Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

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Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
12,104
18,189
any good 0%'s for 12 to X months with less than 3% xfer fee/rate?

I got a nice one from BOA but was 4%?! it had a 15mo term and a low base apr after.
 
B

Burnesto

Molten Core Raider
2,142
126
Xadion said:
any good 0%'s for 12 to X months with less than 3% xfer fee/rate?

I got a nice one from BOA but was 4%?! it had a 15mo term and a low base apr after.
Click to expand...
Chase Slate is usally good for that type of deal. I have no idea what the sign up offer is at the moment.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
12,104
18,189
Slate is the 1.5 Cashback right? My brother sent me a ref link so we get $- but dunno if I will get the 0% offer- I was just going to do it for the 1.5 when my other chase is not bidding quarterly 5
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
40,088
132,312
Really just posting this to brag, but the Chase Sapphire Reserve (100k points for $4k in spending) was the best damn deal ever. My wife and I both opened them in January 2017, right before they changed it to 50,000 points. We had to do a bit of "forward" spending, which included buying a ton of grocery gift cards and renovating our kitchen. But it was all spending we had already planned on doing. The card has (had) a $350 "travel" reimbursement per calendar year which meant $1400 between the two of us, but came with a $400 yearly fee. Luckily the fee doesn't take effect until the first full period of the following year, so we only had the fee once. Also, the card was awesome feeling as it had a thick piece of metal sandwiched between the plastic (this made it hard to use at certain gas stations, and also meant I had to send it back to Chase to be disposed of).

Anyway, as an estimate, we ended up with:
  • Round trip airfare covered for a trip from California to St Louis for the solar eclipse in August 2017
  • Round trip airfare and 2 weeks of condo rental completely covered in Kauai, Hawaii in October 2017
  • Airport hotel stay prior to Hawaii trip near LAX
  • Hotels at Disneyland pre-paid for February 2018 (2 nights), March 2018 (2 nights), and October 2018 (1 night) with the travel reimbursement on each card (plus points)
  • We also had a flight delay on the way back from Kauai, and were reimbursed for a hotel. This technically is just a normal credit card perk, but it was $187 back in our pockets
  • TSA Pre-check for both of us, free (refunded) which is good for 5 years
  • Used the Priority Pass lounges in airports twice, which was nice for saving money on airport food/water and a nice place to get away from airport crowds
In short, it was fucking amazing. We had an entire 2 week trip to Hawaii covered where all we paid for was food and a rental car. Plus an additional 6 nights in hotels, and another round trip flight earlier in the year. Plus the little perks like the airport lounges and pre check.
 
Khane

Khane

Got something right about marriage
20,518
14,245
Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve have great points deals throughout the year. I opened my preferred when there was a 75k bonus as well as opening 2 of the old ink business cards when there were 100k bonuses. Which reminds me... I have a lot of Chase UR points I should spend...

Once upon a time I used to CC churn and even got into manufactured spending for a while. Nothing like closed loops that allow you earn boatloads of CC points without ever actually spending any money (or spending very little). It became way too much of a hassle driving all over town and keeping track of it all though.

And yea, the metal cards make you feel like a baller.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
40,088
132,312
I wish I hadn't missed out on the good years of credit card churning. I remember in the 2000's, especially with Fatwallet, it was huge. But they've clamped down on a lot of that, like manufactured spending.
 
Regime

Regime

LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
17,007
40,463
Chase Sapphire is definitely rocking. I got great fuel deals with my cash back. We also use Amazon for over half of our purchases since we have 2 hour delivery here and I use the prime card quite a bit too. It’s great. Also Whole Foods is now 5% in store as well as shopping Amazon online.
 
ronne

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
8,321
7,917
Hmm this thing is awfully tempting. Terms say 95$ yearly fee, but I think that's probably still worth it if you travel at all? I'm currently using a plain old Chase Visa that does "fine" as far as points, but it's nothing special really. I live off my card and typically run about 2k/month through it so getting that initial 50k bonus wouldn't be difficult at all, and if nothing else that would cover several years of their 95$ fee.
 
