Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

Lanx · Jan 4, 2022

swayze22 said:
If I'm reading it correctly, it's up to the first $500 spent in the top category per statement.... so $25 in cash back max at 5%. Everything else is 1%. If you spend $1,000 in your top category then it's $30 in rewards ($25+$5) per $1,000 or only 3%, not that great. It get's worse if you spend more consistently which pending on your earning there are much better choices. Why would I get that over the BCP?

I would imagine if you have any sort of budget you can maximize that more than ~3%, and probably get a higher ROR for all of the other categories making that even weaker.

I am younger-ish and have a family so I have the Capital One Savor - dining,entertainment,streaming all at 4%, and groceries at 3%. I do also have the chase freedom unlimited which I gave to my wife for general stuff at 1.5% for everything.

yea, i just used my custom cash only for a hotel bill and use citi double cash for everything else

sleevedraw · Jul 14, 2022

Blue Cash Everyday got a major positive refresh.

Previously: 3% on US Supermarkets up to $6000 per year; 2% department stores + gas; 1% elsewhere.

Now: 3% on US Supermarkets, Online Shopping, and Gas (up to $6000 per year in each 3% category); 1% else where. You also get $15/mo in statement credits with Home Chef and $7/mo back if you spend at least $13.99/mo on The Disney Bundle.

Still no AF. The Bank of America Customized Cash may still arguably be better if you have Platinum Honors status with BofA depending on your spending habits. SavorOne or the Amex Gold may also be better if you have extremely high grocery spend over the $6k cap. However, this is probably the closest thing to a "one card to rule them all" for homebodies/infrequent travelers that are low spenders - it just needs to be paired with a decent flat cash card.

Mist · Nov 14, 2022

I'm super happy with SoFi. I'm getting a ton of rewards and a great interest rate, plus I got a 300 dollar account opening bonus for my direct deposits.

Bandwagon · Sep 20, 2023

After just paying out the ass for airline tickets to my sister's wedding, I'm ready to get a CC that gives miles. My GF uses one to pay her bills every month and just pays the balance off after, and she always has a shit ton of miles.

Anyone have recommendations on a card? I usually fly Alaskan.

And is this a dumb idea in general? I have one credit card that I hardly use and keep a very low balance on. I've always steered clear of credit cards and don't have any debt otherwise, besides my mortgage. I'm completely financially illiterate though. So I'm really just planning to do this because it's what my GF does. Instead of paying bills with her debit card, she pays with her miles credit card and then pays that down to $0 the next day with her debit card.

sleevedraw · Sep 20, 2023

Bandwagon said:
After just paying out the ass for airline tickets to my sister's wedding, I'm ready to get a CC that gives miles. My GF uses one to pay her bills every month and just pays the balance off after, and she always has a shit ton of miles.

Anyone have recommendations on a card? I usually fly Alaskan.

And is this a dumb idea in general? I have one credit card that I hardly use and keep a very low balance on. I've always steered clear of credit cards and don't have any debt otherwise, besides my mortgage. I'm completely financially illiterate though. So I'm really just planning to do this because it's what my GF does. Instead of paying bills with her debit card, she pays with her miles credit card and then pays that down to $0 the next day with her debit card.

For travel credit cards, you have basically two options:
1) Flexible rewards points that can be transferred to multiple airlines (e.g. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, etc.)
2) Cobranded cards (e.g. the Alaska Airlines credit card).

The advantage of the former is the flexibility (can be transferred to multiple airlines) and that they can also be redeemed for cash if you don't want to redeem for travel. The advantage of the latter is that you typically get free checked baggage as long as you hold a card with an annual fee, typically $95-$100. If you always check baggage, the amount of money you can save from getting your baggage fees waived can easily outpace the annual fee.

Miles are usually worth around 1 cent per point, usually more, sometimes less, but this varies wildly, and airlines are pretty much continually trying to devalue their points.

There is only one cobranded credit card from Alaska; it's from Bank of America. It has a $95 annual fee and earns 3x on Alaska Airlines, 2x on gas, cable, streaming services, and local transit. There are a number of cards that will earn more miles than this, but they won't come with the checked baggage benefit.

