your favourite credit cards

[proton022]

Folks,

I've a 10+ year long credit history, but due to my silly mistake () both credit cards that I had got cancelled by the creditor two years ago. I'm now an authorized user on my spouse's CCs. I want to untie myself from hers, and start holding my own set of CCs. 

FICO scores: EQ: 795, TU: 782, EX: 742 (all one week old, obtained from a lender pull). 

There is an overwhelming amount of information out there, but it would be nice to know your favourite card for each of the following two categories if you were me. I pay in full, so APR doesn't matter. 

1. Rewards card: 

My spouse has Chase Freedom, but I find the revolving categories a pain to track.  I'm thinking of PenFed Platinum Rewards, which gives about 3% rewards on grocery, 5% on gas, and 1% for the rest.  May be also add PenFed Premium Travel Rewards for getting 5% back on flight tickets. PenFed also seems to serve a worthy cause. Are there better ones than these?

2. Travel Card:

I travel about 6-8 times a year about equally on Delta and UA.  Nice to have complimentary companion travel, lounge accesses, and no fee on foreign transactions. Any card  that gives all these for ~100$ fee? I used to have Citi PremierPass Elite, which gets close to this, but I'm not sure if they give Priority Pass club access these days with it.

[Anonymous]

I'm a huge fan of the Us Bank Cash+ rewards card.  2 revolving 5% cash back catagories and 2% on gas or groceries, and 1 % back on everything else along with no AF. 

[CruzImperial]

I like this card very much as well. It´s included in my to-get list

Besides that, the BCP 6% groceries/supermarkets is not bad, even with AF.

[CribDuchess]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm a huge fan of the Us Bank Cash+ rewards card.  2 revolving 5% cash back catagories and 2% on gas or groceries, and 1 % back on everything else along with no AF. 

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+1  I'm also a huge fan of the US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature card.  Received my card a week ago and have already racked up almost $50 in cash back (which I won't redeem until it reaches $100 so I get the $25 bonus).  I chose bill pay and department stores for my 5% categories, and grocery for my 2% category.  I will earn roughly $36 per month just on the bill pay category alone.  I'm loving that.

My other go-to card for cash back rewards is Amex's Blue Cash Everyday.  I use that to get 3% on grocery and 2% on gas.  I do some of my grocery shopping at Walmart, which the BCE doesn't recognize for grocery, so when shopping at Walmart, I use my cash+ card to get at least the 2% on groceries.

I also have Discover and will use that depending on what the quarterly categories are.

[Crashem]

Op, no companion pass benefit is really that good.  Usually you need to buy more expensive ticket to qualify for free companion pass.  Usually doesn't really save you any money compared to buying two discounted tickets. The only exception I can see is Alaska airlines card.

[Crashem]

Us bank cash+ card isn't a great cash back card on its own.  The 5% categories are limited in scope (eg restaurants and fast food are two categories).  There are better stand alone cash back cards.  The gas-grocery combo cards are usually best given most people's spending.  However cash+ card is awesome when used in conjunction with other cards.  The main reason is that you can select the categories and more importantly, there are some categories that no other cards seem to have.  Cash+ basically let's you fill in high tier rewardsyour some spending categories not covered by other cards at similar levels.

[Anonymous]

As far as CL and APR citibank is my favorite. My wifes citi is 6.74%APR. I didnt even know CC's could go that low. Mine is 10,74, but Ive also had bad credit in the past. The wife hasnt.

As far as getting something back for using the CC, Chase Amazon is my favorite. We use them and get points for every purchase, double points for gas and triple for stuff we buy on Amazon, then use those points to buy stuff on Amazon.

As long as you pay the balance off quickly enough and dont have to pay interest its like free money. We've bought all sorts of stuff off Amazon with the points.

[iMacDrew]

The Cash+ card looks good for bills and stuff but not necessarily everyday spending.. also beware you may not be approved for the Cash+ but the lower. I appd for the CAsh+ and got the cash rewards. So if you arent 100% sure of approval for the cash + i wouldnt waste a hard pull on it. the Cash Rewards is just 1% on everything.

[proton022]

Thanks for the tip on cash+. I didn't about it before, it looks very useful.

Drew, Do you have a read on what are the approval odds for my credit? EX score is a bit low (740ish), but otherwise I should be ok..

[Imhotrodcrazy]

US Bank Cash+ card.  It is  my main go to card.