CSP vs Barclaycard® Arriva World MasterCard

[JonStur]

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@Necromancer wrote:

Which is the better of the two cards for travel/rewards?

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Are you steadfast on those two cards or would you consider another, like the Venture?

[lg8302ch]

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@wHiTeSoL wrote:
lg8302ch, did you get this via email? I have an arrival card too but dont know if this is just a targeted offer.

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Yes I got it via email - similar than the rotating categories with Freedom or Discover - no experience yet as I got it for the first time. Also have not  used the "online mall" from Barclays for extra points  yet... but will certainly try it out.

[lg8302ch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@lg8302ch wrote:

For me this here is another reason why Barclays Arrival became my favorite card:

Looks good to me

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Yes, but as was pointed out with similar offers on the Citi cards, this is worth a max of $25 extra (more or less).  Which is better than nothing, but not exactly a game changer for those that use the transfer features of CSP.

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Of course but my income does not allow me to really rack up charges in such a way ..also I like to use all my cards and not depend on a single lender Enharu's post is pretty good and explains the pros and the cons of either card quite well. For my spending the Arrival is very nice - simply love it

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Ive gotten that 5x points offer on my Travelocity Amex... Well, it's travelocity points I guess but same 5x points offer. Looks like Barclay's is trying to get every day users.

[IcEWoLF]

No one can touch the Chase UR! It's the best system I've ever used with my CSP.

Like others said, the CSP+ Chase Freedom Combo = unbeatable. 

Plus the Chase Customer service and direct dial to a CSR is amazing.

Chase CSP hands down the best card.

[improvingmycredit]

Really depends on what you are looking for. For the average spender- the Arrival is the best. Frequent travelers- a good argument can be made for the CSP.
Here's a good article on the subject:
http://creditcardforum.com/blog/barclaycard-arrival-world-mastercard-review/

[Anonymous]

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@improvingmycredit wrote:
Really depends on what you are looking for. For the average spender- the Arrival is the best. Frequent travelers- a good argument can be made for the CSP.
Here's a good article on the subject:
http://creditcardforum.com/blog/barclaycard-arrival-world-mastercard-review/

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Interesting.  I agree with enharu's analysis more than that article, but I guess it depends what your premise is.   The article makes most sense if Arrival is your only/major card, and you use it for all your spending (because there the 2.2% beats the 1.07% for CSP).   But many of us have other cards for some good portion of "other", such as BCP for groceries, various "5%" cards for gas etc.  

Some CSP die-hards would agree that it is hard to get 2.2cents per point for UR, as the real value is 4-8cents!  But for most 1.5 - 2 cents probably is accurate.  So that's in favour of the Arrival.  

Arrival can only be redeemed for travel, which is a drawback for a cashback card, but going against the CSP that is perhaps less critical, as the best use of CSP is for travel.  But if you use Arrival to get a statement credit/cash, isn't the redemption rate less than 1 c per point?

[improvingmycredit]

The redemption rate is less if not applied to travel expense. If applied to travel reimbursement, one also gets the 10% back in points for the redemption.
I agree- most people other than those on this forum typically use one or 2 cards and are happy with them for the entirety of their lives. We here tend to be more CC savvy.

[mikey78]

EEK CSP =95 AF
i don't think i can handle that lol.. sorry not much of a traveler or diner

[09Lexie]

There's always the CS with no AF but you lose the 1:1 transfer feature.