If you're inexperienced with credit, as long as you (1) pay off your entire card balance in full every month and (2) only use your card for purchases (not cash advances), the only kind of fee you may pay is an annual fee. You never want to carry a balance on a credit card; the "I should carry a balance to improve my credit score" is a myth.

There are a lot of variables that will affect which card will be best for you. If you answer them, I can make some recommendations.

When you say that you "usually" fly Alaska, does that mean 90% of the time? 55% of the time? The closer that # is to 100, the more it favors cobrand.
How many flights do you usually take a year?
How many people usually travel with you?
Do you usually check bags?
Do you usually get add-on services like buying in-flight food or Wi-Fi?
Do you want to keep all of your spending on one credit card even if it means that the amount of miles you will earn will be likely be less than "optimizing" on several different cards?
What is your credit score like?
Where do you spend most of your money? Groceries? Gas? At what stores?

Sanrith Descartes · Sep 20, 2023

Bandwagon said:
After just paying out the ass for airline tickets to my sister's wedding, I'm ready to get a CC that gives miles. My GF uses one to pay her bills every month and just pays the balance off after, and she always has a shit ton of miles.

Anyone have recommendations on a card? I usually fly Alaskan.

And is this a dumb idea in general? I have one credit card that I hardly use and keep a very low balance on. I've always steered clear of credit cards and don't have any debt otherwise, besides my mortgage. I'm completely financially illiterate though. So I'm really just planning to do this because it's what my GF does. Instead of paying bills with her debit card, she pays with her miles credit card and then pays that down to $0 the next day with her debit card.

I had one for a long time. End of the day i found you are better off using a cash back rewards card for all purchases. Co-branded stuff is too specific and doesnt give the same percentage back on most cards. A 1.5% or 2% cash back card is better than 1% back in miles. Exception: If you fly a ton for work then a co-branded card is a solid idea but you really need to fly a ton to generate the miles.

edit: I forgot to mention, getting a branded card can have other advantages. We keep our old Delta Gold Skymiles card for one use. When we fly Delta we bill the trip on it so we get first boarding and free checked bags. If Delta isnt the lowest price, we calculate the bag fees to come with a net price of which is lowest.

Jysin · Sep 20, 2023

I basically use a Chase Sapphire card for quite literally anything I am paying for and apply points for cash back. We do carry 1 airline card, which is a British Airways American Express card. We exclusively use BA flying to / from the UK and US. The main benefit we have had from this card has been a basically no questions asked / no fee for changes or refund to any BA bookings.

Bandwagon · Sep 20, 2023

sleevedraw said:
For travel credit cards, you have basically two options:
1) Flexible rewards points that can be transferred to multiple airlines (e.g. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, etc.)
2) Cobranded cards (e.g. the Alaska Airlines credit card).

The advantage of the former is the flexibility (can be transferred to multiple airlines) and that they can also be redeemed for cash if you don't want to redeem for travel. The advantage of the latter is that you typically get free checked baggage as long as you hold a card with an annual fee, typically $95-$100. If you always check baggage, the amount of money you can save from getting your baggage fees waived can easily outpace the annual fee.

Miles are usually worth around 1 cent per point, usually more, sometimes less, but this varies wildly, and airlines are pretty much continually trying to devalue of their points.

There is only one cobranded credit card from Alaska; it's from Bank of America. It has a $95 annual fee and earns 3x on Alaska Airlines, 2x on gas, cable, streaming services, and local transit. There are a number of cards that will earn more miles than this, but they won't come with the checked baggage benefit.

If you're inexperienced with credit, as long as you (1) pay off your entire card balance in full every month and (2) only use your card for purchases (not cash advances), the only kind of fee you may pay is an annual fee. You never want to carry a balance on a credit card; the "I should carry a balance to improve my credit score" is a myth.

There are a lot of variables that will affect which card will be best for you. If you answer them, I can make some recommendations.

When you say that you "usually" fly Alaska, does that mean 90% of the time? 55% of the time? The closer that # is to 100, the more it favors cobrand.

