Best Rewards Credit Card

I'm not a big credit guy, most of my purchases are debit or cash. But with my commutation tickets a regular thing i want to get a rewards credit card to take advantage of the guaranteed $400-$500 bill a month.

I'd like to get something with points/rewards for travel so the GF and i can take some trips. The two i've looked at the most are "Chase Sapphire" and "Chase Marriott Rewards". Obv i'm a chase customer

So what are your personal experiences/opinions?
My biggest concerns are; 1) a low annual fee (def bellow $100, hopefully bellow $50) and 2) points that i can actually use for travel (good hotels/airline tix)

look at Amex - they have triple rewards on flights, it might work on other travel... just an idea - I dunno, I put A LOT of $$$ on our business Amex monthly - anyone want to buy $500 Home Depot gift cards for $450? I can get plenty of them with my point!

Two years ago we used our United Miles and got 4 round-trip tickets from S.F. to London and back, 1st class both ways, for just $212.00 each! It was the best! Now, obviously, we put a lot on our card to get that. After we returned, United doubled the amount of miles needed to do that. Our timing was good I put everything on our card that I can. As long as you pay it off every month, why not? I am curious about using a different card, tho, since they've upped the mileage needed. I have heard good things about Chase.

We have a Charles Schwab card that pays 2% cash on all purchases - that's the best deal I know of.

Amex.

I have recently started using the new AMEX Premier rewards card. One thing I realized though: it didn't have a spending limit, so it doesn't affect the credit score in that aspect. For cards with limits which are reported to the credit agencies, the amount of credit available is taken into account when computing the score. Also because of the no-spending-limit, I think the end-of-month balance is not reported (no point in doing so, since it's the amount owed divided by spending limit that plays a role in the score).

Since the AMEX card may not help with the score, I have to keep using my old cards...

If you're a Chase customer, get the Chase Amazon card. Zero annual fee.
You get 3% on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas, restaurant and some other stuff, and 1% everything else.
You can redeem your credits in cash, Amazon gift certificate, airline mileage or hotel credit.

How much to you guys pay for annual membership fee? I'm not for annual fees, so I called CitiCard (AA miles) and told them I want to terminate the card. They said no way, so they waived the $85 fee, just what I originally wanted. On top of that they tried to get me to sign up for AMX card to get 5000 miles if I spend $125 within 3 months. Now, I got enough miles for a couple of round trips to Europe, again. Now, if I only use those 240 vacation hours I saved up.

I've got a Chase card that gives me 3% cash back on my top 5 spending categories and 1% cash back on all the rest. I just charge everything that I can each month and then pay it off each month. No annual fee for the card either. I don't think they offer the card any more though. I've been thinking of doing an airline mileage card in hopes to earn enough rewards for some free flights every so often but I just don't like having to pay an annual fee for the cards.

Amex gold/premiere. $75 annual fee IIRC. No spending limit and TONS of stuff to spend it on. You can use it on airline tix, gift cards, etc. I cashed in $800 in Morton's gift cards and gave them to some of my staff for Xmas. We just bought a new filing cabinet from Pottery Barn with Amex points.

I put as much stuff on it as I can. I tried to get the VW salesman to put the entire car on my Amex - but he limited me to $10k .

screw annual fees. i'll take my 1% cashback cards w/ citi and chase and go on my way

Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX - can get 10,000 points for getting a new card (sometimes much more points at signup - up to 20K usually). Points redeemable for nights at Starwood and convert to airline miles at 120% if done in groups of 20,000. No annual fee for the first year. Easy to get waived subsequent years.

If you are in area Delta services well - Delta Skymiles Card

I used to put my kids college tuition on the card until the school wised up and started charging a 2.75% penalty for using plastic. It was great while it lasted.

AMEX Blue Cash reward, no annual fee.

Got a nice $1300 check in November this year, which helped out for Christmas. Use it for all my business travels.

Can't beat AMEX's customer service and "card holder comes before merchant" attitude.

Originally Posted by ddutch

AMEX Blue Cash reward, no annual fee.

Got a nice $1300 check in November this year, which helped out for Christmas. Use it for all my business travels.

Can't beat AMEX's customer service and "card holder comes before merchant" attitude.

+1 5% on gas and groceries, 1% on everything else no fee. Very expensive foreign currency conversion if you use it overseas though.

Originally Posted by Chris90

We have a Charles Schwab card that pays 2% cash on all purchases - that's the best deal I know of.

Good deal, but it isn't exactly CASH. It deposits to your brokerage account, correct?

Costco TureEarnings Amex for business members pays:
4% gas (3% for non-biz members)
3% restaurants
2% travel
1% all-else

It was mentioned previously, but I believe the Chase Freedom card giving 3% on a bunch of categories has been revised to offer much less lucrative benefits. Still nice, though- as existing cardholders are grandfathered and you can request a cash/check any time the amount accrued is over $10.

