Cards better than Freedom or Fidelity Amex?

xgac12x · ‎03-08-2014

I may be looking to pick up something new over the summer, something to finish off my portfolio before I leave for college. I was wondering, is there anything better than those two cards? Cash rewards wise - Ill apply with about a 20k income, and I'm going to be in the garden until then.

Thanks!

CARDS: CAPONEQUICKSILVERONE - $3,000.00

Leadberry · ‎03-08-2014

@xgac12x wrote:
I may be looking to pick up something new over the summer, something to finish off my portfolio before I leave for college. I was wondering, is there anything better than those two cards? Cash rewards wise - Ill apply with about a 20k income, and I'm going to be in the garden until then.

Thanks!

If you're going to be starting college, you'll definitely want something that gives you bonus rewards on food (unless you plan on sticking to a paid meal plan), although I don't really know of many cards with dining rewards better than 2%. If Huntington Bank is in your area, the Voice WMC is definitely one to consider.

As a general tip, check out Amazon for textbooks. In my case, they're almost always cheaper than the bookstores and with Amazon Student, you get free two-day shipping. Combined with your Sallie Mae card it's a no-brainer.

FICO Scores 800+

longtimelurker · ‎03-08-2014

@xgac12x wrote:
I may be looking to pick up something new over the summer, something to finish off my portfolio before I leave for college. I was wondering, is there anything better than those two cards? Cash rewards wise - Ill apply with about a 20k income, and I'm going to be in the garden until then.

Thanks!

If you don't have a UR transfer card (e.g. CSP or Ink), the Freedom is nothing very special unless you can spend in the 5% categories. With $20K income, your spend isn't likely to gain significant rewards on any card, so I would be inclined to go for a card with a big sign up bonus. Currently these include the CSP and the Arrival, and you could downgrade/cancel when the annual fee becomes due if that card isn't otherwise useful.

For a genuine useful card, I would go for the quicksilver, giving you 1.5% when the Fidelity isn't accepted. Disadvantage is it is probably a triple pull, and also probably not a huge amount of difference between 1.5 and 2% at those spending levels.