Arden

Arden

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,777
2,080
Been doing some research- lots of decent deals out there right now.

For those looking to get a good travel card, you might want to check this out: https://www.amazon.com/Discover-tes...f65-4b1a-966f-acc760c19aed&pf_rd_i=3561432011

Compares pretty well with Chase Sapphire. You don't get the bonus 50k points if you spend 4k in the first three months, BUT you get a $75 amazon gift card and they double all the points you earn at the end of the year, so depending on how much you spend in a year, it could come close to the same thing. Personally, I don't want to fuck around with forcing myself to spend 4k in the first 3 months. Plus the Discover has no annual fee. Chase gives 2X points for travel/dining and 1X points for everything else, while Discover gives 1.5X points for all purchases. The last kicker is the whole Discover customer service is totally U.S. based. I'll be honest and say I have had a ton of bad experiences dealing with outsourced CS, so this is a bonus for me.

Anyway, the 50k points on the Sapphire is pretty hard to beat, but for me, so that would probably be the best bet for someone who could definitely spend 4k in a little less than 3 months (don't cut it close or they will screw you, apprently). But the no annual fee, U.S. customer service, 1.5X points across the board, and double year-end points are more my style... Being the lazy pos I am.
 
P

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
Did sapphire for second time to book Europe trip, easy $500 which ill probably end up booking airfare with for the 25% bonus

We're flying delta so we'll use that amex card and save one or two hundred on checked bags. May well end up keeping it with yearly fee, it pays for itself every time we go somewhere.
 
Fadaar

Fadaar

That guy
11,015
12,035
TLDR this thread but I love my Amazon Visa. Had it since 2011 and have probably gotten over $1000 bonus cash to spend on Amazon, which is usually used when I do PC upgrades or other similar expensive purchases. Don't want to spend quite THAT much on a video card/cpu/etc? Toss in that extra $200 that doesn't count and suddenly it doesn't hurt as much.
 
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OneofOne

OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,925
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I'll give the thumbs up on the Amazon VISA as well. I live off it, zero it out every month, and it does add up. Once I even forgot to make my payment on time (I don't auto-pay anything), and sent in a quick message asking for them to refund the late fee, and they did. Still got stuck with the interest, but, lesson learned. Speaking of, my credit score is just under 800, and they won't touch the interest rate, which is something like 27% or some bullshit. So, just be aware and make your payments on time. I keep a nice cashback card with my credit union in case of an emergency and ever actually needing credit, since it's WAY lower than the Amazon card.
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
<Bronze Donator>
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TL;DR, note that the below only factor in long-term, ongoing spend, not signup bonuses.

Rotating 5% cards (everyone should eventually aim to have these and generally focus on maxing category spend in these first before turning to other cards):
  • Chase Freedom [5x UR points/5% cash alone; effective 6.25% or 7.5% on travel when combined with a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, respectively]
    • Q1 2019: Tolls, Gas Stations, Drugstores
    • Q2 2019: Grocery Stores, Home Improvement Stores
  • Discover It [5%; doubled year 1 with Cashback Match]
    • Q1 2019: Groceries
    • Q2 2019: Gas Stations/Uber/Lyft
    • Q3 2019: Restaurants
    • Q4 2019: Amazon
  • Citi Dividend [closed to new applications; need to product change from another Citi card; 5%]
    • Q1 2019: Gas Stations, Home Depot
    • Q2 2019: Drugstores, Fitness Clubs
    • Q3 2019: Airlines, Car Rentals
    • Q4 2019: Best Buy, Department Stores
  • US Bank Cash+ [5% in two chosen narrow quarterly categories; 2% in one chosen broad category]
    • 5% categories: Home Utilities, Ground Transportation, Select Clothing Stores, Cell Phone Providers, Electronics Stores, Car Rentals, Gyms/Fitness Centers, Fast Food, Sporting Goods Stores, Department Stores, Furniture Stores, Movie Theaters
    • 2% categories: Groceries, Restaurants, Gas Stations
  • BofA Cash Rewards [3% in one chosen category with a max of $2000 spend per 3 months; has a point multiplier depending on total assets with BofA for max of 5.25%]
    • Redeemed into BofA checking/savings: 3.3%
    • 20k in combined assets with BofA/Merrill: 3.75%
    • 50k in combined assets with BofA/Merrill: 4.5%
    • 100k in combined assets with BofA/Merrill: 5.25%
    • 3% categories: Gas, Online Shopping, Dining, Travel, Drug Stores, Home Improvement/Furnishings
      • You can change your bonused category once a month
Each category is listed in descending value order.

