Rewards Credit Cards

[clifffaith]

What do you consider the best rewards credit cards to use?

Back in 2002 when we bought our first timeshare we moved as many of my business expenses as we could (and by now 80%+ of my vendors accept credit cards) to our AAdvantage mastercard. We are now semi-retired so we don't rack up the American Airlines miles as quickly as we used to, but we also have our personal mastercard with AAdvantage. And we use Amex when we can as well because they give us more than one mile per dollar spent and they allow the points to be used for other airlines, although we almost always fly American. I use my Amazon m/c when buying books on Amazon and I love having a little pot of Amazon money to use as credit towards my purchases.

Just wondering if the various cash back cards, which I think mostly return 1%, are more popular than miles cards, and what the better value might be. I know we rarely pay for air fare (this year to Hawaii in coach and New York in Business from LAX for "free"), so for us it feels like the miles would continue be the best rewards.

 

[derb]

Check out thepointsguy.com

 

[am1]

In normal spending United Club Card.

 

[VegasBella]

I have a preference for the cashback cards because it's simple to understand and use and you reap the rewards quickly and you never lose out on the rewards.

I have these. If you want a referral just PM me
- Amex Blue Cash Preferred because it gives 6% cashback on groceries
- Citibank something or other that gives 2% on everything
- Chase Freedom that gives 5% on rotating categories

I also have quite a few other cards for various purposes including a couple airline cards to earn miles. But in general those are not as good as they used to be. If you don't plan on really getting into the credit card thing and churning and/or you don't fly often (I don't - it's bad for the environment so I try to only fly once a year or less) then it's not really worth it to get those airline cards. But the way to do those is to find the airlines you'd want to fly and get those special bonus offers they have - do the min spend on those cards, use the rewards, then shut down the card so you don't get hit with an annual fee. Then do it again with a different airline/bank...

This website is good IMO for giving valuable advice:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/

All that said, do not play with credit cards unless you can pay them off every single time. It's not worth it if you carry a balance.

 

[newportbeach]

Look into the new Visa at costco, 4,3,2 % back. How can you beat that?
Silly question, lets see how many people disagree with me or simply don't belong to Costco. Ok, Citi Bank cash card at 2% is not bad. Both deals do not involve
revolving quarterly categories or points that you may not ever use. I recall Mercedes Benz offers points as credits toward a new car, but what if I later decide not to buy a MBZ or fly American. I like cash back.

 

[artringwald]

We use Fidelity's Amex card because it always pays 2%, and the rebates are automatically deposited directly into our checking account. When some places won't take Amex, we use the Citibank Double Cash Card, which also pays 2%, but requires logging into the web site to select a rebate credit toward the account. We still have airline loyalty cards, but mostly because of the bonus miles we got for signing up, or for the free luggage bonus for card holders.

 

[artringwald]

Look into the new Visa at costco, 4,3,2 % back. How can you beat that?
Silly question, lets see how many people disagree with me or simply don't belong to Costco. Ok, Citi Bank cash card at 2% is not bad. Both deals do not involve
revolving quarterly categories or points that you may not ever use. I recall Mercedes Benz offers points as credits toward a new car, but what if I later decide not to buy a MBZ or fly American. I like cash back.

Here's the rebates for the new Costco Anywhere Visa Card:

4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide, including gas at Costco, for the first $7,000 per year and then 1% thereafter
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases

The key is 1% cash back on all other purchases. 3% for travel sounds good though.

 

[#1 Cowboys Fan]

- Amex Blue Cash Preferred because it gives 6% cashback on groceries

I have this card, which is $75/year.

I save over $350 on groceries, and with 3% savings on gas----that's a lot, too.

Pat

 

[Talent312]

We have a Capitol One Venture which offers a 2% credit against any travel expense.
We use an Am-Ex Hilton card as a back-up and for anything Hilton-related.
.

