topic Re: Best Rewards cards? in Credit Cards

Best Rewards cards?

brbmake — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 13:47:15 GMT

Started my credit profile with just your basic Cap1 cards, no real rewards or benefits to them except building credit. Credit is very good now (high 700's), so I want to get a card that has some great benefits to it. The ones I have heard about are Costco (we are members) and Southwest for miles. We would love to travel more, but basically looking for best bang for your buck. Thoughts?

Re: Best Rewards cards?

iheartwings — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 16:58:08 GMT

Well, congratulations on growing your credit profile and deciding to make your credit cards work for you!

The best rewards cards are going to be the ones that offer you the rewards that are most useful to you.

If you are a memer of Costco (and would be a member regardless of whether you have the card), the Citi Costco Anywhere Visa may be a great option for you. It has no annual fee as long as you are a Costco member. Just remember, the cash back is only sent back to you once a year. I like this card a lot, and now that it has no FTF, I have started using it more while traveling abroad.

As for an airline card, I don't know much about the Southwest cards. From my personal experience, I would consider a travel rewards card that has rewards that can be used for various travel expenses (either through points transfer or statement credits) rather than propietary miles or hotel points, which force you to stick to a particular brand. This will give you more options to get the best deal in the long run.

I have both an airline card (Delta) and a hotel card (Marriott), both of which has fairly infrequent usage. Both cards had nice SUBs, and I keep both because I have been able to offset the AF with the compansion pass (Delta) and free night (Marriott) benefits. If not for those particular benefits, I would close those accounts. I've found that I can't always find a Marriott property or a Delta flight that fits my needs. Since I can use a generic travel card like the CSR or AEPlat to earn points that can be transferred to partners (like to Marriott or Delta or Southwest or Hilton!) that are more useful to me (or, if I'm looking for CB, then the Citi Costco).

There are a bevy of travel cards out there, many of which don't have high AF that may be a better fit.

HTH.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

wasCB14 — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 13:36:32 GMT

A more lucrative (though more complicated) option is to get a card with a nice bonus, use it for a year, and then PC to Costco for the decent long-term cash back.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

SOGGIE — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 14:41:00 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
A more lucrative (though more complicated) option is to get a card with a nice bonus, use it for a year, and then PC to Costco for the decent long-term cash back.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

wasCB14 — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 17:33:34 GMT

Any favored or dominant local airline? Any favored hotel chain?

You mention Southwest. I don't use them as they don't fly my routes, but I hear the point value isn't so great. The card does offer a companion pass with sufficient spend, but it's not as easy to earn as it used to be.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

brbmake — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 18:39:15 GMT

What does PC to Costco mean?
Not up on lingo

Re: Best Rewards cards?

mongstradamus — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 18:41:40 GMT

@brbmake wrote:
What does PC to Costco mean?
Not up on lingo

PC=product change. So you could sign up for another one of the citi cards that gives you a good sub after first PC it to citi costco. Not exactly sure which cards will allow PC to citi costco you need to look that up . I pc my citi aa to citi double cash thats another option.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

UncleB — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 19:36:48 GMT

@brbmake wrote:
What does PC to Costco mean?
Not up on lingo

Hi @brbmake, here's a link to a thread that lists common abbreviations used on myFICO: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/td-p/88458

Re: Best Rewards cards?

SBR249 — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 23:09:00 GMT

"Best rewards" really depends on your personal circumstances, preferences, and goals.

A few questions you should be asking yourself is:

- What cards do I qualify for? For example, while cards like the CSR is great for accumulating UR points, Chase isn't known for wanting to be the first high limit card in someone's wallet and the CSR has a starting CL of $10K I believe. So you need to look at things in your profile beyond just a decent score. A related question here may be, what are you looking for in a bank. Some people don't like this bank or that bank because they are known for certain bad behavior. Are there banks you'd like to avoid?

