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Hi Guys,
I just joined the forum and had a question to ask.
I currently have AE Blue Cash Everyday (For grocery), AARP Chase (Gas and Restaurant), Discover (5% rotating), and Capital One QS (for all other purchase).
Due to my circumstances, I will be spending roughly around $3500 just for hotel next year. I usaully book through hotwire and priceline because I get a best deal from there. My Capital One credit tracker says I am at 717, and Discover FICO at 704. I opened my first credit card just a year ago and got the AARP and AE Blue Cash Everyday yesterday.
I do have 23 inquires since last September, and around 15 of them are due to auto loan inquries.
I am looking to apply for the card in December since I don't need it now. I've found Huntington Voice would be a good fit because I can just choose 3% on travel every quarter. Since I will be using the card only for airfare and hotel, annual fee cards won't make much sense to me. I am also wondering if Priceline and Hotwire purchase counts toward travel and hotel.
Do you guys have any recommendations?
Thanks!
Just for next year only, I will be spending a lot of money on hotel (~$3500). I stay at random hotels through hotwire or priceline deals so a brand-name hotel card won't make sense to me.
I'm like you OP, I find I get much better deals through 3rd party sources like Hotwire, Priceline, Expedia, etc. I've found that I get the best value through some type of cash rewards (Venture, Arrival+, DC all give around 2%), and then collect actualy points for stays with each vendor. The absolute best is the SSFCU Power Travel Rewards which gives 3.3%, but it has limited service area.
Your $3500 in says probably isn't enough to hit a higher loyalty tier, so it might be best to try to get the initial tier at several different hotels. You could try to get a loyalty CC with one specific brand, but that won't allow you to take advantage of Hotwire or 3rd part booking sites. When booking in a particular city a competitor property might be $30/night less (or in a more convenient location, or have certain ammenities), but if you're locked into collecting points with just one brand, you might miss out on the actual best price, location or ammenities for your stay. If you reach the higher loyalty tiers that might be worth it, but I've found the flexibility is generally more valuable for me.
If you plan on continuing to book through OTAs, I would suggest joining Orbitz and getting the Orbitz Rewards Visa. You get 5% back for all Orbitz purchases on the card in addition to the rewards you earn through Orbitz for the booking (which is another 5% if you use their mobile app to book, or 3% if you book on desktop). Plus, Orbitz' price match guarantee means that they will not only comopensate you if you find a lower price, but also give you another $100 (for gold members, which is automatic if you have their card) in rewards. The restriction is that your rewards can only be redeemed on hotels booked and prepaid through Orbitz - which shouldn't be an issue if you are booking hotels anyway. And you can redeem any amount. You don't have to wait till you have enough rewards (called "Orbucks" where 1 Orbuck = 1 USD) for a full stay or even a full night - you just pay the rest in cash/credit.
If you don't want to get another card, since you already have the Discover card, look in Discover Deals and see if they have extra cashback for the travel sites you want (I know they have a 5% promo for Orbitz).
For fairly infrequent travel, cash back will beat a branded "travel" card most of the time. As yfan said, if you have Discover, using Discover Deals for Orbitz etc is a great deal at the moment.
Thanks for the advice guys.
I got into Upromise card by Sallie Mae. It's giving me 5% unlimited cash back for travel and dining. Seems like a decent deal. I am just wondering if anyone has used this card before. I am leaning towards Airbnb for booking my stay next year since it's cheaper and nicer. Would Airbnb counts as travel and will get cash back for those cards have travel rewards built in it? Looks like Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard gives 2% for all purchase, but I am not a big spender and meeting $3k for 3 months for $400 rewards seems to be a reach. And plus 2% seems pretty low. I can cancel before it hits the second year to avoid annual fee though.
Any thoughts?
There are a few options here. You could try for the citi prestige and take advantage of the 4th night free if your stays will be that long. Plus the sign up bonus is nice.
You can also get extra % off with priceline as an AOL member (up to 8% back) so you could pair that with your already earning cash back card.
Citi Expedia+ Voyager may be a viable option (if you look at their vip list of hotels and could stay at them it would double the value. General expedia bookings from mobile would net you 7 points per dollar spent. Also maybe expedia will have coupons next year? right now they have 25 off 100 that has been of big use to me.
Priceline visa only will give u extra 5% with name your own price bookings, not sure about when its not NYOP
Basically you can always get a decent deal by using a cash back portal on top of a cash back credit card..... the upromise can be 10%........
TLDR: check out the voyager+ vip list, if you can use points there this is a great option. If staying over 2 nights check out the prestige.
Ebates visa would give you 3 percent on top of the 4-4.5 percent.