How many flights do you usually take a year?

How many people usually travel with you?

Do you usually check bags?

Do you usually get add-on services like buying in-flight food or Wi-Fi?

Do you want to keep all of your spending on one credit card even if it means that the amount of miles you will earn will be likely be less than "optimizing" on several different cards?

What is your credit score like?

Where do you spend most of your money? Groceries? Gas? At what stores?

Alaska 90% of the time, and I only fly about 3 times a year. Never check bags, never buy wifi or food or anything like that. And no, I don't want to manage multiple cards.

I don't know what my credit score is now. It's above average. I believe the only ding I have on it is getting turned in to collects 20 years ago for $300 I was disputing with Chase Bank.

sleevedraw · Sep 20, 2023

Bandwagon said:
Alaska 90% of the time, and I only fly about 3 times a year. Never check bags, never buy wifi or food or anything like that. And no, I don't want to manage multiple cards.

I don't know what my credit score is now. It's above average. I believe the only ding I have on it is getting turned in to collects 20 years ago for $300 I was disputing with Chase Bank.

If you are only traveling 3-4x/year and never check bags, I would either (a) follow Sanrith's advice and get the best kind of flat cash card you can or (b) find a card that gets bonus spend either on groceries or online purchases, because those are the areas where most Americans spend the lion's share of their money.

The best flat cash cards with some strings attached are:
-Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards (if and only if you can park at least 50k of investments with Merrill Lynch) - gets up to 2.625% depending on your balance with Bank of America; 3% forex fee
-Alliant Visa Signature (if and only if you are willing to open up a checking account + direct deposit with them) - 2.5% on up to 10k per month; no foreign exchange (forex) fee
-PenFed Power Cash (if you're a veteran or willing to open up a checking account + direct deposit with them) - 2%; no forex fee
-SoFi Credit Card (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) - 2%; no forex fee
-Fidelity Visa (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) 2%; 1% forex fee

The best flat cash cards with no strings attached are:
-The PPMC (Paypal Mastercard) - 3% Paypal, 2% everything else; 3% forex fee
-Citi DoubleCash or Wells Fargo Active Cash- 2% back; 3% forex fee
-Capital One Quicksilver - 1.5% back; no forex fee

You usually only need to worry about foreign exchange fees when traveling, but there are a handful of sites online (GOG comes to mind) that are based in other countries that may incur a forex fee. These are rare.

Collections are typically like bankruptcies and should fall off after 7 years, so it shouldn't be adversely affecting your credit any more. You can pull your credit report with annualcreditreport.com if you really want to be sure.

Bandwagon · Sep 20, 2023

sleevedraw said:
If you are only traveling 3-4x/year and never check bags, I would either (a) follow Sanrith's advice and get the best kind of flat cash card you can or (b) find a card that gets bonus spend either on groceries or online purchases, because those are the areas where most Americans spend the lion's share of their money.

The best flat cash cards with some strings attached are:
-Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards (if and only if you can park at least 50k of investments with Merrill Lynch) - gets up to 2.625% depending on your balance with Bank of America
-Alliant Visa Signature (if and only if you are willing to open up a checking account with direct deposit with them) - 2.5%
-PenFed Power Cash (if you're a veteran or willing to open up a checking account with direct deposit with them) - 2%
-SoFi Credit Card (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) - 2%
-Fidelity Visa (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) 2%

The best flat cash cards with no strings attached are:
-The PPMC (Paypal Mastercard) - 3% Paypal, 2% everything else; 3% foreign transaction fee
-Citi DoubleCash or Wells Fargo Active Cash- 2% back; 3% foreign transaction fee
-Capital One Quicksilver (only 1.5% back, but no foreign exchange fee)

You usually only need to worry about foreign exchange fees when traveling, but there are a handful of sites online (GOG comes to mind) that are based in other countries that may incur a forex fee. These are rare.

Collections are typically like bankruptcies and should fall off after 7 years, so it shouldn't be adversely affecting your credit any more. You can pull your credit report with annualcreditreport.com if you really want to be sure.

