. I had to get with a supervisor and he clearly didn't know much about it either.
The annual fee of $30. is waived for the first year. It's free thereafter if you have a checking account with Chase Bank. Single Points are earned on every purchase. There are 15 categories of purchases where you can earn triple points each month; you receive them for each of 6 of those categories where you spend the most money each month. One category is cell phone service, so I set it up with Verizon to take the payment directly from the credit card each month. Ditto our electric bill and cable service and oil bills. Other categories include purchases at fast food restaurants, movie theatres, video rental, all items purchased in drug stores e.g. Walgreen's, CVS and a few other Categories that I can't recall at the moment.
The Points can be used for the usual type of merchandise found in on-line and printed catalogues, including gas cards and a variety of gift cards. But they can also be "cashed out" by phone or online and will appear right away to offset some or all of the payment due on the current bill.
And if you accumulate 20,000 Points, you receive a $50. bonus in addition to the $200. value of 20,000 points. Each statement shows how many points were earned that month, how many you have altogether, and how much you can cash them out for at the present time. It's been adding up pretty fast with all the utility bills, etc... now being paid that way instead of through my on-line banking account.
This is the best deal I found after months of searching. But I can't rule out that a TUGger may know of a better deal. I think many of us are descendants of "hunters." We no longer have to stalk and catch our food so we have transferred the skills into finding all kinds of bargains.
My 25 year old Amex account will be dumped when it comes up for renewal.