Groceries:
  • UMB Simply Rewards if you:
    • Live in UMB's service area AND
    • Do most of your shopping at discount stores like Wally World, K-Mart, Dollar General, etc. [3x points on both supermarkets and discount stores]
  • Amex EDP if you value MR points* and are anal retentive to the point that you don't mind ringing up one item at a time at self-checkouts to ensure you get 30 purchases/mo [3x MR points with <30 transactions/mo at supermarkets ONLY; 4.5x with >30 transactions/mo; $95 AF]
  • Amex Gold if you value MR points and are not that anal retentive [4x MR points at supermarkets; $250 AF with $100 travel credit]
  • Amex BCP/BCE otherwise depending on your grocery spend [6% at supermarkets with $95 AF or 3% at supermarkets with no AF]
* 1 MR point = 0.6 cents if redeemed for cash; 1:1 if redeemed for Uber; generally better than 1:1 if redeemed for airline transfer.

Warehouse Clubs:
  • US Bank Altitude Reserve if you:
    • (a) have Apple Pay or Samsung Pay AND
    • (b) shop at BJ's or Costco (not Sam's) AND
    • (c) Spend at least $300 on travel/year and have high annual spend ($~3500 split between travel/mobile payments per year) to offset the AF [3% if redeemed for cash; 4.5% travel]
  • BofA Cash Rewards if you:
    • (a) shop Sam's or BJ's, not Costco
    • (b) have 100k worth of investments to park at Merrill [3.5%]
  • UMB Simply Rewards if you live in UMB's service area [3%]
  • Use flat cash otherwise
Restaurants:
  • BofA Cash Rewards (if you have 100k of investments to park at Merrill) [5.25% if you select dining as your bonused category]
  • US Bank Cash+ for fast food only [5% if you chose FF as one of your 5% categories; 2% if you choose restaurants as one of your 2% categories]
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve if you highly value UR points [3x UR points; effective 4.5% if spent on travel; possibly worth more based on transfer partners]
  • Amex Gold if you highly value MR points [4x MR points]
  • Uber Visa otherwise [4%]
Gas:
  • BofA Cash Rewards (if you have 100k worth of investments to park at Merrill) [5.25% if you select gas as your bonused category]
  • Costco Visa or Sam's Club Mastercard (if you have the respective memberships) [4% Costco; 5% Sam's]
  • InFirst FCU Rewards Visa (if you are a federal bureaucrat) [5%]
  • USAA Cashback Rewards Plus (if you are a veteran) [5%]
  • Fort Knox FCU or Ducks Unlimited Visa (if none of the above apply and all you care about is pure return on gas only) [5%]
Travel:
  • Citi Prestige (if and only if you frequently stay in hotels and can take advantage of Fourth Night Free which has now been nerfed to twice yearly)
  • CNB Crystal Visa if and only if you:
    • (a) live close to/are willing to drive to a CNB branch, AND
    • (b) have a relatively high income (75k+), AND
    • (c) frequently travel coach on airplanes with a second person [card has a benefit where your companion's airfare is discounted by $100, no limit on # of occurrences]
  • The Chase Quartet (CSR + Freedom + Freedom Unlimited + Ink Cash) if you value UR points
  • Penfed Pathfinder (if you're a veteran) [4x points for veterans/checking account holders, worth ~3.5%-5% depending on how you redeem; $0 AF; $100 annual travel credit]
  • BofA Cash Rewards (if you have 100k worth of investments to park at Merrill) [5.25% if you select travel as your bonused category]
  • US Bank Altitude Reserve (if you have high annual spend and you have a Samsung Pay-compatible phone) [3x travel/mobile wallet purchases; worth 4.5% when redeemed for travel; $400 AF; $325 travel credit]
Flat Cash:
  • BofA Premium Rewards (if you have 50/100k worth of investments to park at Merrill) [Effective 2.25%/2.625% back with $99 AF offset by a $100 travel credit.]
  • Alliant Signature (if you have extremely high [20k+] annual spend and you're too lazy to optimize like you should be doing) [3% year 1, 2.5% thereafter; $99 AF]
  • PenFed Power Cash (if you're a veteran) [1.5%; 2% if veteran or have PenFed checking; no forex fee]
  • Fidelity Visa (if you already have a brokerage or cash management account with them) [2% when redeemed into Fidelity account; 1% forex fee]
  • Citi DoubleCash (if none of the above apply and you don't travel internationally) [2%; 3% forex fee]
  • Capital One Quicksilver (if none of the first four apply, you do travel internationally, and you want minimum BS when redeeming rewards) [1.5%; no forex fee]
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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Made a few updates to the last post's "best of" list; BofA Cash Rewards underwent a significant refresh and now ranges from pretty good to insanely good for most everything other than flat cash and groceries depending on your total assets.
 
