topic Re: your favourite credit cards in Credit Cards

your favourite credit cards

proton022 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:17:46 GMT

Folks,

I've a 10+ year long credit history, but due to my silly mistake (:smileyembarrassed:) both credit cards that I had got cancelled by the creditor two years ago. I'm now an authorized user on my spouse's CCs. I want to untie myself from hers, and start holding my own set of CCs.

FICO scores: EQ: 795, TU: 782, EX: 742 (all one week old, obtained from a lender pull).

There is an overwhelming amount of information out there, but it would be nice to know your favourite card for each of the following two categories if you were me. I pay in full, so APR doesn't matter.

1. Rewards card:

My spouse has Chase Freedom, but I find the revolving categories a pain to track. I'm thinking of PenFed Platinum Rewards, which gives about 3% rewards on grocery, 5% on gas, and 1% for the rest. May be also add PenFed Premium Travel Rewards for getting 5% back on flight tickets. PenFed also seems to serve a worthy cause. Are there better ones than these?

2. Travel Card:

I travel about 6-8 times a year about equally on Delta and UA. Nice to have complimentary companion travel, lounge accesses, and no fee on foreign transactions. Any card that gives all these for ~100$ fee? I used to have Citi PremierPass Elite, which gets close to this, but I'm not sure if they give Priority Pass club access these days with it.

Re: your favourite credit cards

jtc411 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:43:01 GMT

I'm a huge fan of the Us Bank Cash+ rewards card. 2 revolving 5% cash back catagories and 2% on gas or groceries, and 1 % back on everything else along with no AF.

Re: your favourite credit cards

CruzImperial — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:56:08 GMT

I like this card very much as well. It´s included in my to-get list :)

Besides that, the BCP 6% groceries/supermarkets is not bad, even with AF.

Re: your favourite credit cards

CribDuchess — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:59:51 GMT

jtc411 wrote:
I'm a huge fan of the Us Bank Cash+ rewards card. 2 revolving 5% cash back catagories and 2% on gas or groceries, and 1 % back on everything else along with no AF.

+1 I'm also a huge fan of the US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature card. Received my card a week ago and have already racked up almost $50 in cash back (which I won't redeem until it reaches $100 so I get the $25 bonus). I chose bill pay and department stores for my 5% categories, and grocery for my 2% category. I will earn roughly $36 per month just on the bill pay category alone. I'm loving that.

My other go-to card for cash back rewards is Amex's Blue Cash Everyday. I use that to get 3% on grocery and 2% on gas. I do some of my grocery shopping at Walmart, which the BCE doesn't recognize for grocery, so when shopping at Walmart, I use my cash+ card to get at least the 2% on groceries.

I also have Discover and will use that depending on what the quarterly categories are.

Re: your favourite credit cards

Crashem — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:03:11 GMT

Op, no companion pass benefit is really that good. Usually you need to buy more expensive ticket to qualify for free companion pass. Usually doesn't really save you any money compared to buying two discounted tickets. The only exception I can see is Alaska airlines card.

Re: your favourite credit cards

Crashem — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:08:12 GMT

Us bank cash+ card isn't a great cash back card on its own. The 5% categories are limited in scope (eg restaurants and fast food are two categories). There are better stand alone cash back cards. The gas-grocery combo cards are usually best given most people's spending. However cash+ card is awesome when used in conjunction with other cards. The main reason is that you can select the categories and more importantly, there are some categories that no other cards seem to have. Cash+ basically let's you fill in high tier rewardsyour some spending categories not covered by other cards at similar levels.

Re: your favourite credit cards

MrGoat — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:50:36 GMT

As far as CL and APR citibank is my favorite. My wifes citi is 6.74%APR. I didnt even know CC's could go that low. Mine is 10,74, but Ive also had bad credit in the past. The wife hasnt.

As far as getting something back for using the CC, Chase Amazon is my favorite. We use them and get points for every purchase, double points for gas and triple for stuff we buy on Amazon, then use those points to buy stuff on Amazon.

As long as you pay the balance off quickly enough and dont have to pay interest its like free money. We've bought all sorts of stuff off Amazon with the points.

Re: your favourite credit cards

iMacDrew — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:56:23 GMT

The Cash+ card looks good for bills and stuff but not necessarily everyday spending.. also beware you may not be approved for the Cash+ but the lower. I appd for the CAsh+ and got the cash rewards. So if you arent 100% sure of approval for the cash + i wouldnt waste a hard pull on it. the Cash Rewards is just 1% on everything.

Re: your favourite credit cards

proton022 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:04:01 GMT

Thanks for the tip on cash+. I didn't about it before, it looks very useful.

Drew, Do you have a read on what are the approval odds for my credit? EX score is a bit low (740ish), but otherwise I should be ok..

Re: your favourite credit cards

Imhotrodcrazy — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:40:50 GMT

US Bank Cash+ card. It is my main go to card.

Re: your favourite credit cards

iMacDrew — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 20:27:41 GMT

I couldnt tell you what score exactly they require, but your scores should be good. It is a signature card so you if you have other credit cards with limits 5000 or over and nothing bad within a couple years you should be good.

