@kdm31091 wrote:
@redpat wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@redpat wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@SunriseEarth wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@SunriseEarth wrote:My dining card of choice is the Sam's Club MC. I have 3% dining. The 5% gas is also nice.
Other options you might consider would be Chase AARP and Golden 1 CU (if you're in their footprint) for 3% dining. Huntington Voice also lets your choose 3% dining as a category, but you also need to be in their footprint.
As for cards with rotating categories, Discover It is a great option. Q2 was 5% dining. And new customers will get all cashback rewards doubled after 12 months, which makes this a de factor 2% general spend card for the first year.
What's dubious is whether 3% is really significant enough over 2% on $2k a year spend for dining (comes out to less than 2 bucks more a month) .That's for OP to decide though.
Discover's effective 10% on dining w/ the promo for even a quarter means it would take a long time for an AARP/Voice/etc to catch up, rewards wise, but the dining quarter has already passed. Unless OP gets Discover now and still can get the double promo and use it for next's year dining quarter.
"Worth" is always an interesting factor. For example, the $100 sign-up bonus for QS means that Citi DC's 2% wouldn't beat QS's 1.5% until you spend over $20K.
Is it worth taking another TL for an extra $20 in pocket? Perhaps not, but there are other factors to consider. If another TL would help with UTIL and maintaining enough zero balances, for example, that's a nice factor.
Very true. It would also tip the scales if the 3% dining cards offered some other compelling feature. I am not super familiar with the Voice card so not sure what else you get out of it besides 3% dining, but the AARP seems to be literally just a 3% dining card (ok and gas) and that's about it, no real other perk or incentive or features.
Umm, you forgot 3% on travel 4% through Chase travel and 1% everything else. So the AARP card can really go head to head with QS and DC depending on spend categories. FTEs just like DC.
It's more than just a restaurant and gas card. Lol, I might have talked myself into getting it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, though - you don't get the 3% on travel alongside with the dining.
There are two versions of the AARP card, one of which offers the 3% travel, the other with the 3% dining/gas -- but not both together. You choose one or the other.
You do get x2 in travel. Not x3. One additional point if booked through Chase.
I'm very confused. Looking directly at the Chase AARP site two cards are listed. 3% dining/gas, and a seperate 3% travel card. It's one or the other. There's no mention of 2% travel on either one.
See terms and conditions, 1 additional point if travel is booked through their toll free number. Very confusing.
Personal Cards: Amex Plat | Amex Delta Res | CSR | Citi AA Exec Business Cards: Ink+ | Amex BGR
@kdm31091 wrote:
redpat wroteSee terms and conditions, 1 additional point if travel is booked through their toll free number. Very confusing.
Right, IF you get the version of the AARP which offers the 3% travel which is not the same as the dining/gas version. again, it's either or...the 3% travel card with the 1% bonus for booking through them, or the dining/gas 3% card. It's not both. They are two different products.
I'm done with aarp. They should offer an additional point for early bird specials, lol!
I'm holding onto my Citi Forward card with legacy rewards for as long as possible, but when that's all over I'll probably switch the 3% category on my Amex SimplyCash to dining, or just bite the bullet and get the AARP card lol
I honestly feel like everyone should carry a freedom or discover it, preferrably both and then you have at least a quarter of 5% if not 6 months and then I personally like the CSP (PRG not bad either) during other quarters. A bonus with the csp is it makes the freedom restaurant quarters around 10+% and it isn't embarrassing to use 
@Revelate wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Gosh, I'm not one for vanity, but I just can't swallow the idea of dropping $100-150+ at a swanky restaurant for a night on the town and pulling out my AARP (I'm in my 20's) or SAM'S CLUB card to pay the tab. I'll take the measly 2% back on my Fido Amex or put it on one of my airline cards, the extra 1% isn't worth my pride especially as I dine out infrequently. To each their own though.
Like most sentences that begin "I'm not [a racist/old-fashioned/lacking a sense of humor etc]" the rest of the sentence suggests that in fact you are! Some people really wouldn't care about which card they use, providing it maximizes the reward. So, yes, you are vain at least to the extent of 1%
Yeah, perhaps a little, I'll take it. In general I tend not to make decisions based on silly factors like these, but at this I draw the line. The 1% on what ends up being a small amount isn't worth it to me, or worth carrying around another card. I'll lose the $1-2 gladly.
KDM, at least I am not the only one :-)
Right, unless you are dining out at super expensive restaurants every day, 3% vs 2% is not going to be significant anyway, so if the AARP is uncomfortable for you (like it is for me), then so be it. We can get it when we're older if it still exists lol
If you eat out even at cheap restaurants every day which is on the order of $600/mo or $7200/year, $72 difference per year. For a fact when I was doing the YNAB budget, I was ready to give up my $10/month donation, so could that easily; FWIW that is my use case for a 3% vs. 2% card at a minimum and some of my meals are more than $10, that's baseline Chipotle there.
If you're eating out at nice restaurants regularly where it's more like $20/plate instead of $10 (my boss's baseline is Kings Fish House as an example), double that to $144 / year, and if you're eating out at super expensive places that I put non-trivially above that, just saying there's an arguement to be made for an additional $2-500 depending on your spend annually. I just figure I can get 1.5 cpp on the CSP without trying all that hard, and as such restaurant spend gets dumped there in my world rather than the AARP or aforementinoed SSFCU card as the AF will be made on other spending.
I think this thread is really a consipiracy to get me to app for the Golden 1. Luckily the hotel I'm at in SF this morning isn't the one 5 doors down from a branch like the one last week was.
@Anonymous wrote:
I honestly feel like everyone should carry a freedom or discover it, preferrably both and then you have at least a quarter of 5% if not 6 months and then I personally like the CSP (PRG not bad either) during other quarters. A bonus with the csp is it makes the freedom restaurant quarters around 10+% and it isn't embarrassing to use
And brclark just talked me out of it with a Freedom and two Discovers. Let's all send our energy to getting Chase and Discover to choose different restaurant quarters next year!