Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

Araysar · Sep 21, 2023

fris said:
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.

This is also good advice. I signed up for CK a few years ago when I didn't care about my credit or anything like that. It taught me how credit scores work, how to min/max them, showed me my options for loans, credit cards, got me out of a jam more than once, etc. It ended up making me much smarter about personal finances and improved my credit score by almost 200 points.

Araysar · Sep 21, 2023

As far as Amex goes, I cancelled my sole Amex card 2 years ago when they went super woke and started pushing BLM shit in my face. I know they're all like that, but AMEX was especially aggressive and in-your-face about it.

Palum · Sep 21, 2023

Haus said:
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

So the banks that pay network access and transaction fees to Visa and MC... use the money they pay them to give you points?

fris · Sep 21, 2023

Araysar said:
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.

I'm debating this. I have one card with an annual fee, Chase Sapphire $99/year. I then have a few other chace cards, discover, amex blue, few Wells Fargo and the US Bank + . Each month/quarter I could plan what card goes where, but I'm over it. I'm moving all my house bills to the US Bank and considering dropping the sapphire. I really travel and hotels I use aren't in their portal.

Control · Sep 21, 2023

Also possibly useful for some people: It's been a few years, so it may be different now, but if you fly internationally with any regularity, the airline points might be much better than the .01 per point sounds. Some of the airlines (I think I used United, American, and BA this way) use a region system for the point cost of the flights instead of a direct $ to point ratio, so especially for some of the more pricy routes, you can get much better deals this way.

Tmac · Sep 21, 2023

I use Marriot Bonvoy bc we stay in a lot of hotels every year; or atleast more than we fly.

I've currently got about a million points saved up. Wondering what kind of exotic vacation to go on

I still don't have a personal credit card though. Starting to wonder why I haven't replaced my debit card since I could be farming points.

sleevedraw · Sep 21, 2023

Control said:
Also possibly useful for some people: It's been a few years, so it may be different now, but if you fly internationally with any regularity, the airline points might be much better than the .01 per point sounds. Some of the airlines (I think I used United, American, and BA this way) use a region system for the point cost of the flights instead of a direct $ to point ratio, so especially for some of the more pricy routes, you can get much better deals this way.

The Big Three (United/Delta/AA) all now use a dynamic point pricing model. So does Southwest. AA was the last holdout and switched in 2022.

British Airways and some of the overseas carriers still use static point charts, but they are becoming rarer and rarer. Likewise, it is still possible to find outsized deals at 2-3 cents per point (and the probability of finding a good deal is still generally higher for int'l than domestic), but you really need to research.

Unlike a lot of people here, I enjoy the optimization game and have no problem with keeping track of multiple cards, but the point game is too finicky and frustrating even for me. I do drop a lot of money on my AA card because the changes to AAdvantage mean that credit card spend now directly ties into status (I'm AA Gold, which helps with travel at DFW immensely), but other than that, I stick strictly to cash back.

My current setup:
Groceries/Flat Cash: AAdvantage MileUp (2.5x groceries; 1.25x everything else because I have an affinity savings account. I personally value AA miles at 2 cents per point because of my status and because I live near an AA hub, but others would have different valuations here.)
Sit-Down Restaurants/Drugstores: Chase Freedom Unlimited (3%)
Utilities/Fast Food: USB Cash+ (5%)
Online purchases/Warehouse clubs: BofA Customized Cash Rewards (4.5% / 3%)

Haus · Sep 22, 2023

I think I chipped in this bit earlier in this thread but it's too long to go back and read.

I have several cards. I use one on a regular basis. Use and completely pay off every 2 weeks.

Amazon Prime Visa - 5 points on Amazon purchases, 2 points on gas, 1 point on everything else. No annual fee.

It's worked out pretty well overall. Don't know what the criteria to qualify for one is. I have literally had this card for almost 20 years. My wife was a huge Amazon customer when it was mostly "just books" so it's always made sense to have prime, this card slots in well with that. Now Amazon is our first stop impulse buy zone, not to mention my more esoteric hobbies I can't get things for just anywhere, but can there.

Sanrith Descartes · Sep 23, 2023

Haus said:
I think I chipped in this bit earlier in this thread but it's too long to go back and read.

I have several cards. I use one on a regular basis. Use and completely pay off every 2 weeks.

Amazon Prime Visa - 5 points on Amazon purchases, 2 points on gas, 1 point on everything else. No annual fee.

It's worked out pretty well overall. Don't know what the criteria to qualify for one is. I have literally had this card for almost 20 years. My wife was a huge Amazon customer when it was mostly "just books" so it's always made sense to have prime, this card slots in well with that. Now Amazon is our first stop impulse buy zone, not to mention my more esoteric hobbies I can't get things for just anywhere, but can there.

I actually took your advice on this when you mentioned it. Got the Amazon Visa just for Amazon purchases. With the new house and new office/business the amount we spent on Amazon was significant. That 5% back is insane when the numbers start adding up.

