No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,
I’m considering applying for the AR. DW and I have been taking short trips recently, and I’m interested in getting into better rewards. I like the fact that I can get 3x via mobile wallet (DW uses Apple Pay more than I do, but almost every where we shop accepts Apple Pay, and I’d add her as an AU to help accumulate points).
I’m not sure if any of the other point ecosystems are better than what I can get from the AR, but I’m kind of hung on which way to go.
Thanks all for the suggestions!
Assuming enough travel, the AR has a net annual fee of $75. (This ignores things like Global Entry, which people may have on too many cards to count). If you are redeeming for travel (at 4.5%) you need to spend about $3000 a year on mobile/travel to do better than a free 2% card.
That may be easy, or not (if you have lots of higher earning cards and a lot of your spend is in areas covered by those cards).
Then the travel redemptions are at cost so not great for aspirational travel but comparable to using the Chase portal with URs.
The downsides are: stuff that earns 3x on travel is much more restrictive than Chase and others (more or less plane and hotel and car, no parking, transit etc) and that the portal is far from elegant. If you can use Real Time Rewards, you can avoid the portal experience!
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,
I’m considering applying for the AR. DW and I have been taking short trips recently, and I’m interested in getting into better rewards. I like the fact that I can get 3x via mobile wallet (DW uses Apple Pay more than I do, but almost every where we shop accepts Apple Pay, and I’d add her as an AU to help accumulate points).
I’m not sure if any of the other point ecosystems are better than what I can get from the AR, but I’m kind of hung on which way to go.
Thanks all for the suggestions!Assuming enough travel, the AR has a net annual fee of $75. (This ignores things like Global Entry, which people may have on too many cards to count). If you are redeeming for travel (at 4.5%) you need to spend about $3000 a year on mobile/travel to do better than a free 2% card.
That may be easy, or not (if you have lots of higher earning cards and a lot of your spend is in areas covered by those cards).
Then the travel redemptions are at cost so not great for aspirational travel but comparable to using the Chase portal with URs.
The downsides are: stuff that earns 3x on travel is much more restrictive than Chase and others (more or less plane and hotel and car, no parking, transit etc) and that the portal is far from elegant. If you can use Real Time Rewards, you can avoid the portal experience!
Another that LTL (indirectly) and I dealt wth is ability to apply. US Bank has restrictions if you don't already have a credit card with them since you already have to be a customer to apply for the card. You can open a savings/checking account and get through that way but they're geo-locked that way as well