Re: your favourite credit cards

Quips — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:19:42 GMT

proton022 wrote:
Folks,

I've a 10+ year long credit history, but due to my silly mistake (:smileyembarrassed:) both credit cards that I had got cancelled by the creditor two years ago. I'm now an authorized user on my spouse's CCs. I want to untie myself from hers, and start holding my own set of CCs.

FICO scores: EQ: 795, TU: 782, EX: 742 (all one week old, obtained from a lender pull).

There is an overwhelming amount of information out there, but it would be nice to know your favourite card for each of the following two categories if you were me. I pay in full, so APR doesn't matter.

1. Rewards card:

My spouse has Chase Freedom, but I find the revolving categories a pain to track. I'm thinking of PenFed Platinum Rewards, which gives about 3% rewards on grocery, 5% on gas, and 1% for the rest. May be also add PenFed Premium Travel Rewards for getting 5% back on flight tickets. PenFed also seems to serve a worthy cause. Are there better ones than these?

2. Travel Card:

I travel about 6-8 times a year about equally on Delta and UA. Nice to have complimentary companion travel, lounge accesses, and no fee on foreign transactions. Any card that gives all these for ~100$ fee? I used to have Citi PremierPass Elite, which gets close to this, but I'm not sure if they give Priority Pass club access these days with it.

Favorite Cards:

Rewards - I use 3-4 cards - Love the US Bank Cash + card and use the 5% categories for restaurants and paying utility bills, Use the BCP for Groceries (6%), Gas and Dept Stores (3%). Use Freedom when the 5% categories make sense, use Costco Amex travel (2%) and gas (3%) . I use the US Bank for anything that I am getting 1% back on since they give you a $25 bonus when you redeem $100 cash back.

Travel cards - I really don't travel enough to recommend any.

Re: your favourite credit cards

CreditScholar — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:20:18 GMT

My favorite card used to be the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but now it's my Chase United MileagePlus WEMC. It's an "all-in-one card", and I really like that.

For a UA flier, it's the closest thing to the Amex platinum given all of the benefits it comes with.

* Universal acceptance

* No forex fees

* Full United lounge membership

* Premier Access (priority check-in, priority airport security lines, priority boarding and baggage handling, 2 free checked bags)

* Hyatt Platinum

* Avis Presidents Club

* Access to Virtuoso since it's a World Elite MasterCard.

* Excellent earning power with 1.5 miles per dollar spent

I'll never achieve Hyatt Diamond given my current travel patterns, so this guarantees me platinum status without having to worry. Priority check-in and late check-out can be a lifesaver, while occasional room upgrades and free Internet are nice. Being able to use the elite check-in desk during a convention can save half an hour or more of waiting in line. Avis President's Club is great for upgrades, and unlike the Amex platinum it actually has good earning power so I am willing to push a lot of money through it.

I miss the CSPs ability to transfer points but since I only fly *A and do so regularly, I can always make use of whatever United miles I earn. The $395 AF doesn't bother me one bit. I can't comment on rewards cards since I don't have any.

Re: your favourite credit cards

Open123 — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:33:04 GMT

CreditScholar wrote:

* Excellent earning power with 1.5 miles per dollar spent

I didn't the 1.5% rewards on ALL spending.

Excellent all around card.

Re: your favourite credit cards

marty56 — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 19:40:25 GMT

Yours (or anyone else's I can steal)

Seriously my RBFCU Master card. 1% cashback, no games, can pay as often as I like.

The only down sidew is that they call me all the time to verify that the charges I made were valid.:smileyfrustrated:

Re: your favourite credit cards

LTomBerry — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:05:44 GMT

Amex Blue Cash Preferred for groceries & gas - the 6% and 3% are hard to beat.

Chase Sapphire Preferred for travel/restaurants. 2% cashback, no FTF, 7% annual bonus, and the ability to transfer points to multiple programs.

Both of these have annual fees so do the math to see if it makes the rewards worth it.

Also have Discover More & Chase Freedom for the 5% categories. The ability to transfer Freedom UR points to CSP is a nice perk.

Re: your favourite credit cards

migliogiorni — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:30:33 GMT

Amex BCEP

Re: your favourite credit cards

jsucool76 — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:48:43 GMT

This thread just makes me feel inadequate. I get 1% back on everything (plus the bonuses with PerkCentral - 1%-15%) and then a 50% bonus at the end of the year on my cap1 ...

:smileysad:

Re: your favourite credit cards

UFGuy2006 — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:49:31 GMT

For me its my Chase Freedom and/or Discover IT card.

Re: your favourite credit cards

proton022 — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:33:44 GMT

Thanks for all your input.

It sounds like US Bank cash+ and Amex BCP together can work well, getting nearly 5-6% on most categories.

I'm still not sure about the travel card though. Creditscholar, I couldn't find Chase United MileagePlus WEMC that you suggested. Do you know what is the best one could for a 100$ AF card?