 

[BobDE]

We have an AARP Chase Freedom card that pays 3% on restaurants and gas. We use Capital One to pay the monthly bills and it pays 1.5 %. Also have a Chase Freedom card that rotates on 5%. No Costco here, but we have BJ's which gets us 4% in club and an extra 10 cents off a gallon of gas.

 

[WinniWoman]

I personally prefer AMEX Blue Cash. It has a yearly $75 fee but you get 6% on groceries and 3% on gas - our 2 biggest expenses. Then, 1% on everything else.

Also have a Discover More that has various categories of 5% cash back each quarter. And we also Have a Citicard global/world Mastercard that also alternates categories each month for 5% cash back.

We use a few other cards for other reasons. For example our St. Andrews credit union Visa and Capital One Mastercard have no foreign exchange fees. My LL Bean Visa has free returns.

I don't bother with mileage or points type cards. I hate points for anything- I like straight out cash (Discover will put the money right into your checking account electronically if you prefer.) or credit my statement (as AMEX does it). Citicard will send you a check if you want instead of using the money for their shopping site. And- we don't fly enough- because I hate that, too- to make mileage cards worth it.

 

[Kal]

For me, it's the value of $ per mile vs $ per expenditure. If the airline ticket is spendy, the mileage reward most often is far better than the $ rebate. Then too, you have to accumulate miles on a card that covers your customary airline usage.

Right now the new Costco Visa seems to look very attractive. I just cancelled an annual fee card so am on the hunt for another new card with a great signup bonus and no fee the first year.

 

[Ken555]

A year or two ago I was going to get a 2% cash back card to supplement my AMEX Starwood cards (which were the best benefit per $ spent, in my opinion). Instead of a cash back card I got the Barclaycard Arrival Plus (https://home.barclaycardus.com/cards/barclaycard-arrival-plus-world-elite-mastercard.html). This card includes 2% on all transactions toward travel expenses, plus 5% of the amount redeemed as a bonus on every redemption. It has to be among the easiest cards I've ever used for redemption, since I just login, look at the charges it classified as travel (which can be taxi, plane, hotel, etc) and apply it. If you travel even a modest amount, this is worth considering.

Any card that only offers 1% benefit (in the form of cash, points, etc) is significantly too little to consider, in my opinion.

My current cards are: Barclaycard Arrival Plus (2%), AMEX Blue (for groceries as stated by others...which I forgot about until last year, I've had the card forever but didn't use it again until recently), AMEX SPG (not using as much since Marriott merger announcement), Club Carlson Visa (for hotel points, expected value 2.5-3.5%), and others I don't use as often.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Kal]

I have the Barclay Arrival Plus card and consider it as vital for foreign travel as it is the only chip & pin card available in the US. It's so annoying that all of the chip cards claim to be chip & pin, but they are just chip & signature. The pin feature allows for unattended purchases which is vital.

The Barclay cash redemption is a bit frustrating as purchases expire after 120 days. Further, when you do claim the cash they credit you 10% more. Very interesting business strategy as points continue to survive!

 

[clifffaith]

OP here. Part of the reason I posted the question about rewards cards is that we just tried to redeem DRI Barclay card credits. This is the first 1% cash back card that we have. Sat in a sales presentation over the weekend and they were touting the use of the card to "drastically" reduce maintenance fees, so we decided to look more closely at the most recent statement from our card which is between 12-18 months old.

First the Barclay rep tried to direct me to where I could buy stuff using my points. I don't want to buy stuff, I want to offset costs. Then it turned out that only purchases made from DRI can be offset -- maintenance fees, on site resort purchases, and presumably cruise travel, etc. booked through DRI. Cliff has only been using the card to segregate some business expenses, however we've just been to Kaanapali and had used it there. So the approx. 7,000 points we'd accumulated could be turned into $50 to offset that Kaanapali charge. It would have expired in 92 more days if I hadn't called yesterday to do a little research. Certainly not worth it to us but still convenient to use for business expenses where they won't take his Amex card, and next year at Kaanapali we'll pay the taxes with it and then redeem that little bit of cash.

