Which one offers the best rewards? Annual membership fee is a negative, APR is non-relevant because obviously I don't carry a balance.
Which one offers the best rewards? Annual membership fee is a negative, APR is non-relevant because obviously I don't carry a balance.
Best rewards is subjective. I fly a lot, and usually United because I'm traveling to Latin America and they have lots of routes there. So I have their card and get 1.5-2 free flights per year.
Chase Sapphire Preferred. Has all the small benefits (insurances, concierge, no foreign transaction fees, no first year annual fee) of other cards but with a higher value to your points for redemption:
http://thepointsguy.com/2014/06/what-are-points-and-miles-worth-june-monthly-valuations/
The point can be transferred directly to most airline programs from your online Chase account, or you can use the points on Chase's travel site (a basic Expedia) to book travel with a 20% discount.
The Capital One Advantage and Barclays World Mastercard offer 2x rewards on all purchases, but I don't feel they're quite as flexible. I seem to average somewhere around 1.4-1.6 points per dollar spent on my Sapphire per month.
I also have the United Explorer, Citi American Airlines Advantage, and Chase Alaska Platinum, but those are for travel-specific purposes (free miles at signup). I don't use those cards unless I'm buying a ticket with those airlines.
Chase Sapphire is worth the annual fee. nice sign up bonus, no foreign transaction fees, 2x points on travel and dining. UR points can be transferred to mileage and hotel programs for redemption, plus cash back is an option. Works seamlessly with the Chase Freedom card and its 5xpoints back on quarterly categories (this quarter it was amazon!). I easily get back over $1,000/yr in either straight cash or value in flights/hotel redemptions. Also, if you call chase you get a real person on the first call...no automated crap.
I also like the Amex BlueCash reward for groceries...6% cash back.
Well, Fl@gpole is starting the year trolling hard.
The best credit card is one that is in someone else's name.
good website that helps you find the best credit card
I have one that pays 6%! on the first $6000 of groceries I buy. That's two free weeks of groceries every year.
then after that it pays the usual 1% rewards
I have used the AMEX Blue card for years and have never found anything to beat it. The one drawback is that about 1 in 20 merchants don't accept it due to the high fee to THEM.
Digit-Al wrote:
I have used the AMEX Blue card for years and have never found anything to beat it. The one drawback is that about 1 in 20 merchants don't accept it due to the high fee to THEM.
https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/blue-cash-everyday/25330?linknav=ProspectHP-MostPopular-BCE-LearnMore
The Citi Double Cash Card (2% cashback) AMEX Blue (~1.5% average) or Capital One Quicksilver (1.5% everything) are the best cash back cards and probably benefit most average consumers the most. They're also the easiest to realize the rewards from and the no annual fee means less hassles (mentally).
I spend around $4000/mo on credit cards and would probably see a slight edge in return through a cash card if I used it over a long period of time like 10 years (especially my next 10 years). That said, there is a stronger value-added to high rewards milage cards (for me) with the amount of international travel we do currently. A free 50,000 miles at card signup is good for a roundtrip to europe, two roundtrips in the US, or 1.5 trips to south america. With another 50k points from my annual spending, I can feasibly get about $2,000 out of a card in the first year when you look at the tickets prices to the places we fly (never redeemed for US travel).
The challenge with our method, is that you need to "churn" cards and continually open and close cards to maintain milage balances if your traveling a lot. The process of opening/closing cards hurts your credit score and is a challenge (to get the approvals and to maintain your score) if you have bad credit. Luckily, at 28 we both have near 800 credit, bought a house, and have no financed car purchases in the future. Our credit, and most functional adults' can whether an annual churn.
The best option is to just not buy things that you don't have the money to buy.
CoachJD wrote:
Chase Sapphire is worth the annual fee. nice sign up bonus, no foreign transaction fees, 2x points on travel and dining. UR points can be transferred to mileage and hotel programs for redemption, plus cash back is an option. Works seamlessly with the Chase Freedom card and its 5xpoints back on quarterly categories (this quarter it was amazon!). I easily get back over $1,000/yr in either straight cash or value in flights/hotel redemptions. Also, if you call chase you get a real person on the first call...no automated crap.
I also like the Amex BlueCash reward for groceries...6% cash back.
I agree with the Chase Sapphire. When you call customer service you never wait and go straight to an actual person.
REALLY!!!!! Name me one rich guy who got that way by using a CC card with great rewards. NEVER use a CC card. A credit card and whole life insurance policies are the payday lender of the middle class.
drunk wrote:
REALLY!!!!! Name me one rich guy who got that way by using a CC card with great rewards. NEVER use a CC card. A credit card and whole life insurance policies are the payday lender of the middle class.
Literally no one is making that claim as no one thinks you will get rich. It's just free money. If you're not responsible enough to use a credit card within your means, then don't use it. If you feel compelled by society to become a slave to the lender, then that is your personal problem, derived from a lack of will, personal constitution and acceptance of your individuality (with its consequences).
Are you enraged with everything that appears to be "forced" upon you by modern society? HA!
drunk wrote:
NEVER use a CC card.
Never use a debit card or bank transfers on the internet, it's much harder to deal with ID theft. Just pay off your credit cards immediately each month.
Discover is nuts on Amazon, they give me 5% on all my regular stuff.
I use a salliemae MasterCard for food/gas. 5% on groceries, gas and books,
BOA cash rewards. If you have investments with them or a bank account with over 100,000 you get 1.75% back on everything, 3.5% on groceries and 5.25% back on gas. Also 100 free trades a month. They paid me 150 to transfer all my assets and have great rewards.
Flying Lotus wrote:
The challenge with our method, is that you need to "churn" cards and continually open and close cards to maintain milage balances if your[\b] traveling a lot.
Our credit, and most functional adults' can whether[\b] an annual churn.
Normally I wouldn't point these out, but the way you write about yourself is so pompous and annoying that I just had to do it.
Dick Fairbanks wrote:
Which one offers the best rewards? Annual membership fee is a negative, APR is non-relevant because obviously I don't carry a balance.
Then why not use a debit card unless you are a penny pincher?
Runner80602 wrote:
BOA cash rewards. If you have investments with them or a bank account with over 100,000 you get 1.75% back on everything, 3.5% on groceries and 5.25% back on gas. Also 100 free trades a month. They paid me 150 to transfer all my assets and have great rewards.
er....
as an investment advisor this gives me the willies
Did you buy funds they recommend or just keep whatever you had before?
cause if they put you in high expense funds, you could be losing big time here.
Thanks for the input everyone. I went with the first few posters' advice and got the Chase Sapphire Preferred (it had been recommended by a few other friends as well).