Godamn, what a writeup. Thanks! I suppose I am a vet, so I'll try that one first. Appreciate the summary and recommendations. The one card I have already is with Capital one. I know I get cash back now the rarw times I use it, but don't know what it is. I'll go look it up. If the miles cards aren't as good as I thought, maybe I'm not that far off from one of these right now.

fris · Sep 20, 2023

sign up for credit karma. free, will show you what's on your credit history and will give you a close idea to your score. i signed up during my divorce to ensure nothing shady happened. i log in about once a month just for fun.

Bandwagon said:
Alaska 90% of the time, and I only fly about 3 times a year. Never check bags, never buy wifi or food or anything like that. And no, I don't want to manage multiple cards.

I don't know what my credit score is now. It's above average. I believe the only ding I have on it is getting turned in to collects 20 years ago for $300 I was disputing with Chase Bank.

Sanrith Descartes · Sep 20, 2023

sleevedraw said:
If you are only traveling 3-4x/year and never check bags, I would either (a) follow Sanrith's advice and get the best kind of flat cash card you can or (b) find a card that gets bonus spend either on groceries or online purchases, because those are the areas where most Americans spend the lion's share of their money.

The best flat cash cards with some strings attached are:
-Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards (if and only if you can park at least 50k of investments with Merrill Lynch) - gets up to 2.625% depending on your balance with Bank of America
-Alliant Visa Signature (if and only if you are willing to open up a checking account with direct deposit with them) - 2.5%
-PenFed Power Cash (if you're a veteran or willing to open up a checking account with direct deposit with them) - 2%
-SoFi Credit Card (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) - 2%
-Fidelity Visa (if you're willing to open up an investment or checking account with them) 2%

The best flat cash cards with no strings attached are:
-The PPMC (Paypal Mastercard) - 3% Paypal, 2% everything else; 3% foreign transaction fee
-Citi DoubleCash or Wells Fargo Active Cash- 2% back; 3% foreign transaction fee
-Capital One Quicksilver (only 1.5% back, but no foreign exchange fee)

You usually only need to worry about foreign exchange fees when traveling, but there are a handful of sites online (GOG comes to mind) that are based in other countries that may incur a forex fee. These are rare.

Collections are typically like bankruptcies and should fall off after 7 years, so it shouldn't be adversely affecting your credit any more. You can pull your credit report with annualcreditreport.com if you really want to be sure.

Nice write up. Only thing I will add is the Amex every day blue cash back. No annual fee and 1.5% cash back. I know some people don't like Amex but I swear by them. Their service is top notch.

sleevedraw · Sep 20, 2023

Sanrith Descartes said:
Nice write up. Only thing I will add is the Amex every day blue cash back. No annual fee and 1.5% cash back. I know some people don't like Amex but I swear by them. Their service is top notch.

The Cash Magnet is a nice card, and I agree that Amex's customer service is good. Amex Offers are a nice perk too, although they seem to be getting stingier and stingier with those.

However, I usually don't recommend it as a one-stop-shop card, because even though Amex availability is way better than it used to be, you still occasionally run into a small ma and pop that won't take them. Something running on Visa's network is the safest, Mastercard is right behind them (with the exception of Costco).

I think for most people, if they really want an Amex, it's better to get the BCP, BCE, or the Amex Gold if they're willing to game the Doordash/Grubhub credits. But since Bandwagon seems to want to keep it simple, I'll stick with recommending something 100% flat cash.

joz123 · Sep 20, 2023

Ya I've been using blue cash card for a while, love it. They keep trying to get me to upgrade to gold/plat but the yearly fees aren't worth it. Amex customer service is so much better than the other companies also.

Koushirou · Sep 20, 2023

AmEx gold annual is only $250/yr. If you use the $10 Uber cash and $10 dining credit every month, that already gets you $240 of the way to balancing that out (assuming you would have gotten Uber/dining already). There seems to be more and more places you can directly use membership points to pay, as well, like Amazon and I think PayPal also takes them now; could be wrong. You can also use points to credit your bill, though I don’t know if that conversion is any good. I just booked a vacation to Vegas this year purely with points I’d accumulated, though. Feels good.