- What kind of rewards are you interested in? Do you want to accumulate points like Citi ThankYou, Amex MR, or Chase UR? Or do you want miles with a specific airline? Or do you want straight up cashback? How much effort are you willing to expend to maximize your rewards? Are you the type of person who doesn't like to think too much about whether they are getting the most out of their XX points? Or is that something you are willing to chase?

- What is your spending pattern? Do you spend lots of money on travel? On gas? On dining out? On groceries? Will you earn more rewards by targeting cards that give high rewards in specific categories like the Uber Visa or Amex BCE or is your spending diverse enough that you get the most bang by getting a general 2% cashback card?

Those are the principal questions that comes up, but there are other factors that may influence your decision such as whether you are willing to pay an annual fee for greater rewards, what sign up bonus offers are available to you, etc.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 16:20:54 GMT

@SBR249 wrote:
"Best rewards" really depends on your personal circumstances, preferences, and goals.

A few questions you should be asking yourself is:

- What cards do I qualify for? For example, while cards like the CSR is great for accumulating UR points, Chase isn't known for wanting to be the first high limit card in someone's wallet and the CSR has a starting CL of $10K I believe. So you need to look at things in your profile beyond just a decent score. A related question here may be, what are you looking for in a bank. Some people don't like this bank or that bank because they are known for certain bad behavior. Are there banks you'd like to avoid?

- What kind of rewards are you interested in? Do you want to accumulate points like Citi ThankYou, Amex MR, or Chase UR? Or do you want miles with a specific airline? Or do you want straight up cashback? How much effort are you willing to expend to maximize your rewards? Are you the type of person who doesn't like to think too much about whether they are getting the most out of their XX points? Or is that something you are willing to chase?

- What is your spending pattern? Do you spend lots of money on travel? On gas? On dining out? On groceries? Will you earn more rewards by targeting cards that give high rewards in specific categories like the Uber Visa or Amex BCE or is your spending diverse enough that you get the most bang by getting a general 2% cashback card?

Those are the principal questions that comes up, but there are other factors that may influence your decision such as whether you are willing to pay an annual fee for greater rewards, what sign up bonus offers are available to you, etc.

+1! As is often said, if there really was a "best rewards cards" that would be the first one everyone would go for, and the forum would be perhaps less lively ("Have you got the card yet?" "Applying right now!")

I am firmly of the opinion that there are "worst cards", a card A that is worse than card B on (almost) every attribute, but even then you will get people who prefer the card A issuer to that of card B.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:50:11 GMT

Most issuers don't allow product changes to be made between regular cards and co-branded cards though, do they?

Re: Best Rewards cards?

kilroy8 — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:58:34 GMT

We need to know your spend to answer this in the best way. What do you spend on various things per month? The best rewards come from your normal daily spend. Give us ballpark numbers on:

Groceries

Gas

Restaurants

Travel

Other

Where you spend is important, too. If you get most groceries/gas from Wholesale Clubs or WalMart, rewards are more limited.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 20:45:58 GMT

Best rewards? Have to be more specific.

For me, it's hotel cards. Might not be for you.
Some people like cash back. I like hotel points and companion pass. Occasional cash back but I don't spend much to begin with.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

UpperNwGuy — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 21:27:27 GMT

A number of cards give 3%, 4%, and even 5% rewards for category spending, but most of our spending does not fall into any of these rewards categories, so we need to have a card that rewards our non-category spending. For me, that would be the PenFed Power Cash Rewards card because it gives me 2% back on everything. 2% on everything cards are also issued by Citi, PayPal, BlisPay, Fidelity, Alliant, and a few other lenders. In my opinion, these are the best rewards cards because they provide a 2% foundation that you can build on as you add category cards.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

vwgrrc — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 22:34:15 GMT

I'm wondering why the Discover Miles didn't get mention much here. It's a 3% on everything card for the 1st year and you can churn it year after year... This is my second year holding it and i charge everything through it. I mean EVERYTHING including my rents when I was in my apartment and now my mortgage payments and car loans. The 3% simply surpased any credit card transaction fees!