I just do the math on every purchase now and ask "Walmart/Ebay with 1.5% off or Amazon with 5% off?" Amazon now wins a lot more purchase decisions.

Fadaar · Sep 30, 2023

Pretty sure I mentioned it in this thread but only CC I've used in the last 12+ years has been the Amazon one. It's nice when you save up points and get $200+ worth of stuff from rewards. Upgraded PC parts a while back and didn't have to pay for the CPU.

Gator · Oct 3, 2023

I've been thinking of opening a Amazon card since we purchased quite a bit from there. Just never pulled the trigger on it. I've had the Citi Cash back card since 2015 and put everything on there and pay it off at the end of the month. Seeing the renewed interest in the thread reminded me that I once posted about the card before. I had to look it up and it was in 2015...damn, time flies.

Also, I just use the rewards for statement credit on the Cash back card. I did the math and it seems you only get about .80¢ for the Thank You points if you use it on Amazon instead of getting the full dollar amount of used as a statement credit.

Haus · Oct 3, 2023

Gator said:
I've been thinking of opening a Amazon card since we purchased quite a bit from there. Just never pulled the trigger on it. I've had the Citi Cash back card since 2015 and put everything on there and pay it off at the end of the month. Seeing the renewed interest in the thread reminded me that I once posted about the card before. I had to look it up and it was in 2015...damn, time flies.

Also, I just use the rewards for statement credit on the Cash back card. I did the math and it seems you only get about .80¢ for the Thank You points if you use it on Amazon instead of getting the full dollar amount of used as a statement credit.

But if you use Amazon much you just use the points for Amazon purchases where you get the full value, and prevents it from becoming card balance.

Intrinsic · Oct 6, 2023

The place where I did my small business banking shut down so needed to find another credit card. Didn’t even know this thread existed. Since we already have Chase for Amazon and a Freedom card I just did a Chase Sapphire. Was going to do the Marriott Bonvoy since I only stay at Fairfield on work trips, but it is 3-4 nights a month and this looked more flexible overall. Don’t generate a ton of expenses work related anyways.

The Amazon card has been awesome though with all the cash back.

Haus · Oct 6, 2023

Intrinsic said:
The place where I did my small business banking shut down so needed to find another credit card. Didn’t even know this thread existed. Since we already have Chase for Amazon and a Freedom card I just did a Chase Sapphire. Was going to do the Marriott Bonvoy since I only stay at Fairfield on work trips, but it is 3-4 nights a month and this looked more flexible overall. Don’t generate a ton of expenses work related anyways.

The Amazon card has been awesome though with all the cash back.

That's close to my layout...
Chase Amazon for just about everything..
Chase Sapphire to back that up..
Capital One Venture One for... uhm... I honestly have no clue as to why.

Then a few other cards I'll use and then pay off each time they send a "use this or we're gonna cancel it" notice....

Aorin · Oct 7, 2023

I only have 2 that I use.
Amazon for anything on Amazon.
Fidelity 2% Visa for everything else. I transfer the points to my brokerage and and buy index funds.

Xarpolis · Nov 5, 2023

Amazon card is my basic for everything. I also have the highest level membership at both Costco & Sam's Club (and their own CC's). I use those two CC's only for those 2 stores. Costco gets all my gas and some other odds and ends. Sam's gets all meat purchases and most other shit that I want to have around. Those are the only 3 cards I use on a regular basis.

Mist · Nov 5, 2023

I've got Amazon for 5% there.
Citi Custom Cash for 5% on gas.
SoFi for 3% back on everything, but that'll eventually go down.
Savor for 4% back at restaurants and 3% back at the grocery store. -But I have the old Savor that's grandfathered in with no annual fee.

Foler · Nov 22, 2023

I switched over to using fidelity’s cash back card a few years ago thanks to the advice of

sleevedraw . I cashed out years of chase points for cash - I saw chase offering shittier and shittier flight options on their portals over the years.

QQ - is fidelity still the best cash back option? I do a ton of Amazon purchases, is there a card that will outcompete fidelity on that? Outcompete as in cash back/save me money. I don’t need travel points or anything.

Sanrith Descartes · Nov 22, 2023

Foler said:
I switched over to using fidelity’s cash back card a few years ago thanks to the advice of sleevedraw . I cashed out years of chase points for cash - I saw chase offering shittier and shittier flight options on their portals over the years.

QQ - is fidelity still the best cash back option? I do a ton of Amazon purchases, is there a card that will outcompete fidelity on that? Outcompete as in cash back/save me money. I don’t need travel points or anything.

Amazon has a Prime Chase card. its 5% back on Amazon purchases (and lower for various other purchases). Its unbeatable if you want an Amazon only card.

Foler · Nov 22, 2023

Sanrith Descartes said:
Amazon has a Prime Chase card. its 5% back on Amazon purchases (and lower for various other purchases). Its unbeatable if you want an Amazon only card.

Thanks. With how much I use Amazon I think it may be worth it for me..

Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

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