Amex Starwood Preferred is our main card. We've used the points a few times for flights, often for hotels. They turn 20k points into 25k when you convert to airline miles. They often have triple points for hotel stays, etc. We're happy with it. It paid for our flights to kona in september.

Originally Posted by cagoguy

Good deal, but it isn't exactly CASH. It deposits to your brokerage account, correct?

Costco TureEarnings Amex for business members pays:
4% gas (3% for non-biz members)
3% restaurants
2% travel
1% all-else

It was mentioned previously, but I believe the Chase Freedom card giving 3% on a bunch of categories has been revised to offer much less lucrative benefits. Still nice, though- as existing cardholders are grandfathered and you can request a cash/check any time the amount accrued is over $10.

Good deal, but it isn't exactly free.
IIRC, they charge you a huge annual fee.

I've pretty much gone down to carrying two. The Chase Sapphire Preferred (15K Miles after spending $1k in first three months) 1:1 transfer to airline programs. I also went with the American Express Gold Premier Rewards. Both are free for the first year, $85 on the Chase card and $100 on the Amex after year 1. We'll see how it goes this year and I'll decide on renewing.

Originally Posted by Boile

Good deal, but it isn't exactly free.
IIRC, they charge you a huge annual fee.

You recall incorrectly, but we'll forgive you this time.

No annual fee. But it is tied to my Costco membership, which I have anyway.

Amex True Earnings T&C

Originally Posted by cagoguy

You recall incorrectly, but we'll forgive you this time.

No annual fee. But it is tied to my Costco membership, which I have anyway.

Amex True Earnings T&C

Did the earth just tilt off its axis?



I was considering switching to the Costco AmEx card, but when I plugged the numbers in, the AMEX Blue Cash gives me nearly double the annual rewards.

Originally Posted by ///M3lissa

Did the earth just tilt off its axis?



I was considering switching to the Costco AmEx card, but when I plugged the numbers in, the AMEX Blue Cash gives me nearly double the annual rewards.

I thought I did feel the Earth nudge a tad to the right.

You must have a PhD in abacus use to calculate that out:

Your Rebate is awarded annually for each Rebate Year (12 consecutive billing periods). For the first $6,500 of Eligible Purchases, the rebate is 1.0% for Everyday Purchases and 0.5% for all other Eligible Purchases; for Eligible Purchases of $6,500.01 or more, the rebate percentage is 5.0% for Everyday Purchases and 1.25% for all other Eligible Purchases. "Everyday Purchases" are Eligible Purchases made at the following categories of U.S. merchants that are not departments of superstores or warehouse clubs: supermarkets, drugstores, and automobile gasoline stations (for purchases of automobile gasoline only, except that any purchase in excess of $400 at an automobile gasoline station will not qualify as an Everyday Purchase). "Eligible Purchases" are charges to your account for goods or services that have not been returned or otherwise credited to your account. Eligible Purchases do not include finance charges, fees, cash advances or other means of accessing your account, convenience checks, balance transfers, or the purchase of American Express® Travelers Cheques and American Express® Gift Cheques or other cash equivalents. We reserve the right to exclude charges that we determine are not made for personal, family, or household purposes; with the good-faith intention of consuming the item charged; or with the intent to avoid a per-transaction rebate threshold. Additional terms and conditions apply.

So you get 0.5% and 1% up to $6500, THEN you get 5% on gas/grocery/drugs.

You must spend a boatload on gas/groceries! Personally I think I do better with the straight-up 4% on gas, 2% on travel. Especially considering the $6500 pre-spend at the lower rate.

Originally Posted by cagoguy

I thought I did feel the Earth nudge a tad to the right.

You must have a PhD in abacus use to calculate that out:

It wasn't easy

.. and we do spend a bunch on gas and groceries. We eat and drink very well

Originally Posted by cagoguy

You recall incorrectly, but we'll forgive you this time.

No annual fee. But it is tied to my Costco membership, which I have anyway.

Amex True Earnings T&C

If you must have Costco Business membership to have that card, then I consider Costco charges part of the card's cost.

Originally Posted by ///M3lissa

I was considering switching to the Costco AmEx card, but when I plugged the numbers in, the AMEX Blue Cash gives me nearly double the annual rewards.

There you have it. I rest my case.
The earth still tracks it's trajectory.

Originally Posted by Boile

If you must have Costco Business membership to have that card, then I consider Costco charges part of the card's cost.

Business membership is the same cost as a standard membership: $50. So consider it a $50 annual fee, and you get a FREE Costco membership. Any other hairs you'd like to split?

Originally Posted by Boile

There you have it. I rest my case.
The earth still tracks it's trajectory.

Earth. It's capitalized.

Originally Posted by cagoguy

Earth. It's capitalized.

Talk about splitting hairs.