Not sure why people still talking about 2% these days, or am I missing something?

Re: Best Rewards cards?

SBR249 — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 22:45:46 GMT

If you are talking about getting the card, canceling after a year, and then getting it again the next year, repeat annually then that's probably a lot more than what many people are willing to do for many reasons:

1. People may not be willing to take an HP every year for that extra 1%. Some people already have a lot of HP or will be looking to get a mortgage or car loan soon. Also, since an HP stays on your CR for 2 years, that's 2 HPs you accumulate for every one that falls off assuming you do this every year and at some point you may need to take a breather.

2. Some people aren't comfortable gaming the system like that. If you are, more power to you. But I personally wouldn't want that kind of attention from Discover, especially since they've been very good to me.

3. Some people may not like having a bunch of recently opened/closed accounts on their CR, especially if they have a thin file. Their AAoA may not be able to absorb that. Some people may be aiming for Chase cards and would like to stay under 5/24.

4. Some people may not have enough non-category spending to justify doing this kind of churning every year for an extra 1%. For me, I have 4% for restaurants from Uber, 5% for Amazon from Chase, 3% from Amex for groceries, 4.2% from PenFed for gas, 3% from Citi Costco/Uber for travel, and rotating 5% from Discover IT. That leaves not a lot of other spending for this strategy.

Finally, I also get 3% on most purchases through the Paypal business debit/CB MC combo so I personally don't need it even for non-category spending.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

wasCB14 — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 22:54:50 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
A number of cards give 3%, 4%, and even 5% rewards for category spending, but most of our spending does not fall into any of these rewards categories, so we need to have a card that rewards our non-category spending. For me, that would be the PenFed Power Cash Rewards card because it gives me 2% back on everything. 2% on everything cards are also issued by Citi, PayPal, BlisPay, Fidelity, Alliant, and a few other lenders. In my opinion, these are the best rewards cards because they provide a 2% foundation that you can build on as you add category cards.

Any thoughts about boosting that foundation (at least, for domestic purchases) with a CFU?

Re: Best Rewards cards?

UpperNwGuy — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 09:43:16 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
A number of cards give 3%, 4%, and even 5% rewards for category spending, but most of our spending does not fall into any of these rewards categories, so we need to have a card that rewards our non-category spending. For me, that would be the PenFed Power Cash Rewards card because it gives me 2% back on everything. 2% on everything cards are also issued by Citi, PayPal, BlisPay, Fidelity, Alliant, and a few other lenders. In my opinion, these are the best rewards cards because they provide a 2% foundation that you can build on as you add category cards.
Any thoughts about boosting that foundation (at least, for domestic purchases) with a CFU?

That was my original plan, but I changed my plan when Chase did their survey about eliminating the ability to move CFU UR points to the CSR. The CFU would have added 0.25% to the 2% I get with the PenFed Power Cash, and it would have to be redeemed for travel.

Re: Best Rewards cards?

wasCB14 — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 15:52:35 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
A number of cards give 3%, 4%, and even 5% rewards for category spending, but most of our spending does not fall into any of these rewards categories, so we need to have a card that rewards our non-category spending. For me, that would be the PenFed Power Cash Rewards card because it gives me 2% back on everything. 2% on everything cards are also issued by Citi, PayPal, BlisPay, Fidelity, Alliant, and a few other lenders. In my opinion, these are the best rewards cards because they provide a 2% foundation that you can build on as you add category cards.
Any thoughts about boosting that foundation (at least, for domestic purchases) with a CFU?
That was my original plan, but I changed my plan when Chase did their survey about eliminating the ability to move CFU UR points to the CSR. The CFU would have added 0.25% to the 2% I get with the PenFed Power Cash, and it would have to be redeemed for travel.

That's certainly a valid concern. I got my CFU as a CSP downgrade, so it wasn't a new account for me.