 

[Ken555]

I have the Barclay Arrival Plus card and consider it as vital for foreign travel as it is the only chip & pin card available in the US. It's so annoying that all of the chip cards claim to be chip & pin, but they are just chip & signature. The pin feature allows for unattended purchases which is vital.

The Barclay cash redemption is a bit frustrating as purchases expire after 120 days. Further, when you do claim the cash they credit you 10% more. Very interesting business strategy as points continue to survive!

Yes. That 10% bonus upon redemption for existing cardholders turned into 5% for new ones as of sometime last year, and will be 5% for us later this year, as well. I don't find it frustrating at all...login, click rewards, view the list of eligible charges, add to cart, complete. I do it at least monthly, and no problems so far. In fact, they even credit the points before you pay the monthly bill, so I've been able to apply credits to a statement before I even pay the original charges which earned the points I used for the credit! Not sure I know of any other credit card that also improves cash flow like this as a side benefit.

 

[Eli Mairs]

For Canadian credit cards, our favourite is Amex SPG, which we use mostly for stays at expensive European Starwood hotels.
For places that don't take Amex, we use a Chase Marriott Visa card, which has no foreign transaction fees.
Both are premium cards with annual fees.
It will be interesting to see what will happen to these cards when the two companies merge.

 

[Gaozhen]

My husband and I are slowly making our way through pretty much all of the travel rewards cards. Mostly just those that offer a point bonus after you spend a certain amount in the first few months - we are trying to bank points so we can take a really nice trip in first class for free. As mentioned above, I also highly recommend that you check out thepointsguy.com

We have the American Express Delta cards, then got the Citi Premier then Citi Prestige, and each got the 50,000 point bonus from those cards, and now have moved on to the Chase Sapphire. They each have their ups and downs, but so far all of them have been pretty solid.

They say you shouldn't pay a fee unless you get benefits that you would have paid for that cancel out the fee... Each of these cards basically costs us nothing.

Citi Premier: we got the 50,000 Point bonus, but will probably cancel this card eventually since there are no other benefits to offset the $95 annual fee.

Delta American Express: this card has a $195 fee, and gets 1-2-3x miles on purchases, but you also get a free domestic companion ticket once a year. When you book the companion ticket, you only pay $10-$20 in taxes, so as long as your airline ticket is more than $200 you at least break even.

Citi Prestige: this card is our favorite. It has a $450 dollar fee.... Yes, it seems like a lot, but the benefits are fantastic. They credit your account $250 each year whenever you spend on travel, so the first time you book an airline ticket or hotel you will see this credit, which brings your cost down to $200 dollars a year. They also reimburse you for global entry ($100), offer rental car insurance, have the 1:1 points transfer for multiple airlines, give you three free golf rounds at courses around the world which each can cost $100 per round, and you get lounge access at hundreds of airports (as part of a program which you can pay $400 for otherwise). Since we use all these benefits, we make out nicely above and beyond the fee. Their service is also amazing: I lost my wallet, and they overnighted the replacement card to me for no cost!

Chase Sapphire: this card also has a $95 fee, and you get 1-2x points on every purchase. Points also transfer to numerous airlines on a 1:1 basis. They offer rental car insurance and several other benefits. We just got this one, so are working towards the point bonus and haven't decided if we will keep it or not.

 

[Seaport104]

Citi Prestige: this card is our favorite. It has a $450 dollar fee.... Yes, it seems like a lot, but the benefits are fantastic. They credit your account $250 each year whenever you spend on travel, so the first time you book an airline ticket or hotel you will see this credit, which brings your cost down to $200 dollars a year. They also reimburse you for global entry ($100), offer rental car insurance, have the 1:1 points transfer for multiple airlines, give you three free golf rounds at courses around the world which each can cost $100 per round, and you get lounge access at hundreds of airports (as part of a program which you can pay $400 for otherwise). Since we use all these benefits, we make out nicely above and beyond the fee. Their service is also amazing: I lost my wallet, and they overnighted the replacement card to me for no cost!