I do keep a BestBuy Visa that was my first CC I got when I financed a TV a long while back just in case AmEx isn’t taken. Has some sort of points system I don’t know too much on but I set it to utilities and I throw them on there and every couple of weeks I get a gift cert to BestBuy. I should probably swap to a better backup sometime, I guess.

sleevedraw · Sep 20, 2023

Koushirou said:
AmEx gold annual is only $250/yr. If you use the $10 Uber cash and $10 dining credit every month, that already gets you $240 of the way to balancing that out (assuming you would have gotten Uber/dining already). There seems to be more and more places you can directly use membership points to pay, as well, like Amazon and I think PayPal also takes them now; could be wrong. You can also use points to credit your bill, though I don’t know if that conversion is any good. I just booked a vacation to Vegas this year purely with points I’d accumulated, though. Feels good.

I do keep a BestBuy Visa that was my first CC I got when I financed a TV a long while back just in case AmEx isn’t taken. Has some sort of points system I don’t know too much on but I set it to utilities and I throw them on there and every couple of weeks I get a gift cert to BestBuy. I should probably swap to a better backup sometime, I guess.

Unfortunately, the statement credit for MR is pretty shit. I think it's 0.6-0.7 cents per point. Very easy to get 1:1 if you redeem directly for travel. Some of the gift card options are also 1:1.

For utilities, your best bet is the US Bank Cash+. 5%.

Sanrith Descartes · Sep 20, 2023

Koushirou said:
AmEx gold annual is only $250/yr. If you use the $10 Uber cash and $10 dining credit every month, that already gets you $240 of the way to balancing that out (assuming you would have gotten Uber/dining already). There seems to be more and more places you can directly use membership points to pay, as well, like Amazon and I think PayPal also takes them now; could be wrong. You can also use points to credit your bill, though I don’t know if that conversion is any good. I just booked a vacation to Vegas this year purely with points I’d accumulated, though. Feels good.

I do keep a BestBuy Visa that was my first CC I got when I financed a TV a long while back just in case AmEx isn’t taken. Has some sort of points system I don’t know too much on but I set it to utilities and I throw them on there and every couple of weeks I get a gift cert to BestBuy. I should probably swap to a better backup sometime, I guess.

I use the Fidelity Visa (2% back) as my backup in case they don't take Amex.

Feien · Sep 20, 2023

For the Amex Gold, a good way to use your $10 dining credit is go to a Cheesecake Factory once a month, buy a &10 gift card. This way you wont be spending more than the $10 they are hoping you spend

Haus · Sep 20, 2023

Better hold on to your points filled hats lads.... There's a bill in congress to open up payment network access so that Visa and MC no longer have a duopoly in the space, and if you listen to the Visa/MC backed astroturfing sites this would mean DOOM for points rewards (which they pay for with the stupid fees they make off owning the transaction networks).

Durbin, Marshall Introduce Bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act | U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois

The Official U.S. Senate website of Dick Durbin

www.durbin.senate.gov

The astroturfed response....

So Bad: US Senate Bill Proposing To Ruin Credit Card Rewards

A new bill proposal making its way in the U.S. Senate could kill, or significantly hamper credit card rewards and even end some premium cards.

www.godsavethepoints.com

Araysar · Sep 21, 2023

Bandwagon said:
Godamn, what a writeup. Thanks! I suppose I am a vet, so I'll try that one first. Appreciate the summary and recommendations. The one card I have already is with Capital one. I know I get cash back now the rarw times I use it, but don't know what it is. I'll go look it up. If the miles cards aren't as good as I thought, maybe I'm not that far off from one of these right now.

I have 10+ credit cards so I was using an app called Max Rewards to min/max points for about a year. Eventually it got old, so I settled on one card that had no annual fee and gave me overall the best cash back that I apply to my statement as credit every month. It's Citi Double Cash and it's basically a flat 2% on everything. It's one of the cards

sleevedraw mentioned.

I use Citi Double Cash for everything: groceries, utility bills, all recurring bills, etc. and then pay off the statement balance every month. Nowadays, I get about $40-60 back each month.

Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

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