Credit Cards with Rewards

[DI]

Are there any benefits of having all rewards cards?  I just realized after reviewing all 11 of my cards, I am receiving rewards.  It looks like my State Farm card offers the best rewards followed by Discover, Kroger and Penfed.  Am I limiting myself from  accumulating a lot of cash back by not charging to one card?  Should I focus on putting all charges on my Kroger card since its the card that will provide me food and gas in the form of certificates? 

My PenFed, Discover More, StateFarm, GM and Kroger cards all offer real cash back.  My other cards offer points only.

[Anonymous]

---

@DI wrote:

Are there any benefits of having all rewards cards?  I just realized after reviewing all 11 of my cards, I am receiving rewards.  It looks like my State Farm card offers the best rewards followed by Discover, Kroger and Penfed.  Am I limiting myself from  accumulating a lot of cash back by not charging to one card?  Should I focus on putting all charges on my Kroger card since its the card that will provide me food and gas in the form of certificates? 

My PenFed, Discover More, StateFarm, GM and Kroger cards all offer real cash back.  My other cards offer points only.

---

Which PenFed card do you have?  My platnim cash back visa card puts my State Farm platinum card to shame.  FSB only gives1% State Farm Dollars.  I will say I love FSB's foreign exchange rate (1%) and 9.99% versus PenFed's rate.

If you don't get rewards, ya might as well use a debit card.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

If I had to get by with two PenFed and Discover would work pretty well for me:

PenFed for gas and groceries, plus whatever else didn't work out on Discover,

Discover for the rotating categories and ShopDiscover.

Both extremely easy to deal with and no hoop jumping. Beyond that almost every card I have (except my legacy cards) have some type of reward, I just don't go out of my way to make the most of them.

[haulingthescoreup]

It can be a PITA having a lot of rewards cards, because you often have to run a lot of money through a card to hit their good rewards. Not all, but plenty do --AmEx Blue Cash being a case in point.

I look on my cards as having different types of rewards --cash/points, yes, but also good APR's or high CL's. It's pretty rare to find one card that does all these well.

[Anonymous]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
It can be a PITA having a lot of rewards cards, because you often have to run a lot of money through a card to hit their good rewards. Not all, but plenty do --AmEx Blue Cash being a case in point.

I look on my cards as having different types of rewards --cash/points, yes, but also good APR's or high CL's. It's pretty rare to find one card that does all these well.

---

Ameriprise WE MC is one

[creditwherecreditisdue]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
It can be a PITA having a lot of rewards cards, because you often have to run a lot of money through a card to hit their good rewards. Not all, but plenty do --AmEx Blue Cash being a case in point.

I look on my cards as having different types of rewards --cash/points, yes, but also good APR's or high CL's. It's pretty rare to find one card that does all these well.

---

Ameriprise WE MC is one

---

That's a good one. Ameriprise is on my wish list!

[JagerBombs89]

---

@DI wrote:

Are there any benefits of having all rewards cards?  I just realized after reviewing all 11 of my cards, I am receiving rewards.  It looks like my State Farm card offers the best rewards followed by Discover, Kroger and Penfed.  Am I limiting myself from  accumulating a lot of cash back by not charging to one card?  Should I focus on putting all charges on my Kroger card since its the card that will provide me food and gas in the form of certificates? 

My PenFed, Discover More, StateFarm, GM and Kroger cards all offer real cash back.  My other cards offer points only.

---

Well, it all depends on the type of rewards offered.  I only have 1 card that is a Rewards Card, and its my Chase Military Star Card.  Once I hit 10,000 point on it, I can either receive a $110 gift card for my PX or $100 cash check.  This is useful as I use it to pay for all my bills, then just pay off the card with cash.  I've already cashed in one $110 gift card and almost to my 2nd one

[Anonymous]

I stick only to cash rebate cards.

I use a couple of grandfathered cards (Chase Rewards Plus and HSBC Direct Rewards) which pay 5% for supermarkets, drugstores, and gas.

For everything else, I use my Schwab 2% card.

Overall, I realize around 2.5% return per year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Message Edited by LustForTheMoment on 10-24-2009 11:09 AM

[CodeMonkey]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
It can be a PITA having a lot of rewards cards, because you often have to run a lot of money through a card to hit their good rewards. Not all, but plenty do --AmEx Blue Cash being a case in point.

I look on my cards as having different types of rewards --cash/points, yes, but also good APR's or high CL's. It's pretty rare to find one card that does all these well.

---

Ameriprise WE MC is one

---

Yep, I just opened one: $10.5k CL, 4.5% APR (prime + 1.25% - that's lower than my 30-year fixed mortgage right now), 1.5% cash-back.

My credit score isn't even that stellar right now either - in the 720s/730s when I applied (it had dropped down from the 780s over the course of the last year or so due to opening some new TLs).

ETA: Forgot to add - apparently they're now waiving the $150 annual fee for the life of the card. So on top of all that, you also get a free PriorityPass membership - so much for AMEX Platinum, I guess.

Message Edited by CodeMonkey on 10-24-2009 12:41 PM

[DI]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@DI wrote:

Are there any benefits of having all rewards cards?  I just realized after reviewing all 11 of my cards, I am receiving rewards.  It looks like my State Farm card offers the best rewards followed by Discover, Kroger and Penfed.  Am I limiting myself from  accumulating a lot of cash back by not charging to one card?  Should I focus on putting all charges on my Kroger card since its the card that will provide me food and gas in the form of certificates? 

My PenFed, Discover More, StateFarm, GM and Kroger cards all offer real cash back.  My other cards offer points only.

---

Which PenFed card do you have?  My platnim cash back visa card puts my State Farm platinum card to shame.  FSB only gives1% State Farm Dollars.  I will say I love FSB's foreign exchange rate (1%) and 9.99% versus PenFed's rate.

If you don't get rewards, ya might as well use a debit card.

---

I have the Platinum Rewards card, but  I only use it to pay my cell phone bill.  I won't make any other charges on the card until my available credit is no longer held.