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alavaz

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,003
714
OneofOne said:
I'll give the thumbs up on the Amazon VISA as well. I live off it, zero it out every month, and it does add up. Once I even forgot to make my payment on time (I don't auto-pay anything), and sent in a quick message asking for them to refund the late fee, and they did. Still got stuck with the interest, but, lesson learned. Speaking of, my credit score is just under 800, and they won't touch the interest rate, which is something like 27% or some bullshit. So, just be aware and make your payments on time. I keep a nice cashback card with my credit union in case of an emergency and ever actually needing credit, since it's WAY lower than the Amazon card.
Click to expand...
27% that's pretty insane. Mine is like 14.99 but I also got it close to 10 years ago and I think it's always been that.
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
<Bronze Donator>
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Adinirahc said:
Visa® Signature Card | Alliant Credit Union

Their savings account currently pays just over 2% also.
Click to expand...

It's an OK card for the first year, but after year one, you have to spend over $11k a year exclusively on it for it to outpace a no annual fee 2% card. Nor is there a sign-up bonus: even if a no AF 2% card is only offering a $100 signup bonus, it would require $10k worth of spend to outpace the bonus in year one.

And if you have that kind of annual spend, it's much better to optimize purchases on several cards.
 
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Adinirahc

Adinirahc

Trakanon Raider
40
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sleevedraw said:
It's an OK card for the first year, but after year one, you have to spend over $11k a year exclusively on it for it to outpace a no annual fee 2% card. Nor is there a sign-up bonus: even if a no AF 2% card is only offering a $100 signup bonus, it would require $10k worth of spend to outpace the bonus in year one.

And if you have that kind of annual spend, it's much better to optimize purchases on several cards.
Click to expand...

All true, but we go over the 10k annual spend easily and don't want the hassle of optimizing across several cards. It was a good one stop shop card for us. Plus we use their savings account and it's convenient to have both at one bank. We go to Europe frequently, so the no foreign transaction fee was nice also.
 
Locnar

Locnar

<Bronze Donator>
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Amazon card for amazon, citi double cash for everything else. Also one rarely used no-fee credit card that features no foreign transaction fees to use overseas. No muss, no fuss.
 
Ravishing

Ravishing

Uninspiring Title
<Bronze Donator>
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I'm still using Capital One Venture card. 2% back on everything. There is an annual fee but it still seems to be one of the best. The Amazon Visa is interesting for sure...

If you're traveling a lot, the Venture card is giving 10X miles on Hotels till Jan 2020
It also has the 50K bonus miles like Chase, but only need to spend 3k in first 3 months.
 
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