Do you get 3X the points on timeshare charges (maintenance fees, exchange fees, etc.)?

I compared the premier versus the prestige and I opted for the premier because premier awards 3X points for timeshare charges while it wasn't clear for prestige whether timeshares were included for the 3X points.

 

[isisdave]

We use PenFed Visa on gas (5%**) and groceries (3%);
then Fidelity Visa (2%) on everything else;
except Chase Marriott Rewards for anything Marriott (i.e. MFs) and anything charged outside the US, as it has no foreign transaction fee.

The Fidelity and Marriott require no action to redeem and the Fidelity cash just goes back into our account. The PenFed does require redemption, but it doesn't expire. I usually just get an Amazon electronic gift card to load into my Amazon account.

Cash is king and has value now. Mileage and points awards always seem to inflate. ** Example: Gas purchases on PenFed give 5x points per dollar and a $50 reward used to cost 5000 points. Now it's 5880 points, so that's more like 4.25%.

 

[Elli]

For Canadian credit cards, our favourite is Amex SPG, which we use mostly for stays at expensive European Starwood hotels.
For places that don't take Amex, we use a Chase Marriott Visa card, which has no foreign transaction fees.
Both are premium cards with annual fees.
It will be interesting to see what will happen to these cards when the two companies merge.

I have the AX SPG as well, and use it to transfer points to airlines - always wait until you have enough points to get the bonus points. There's been a lot of talk on FlyerTalk about the merger, looks like nothing will change until at least 2017. So far I'm still keeping the card.

 

[Gaozhen]

Do you get 3X the points on timeshare charges (maintenance fees, exchange fees, etc.)?

I compared the premier versus the prestige and I opted for the premier because premier awards 3X points for timeshare charges while it wasn't clear for prestige whether timeshares were included for the 3X points.

That's a good question… it doesn't look like we got it on our maintenance fee, but I don't know yet about our exchange fees since the first exchange fees on this card were just charged a few weeks ago, so haven't been deposited into the points yet. I will definitely watch and let you know!

 

[billymach4]

My Rewards Card lineup

Venture card for most purchases 2 pts for every dollar to be used for travel. This gets me my airfare on any airline.

Marriott Rewards card to accumulate pts at Marriott hotel stays.


Costco Amex for Gas and Costco purchases. As a Business member I get enough back to more than offset the cost of membership.

JetBlue card. Used to be good for accumulating TrueBlue pts. Not so good anymore. Just sort of keep it on life support now. Recently they changed over to Barclays.

Someone please bring me up to speed on Costco AMEX. I know they are changing away from AMEX.

 

[Seaport104]

That's a good question… it doesn't look like we got it on our maintenance fee, but I don't know yet about our exchange fees since the first exchange fees on this card were just charged a few weeks ago, so haven't been deposited into the points yet. I will definitely watch and let you know!

Thanks, appreciate it. If you didn't get it for your maintenance fee and the category was "timeshares", you probably won't get it for the exchange fees. Both my maintenance fees and exchange fees were categorized as "timeshare" expense and I received 3x the points The premier specifically stated that timeshare expenses, gas, tolls were considered travel eligible for 3x points. This sealed the deal for me since the prestige had a different language for 3x which if I recall limited it to hotel and air as eligible for 3x points.

 

[clifffaith]

Grrrr!!! So I applied 5000 points/$50 to a qualifying DRI charge last week. Points were deducted from my account almost immediately. I kept waiting for a $50 credit to show so that my balance due in a couple days is $179 and not $229. Finally called today to be given a song and dance about the current statement already being printed etc etc. I finally found the credit sitting out there amongst the charges since my last statement, yet the off shore help insists that I can not short pay my statement by $50. Any other credit card I have the credits are immediately applied to the charges -- in fact I often willingly pay the full balance on my statement if the credit isn't too big just so the statement and my payment match. I think she was full of it, but don't dare not pay the full amount leaving the credit for next month. Not a very good introduction to a cash back card.