Who's reward program is the best?

[yfan]

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@JayMari28 wrote:

Yeah, I'm not asking literally which one is the best out of every card, I OBVIOUSLY know that it depends on your personal preferences. I'm asking to explain the rewards programs you have, as in the type of redemption values/options that your card has & which one YOU think is the best out of the ones you have. 

So if you care to explain your situation feel free to do so, but if your comment is to simply say "my favorite might not be yours" then just don't comment cause that's not the intent of my post. I just want to know how ALL of the rewards programs work & get the various opinions of card holders without having to search individual cards & programs.

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Relax. People aren't saying that to offend you. It's a matter-of-fact statement, and it's not directed at you to mean personal offense. Second, once you post in a public forum, you really can't tell people not to comment. That's not how this works.

Now, for me, I like several rewards programs, and they are pretty much all cashback. In no particular order:

• Discover IT: 5% categories are useful, redemptions with gift cards up the value, and rewards aren't eaten up by FTF if you use it in a foreign country.
• Costco/Amex TE: 3% on gas including Costco gas, 2% on travel and dining, 1% everything else. Only problem with redemption is that it can only be done once a year, in the form of a voucher redeemable at Costco only. It will be interesting to see the transition once the Costco-Amex relationship ends next year.
• Orbitz Visa: While this is technically not cash, it earns in the form of Orbucks with 1 orbuck = $1 ratio restricting redemption only to prepaid hotels on Orbitz, the earning rate is fantastic. 5% on all Orbitz purchases (this is on top of what you earn for booking on Orbitz with any payment method) and 2% flat on everywhere else. But to sweeten the deal, every couple months or so I get a mailer from them uppping that 2% to 4% in certain catagories of spending. For February, that category was everythig - they just flat doubled the rate on everything. Needless to say it became my main general spend card this month. Redemption is easy and has no minimum. No FTF
• Capital One QuickSilver: No minimum redemption, immediate posting of rewards (i.e. no waiting for a statement to cut), simplicity of rewards earning (1.5% across everything, and no FTF).

[Open123]

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@JayMari28 wrote:

Reward credit cards are obivously growing, but with all of the many different options, how do we know which one is the best? 

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Ah, it really depends on (1) your annual expenditures, and (2) your preference to travel or cash rebates.

In general (not considering sign-up bonuses) for Cash rewards:

1.  Cash rewards - Discover is best if you prefer to redeem for gift cards they stock.

2.  Pure Cash - Simply, Fidelity Amex or Citi 2%.

3.  Whatever rotating 5% category fits your needs.

4.  Sallie Mae if your spend is less than $750 per month on their categories.

Travel Rewards:

1.  UR - Cash flexibility and if you value transfers to UA, or need points to round up stays with their hotel partners.  They also have the best sign-up bonuses, in my view.

2.  MR - If you value premium cabin flights and can spend to earn or harvest enough MR points.

3.  SPG - If you frequent Starwoods properties and use the "cash+points" option.

In general, I've found most people will likely find one of the above listed categores as the "best" rewards option.  

[Anonymous]

Lol yeah I know but that's just a well known phrase posted on almost every post & for people to repeatedly say it as if we're in elementary school is kind of irritating. Being overly redundant is just a pet peeve of mine, so sorry.

But moving on to the rewards, I like the sound of your Orbitz card. Is there an annual fee?

I think the Quicksilver is a nice reward card but the annual fee is a deal breaker

[Imperfectfuture]

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@JayMari28 wrote:
Lol yeah I know but that's just a well known phrase posted on almost every post & for people to repeatedly say it as if we're in elementary school is kind of irritating. Being overly redundant is just a pet peeve of mine, so sorry.

But moving on to the rewards, I like the sound of your Orbitz card. Is there an annual fee?

I think the Quicksilver is a nice reward card but the annual fee is a deal breaker

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There is no annual fee on the regular quicksilver.  And I got my annual fee perma waived.

[yfan]

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@JayMari28 wrote:

But moving on to the rewards, I like the sound of your Orbitz card. Is there an annual fee?

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Nope, no annual fee. And while you usually can't earn hotel rewards points if you book and prepay through Orbitz, you can double-dip with airline miles for flights booked through Orbitz (i.e. earn Orbucks and also airline miles).

And the QS has no annual fee. The Quicksilver One does, but not the Quicksilver.

[kdm31091]

I agree that sometimes on these forums (myself included) we get a little too caught up in repeating ourselves with "that's subjective! that's opinion! you can't decide based on what we say! There's no set criteria!"

While these do sometimes bear repeating, they are also common sense so we don't need to repeat them over and over and over in every thread. Thank you for pointing it out.

I think next time, avoiding the use of "best" in your title will help steer people away from the inevitable response of "it's subjective". It's just a habitual response to someone asking for the "best". As I said, I do it too. Try asking what reward program works well for you? Or something less absolute than "best". I will repeat it one more time haha, there is never a "best" credit card or reward program as these are all just opinions at the end of the day. What I get a ton of use out of may be virtually useless for someone else, and vice versa.

[longtimelurker]

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@JayMari28 wrote:

Yeah, I'm not asking literally which one is the best out of every card, I OBVIOUSLY know that it depends on your personal preferences. I'm asking to explain the rewards programs you have, as in the type of redemption values/options that your card has & which one YOU think is the best out of the ones you have. 

So if you care to explain your situation feel free to do so, but if your comment is to simply say "my favorite might not be yours" then just don't comment cause that's not the intent of my post. I just want to know how ALL of the rewards programs work & get the various opinions of card holders without having to search individual cards & programs.

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OK, but remember on this forum we do get people asking "which credit card is best" and meaning more or less exactly that.   A title like "Which reward program is best for you?" would have been a clearer indication of what you wanted   

[Anonymous]

Personally, I find my little mix of cards to work best for me.

3% on restaurants with Chase AARP

5% on groceries and Amazon with Sallie Mae

3% + costco discount on gas

1.875% (soon to be 2.25%) on everything else with Travel rewards.

$30 per quarter just to use the card once and pay it off with BBR.

SD my QS for backup card for foreign travel.

Only AF I pay is my annual Costco membership fee.  If I valued travel more, I'd probably look at the Freedom/CSP combo, but at the moment, my spending/travel doesn't justify that.

EDIT: my redemption options are limited to cash and statement credits (yes, BoA requires travel), but I travel once or twice a year, and points don't expire so I'm not worried about not being able to redeem.  There is no bonus value to my points, but they aren't deflated either, unlike some point systems out there (cough US Bank cough cough).

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Personally, I find my little mix of cards to work best for me.

3% on restaurants with Chase AARP

5% on groceries and Amazon with Sallie Mae

3% + costco discount on gas

1.875% (soon to be 2.25%) on everything else with Travel rewards.

$30 per quarter just to use the card once and pay it off with BBR.

SD my QS for backup card for foreign travel.

Only AF I pay is my annual Costco membership fee.  If I valued travel more, I'd probably look at the Freedom/CSP combo, but at the moment, my spending/travel doesn't justify that.

EDIT: my redemption options are limited to cash and statement credits (yes, BoA requires travel), but I travel once or twice a year, and points don't expire so I'm not worried about not being able to redeem.  There is no bonus value to my points, but they aren't deflated either, unlike some point systems out there (cough US Bank cough cough).

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I'm assuming the Travel rewards is BOA but with only traveling once or twice a year, is it still useful/beneficial? I travel about the same so I hesitate before going after travel cards. Also, when you're purchasing out of the CB categories, do you have a particular card that you pull out? Like when it falls in the "everything else" column, do you have a card that you prefer to build up CB on?