cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Grocery card with no FTF

tag
SBR249
Established Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF

I don't think I used my Discover once while in Europe. More people in the UK have heard of UnionPay and JCB than Discover sadly. 

 

 

Message 11 of 27
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@NRB525 wrote:

Capital One Quicksilver, if one does not want an AF.


Well, the PPMC gives 2% so that might be the best.   She has a QS (and a CSR) for backup.

Message 12 of 27
coreysw12
Valued Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@longtimelurker wrote:

@NRB525 wrote:

Capital One Quicksilver, if one does not want an AF.


Well, the PPMC gives 2% so that might be the best.   She has a QS (and a CSR) for backup.


If she has a CSR, that seems like the best card, period... no?

 

Edit: nevermind, I forgot it's only 1% (1.5%, depending on your point of view) for everyday purchases.

    Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k


    Total SL: $78k

United 1K - 725,000 lifetime flight miles    |    Chase Status: 4/24
Message 13 of 27
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@SBR249 wrote:

I have never walked into a UK grocery store that didn't take credit card. Tesco, Sainsbury, M&S, Co-op all took CCs. Even Chip & Pin transactions though is pretty uncommon these days. Most of the time, it's contactless so maybe have you daughter test out whether she could use a foreign card on Apple Pay or something. Otherwise, ordering groceries to be delivered is also very common, when you can pay £1 to have someone bring all your groceries right to your door in a 2hr time slot, why wouldn't you? Might also be easier to use foreign cards that way. And if all else fails, manned cash registers almost always take foreign cards, even the ones you sign. 

 

In any case, the whole rewards CC thing isn't very big there because the EU has effectively capped interchange fees at very low levels (think debit card levels). I have a 1% AmEx cashback card from the UK and that was about as good as it got, I think it's bumped up to 1.25% after the first £10,000 in annual spending. Problem was that there was a minimum yearly spend that you had to hit to get any cashback (£1000 I think? Maybe £2000) and so many places just didn't take AmEx. 

 

But back on topic, it might be easier to just stick with a flat CB card like the Paypal MC for simplicity sake. 


Right, this is the UK, and I am very familiar with the supermarkets there: Using Chip&Sig is a pain, but they will adapt!    

 

The Amex card you mention still exists, but it's 3000 GBP before any cashback now!

Message 14 of 27
SBR249
Established Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF

It might have always been £3000, it's been a few years since I got the card and I haven't really used it since moving back stateside so the details are a bit fuzzy. But in terms of European CCs, it's just about the most generous there is without many strings attached and with the AmEx Global Transfer, probably about the easiest to get. Best of luck. 

Message 15 of 27
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@longtimelurker wrote:

@NRB525 wrote:

Capital One Quicksilver, if one does not want an AF.


Well, the PPMC gives 2% so that might be the best.   She has a QS (and a CSR) for backup.


Then she has the available UK Groceries Trifecta Smiley Wink  

 

I also suggest the CSR, since having oodles of UR leads to more valuable redemptions.  

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 16 of 27
zerofire
Valued Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF

The best grocery card I can think of is the PenFed Platinum Rewards card when the FTF has to be 0. This card gives 3 points at the supermarket but the value sadly is not 1 to $0.01. The value is 1 point is $0.0085 so the supermarket category is ~2.65% back.

TU:837 09/19/23 Bank of America--EX: 841 09/20/23 Experian--EQ:832 09/21/23 myFICO--Gardening since N/A
Active:
Bank of America (Unlimited Cash Rewards WMC, Customized Cash Rewards WMC, Customized Cash Rewards VSC), Capital One Walmart WMC, Chase(Amazon Prime VSC, Freedom Flex WEMC [x2], Freedom Unlimited VC), Citi Dividend MC, Citizens GreenSense MC, Curve WEMC, Discover It C, FNBO Ducks Unlimited VSC, PenFed (Platinum Rewards VSC, Pathfinder Rewards VSC), Synchrony Bank PayPal Cashback MC, UMB Bank Simply Rewards VC[Milford Federal], US Bank (Altitude Go VSC, Cash+ VSC [x2], Pick n Save/Metro Market WEMC)
Wishlist: AAA Daily Advantage Visa, AOD Signature, Bellco Colorado Rewards, Citi Custom Cash, EBates, Nusenda Platinum Cash Rewards, Ollo Optimum, Redstone Signature, Security Service Power Travel Rewards, Vantage West Connect Rewards
Message 17 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@SBR249 wrote:

I don't think I used my Discover once while in Europe. More people in the UK have heard of UnionPay and JCB than Discover sadly. 

 


Have you had any luck running on the Diner's Club network?

Message 18 of 27
imaximous
Valued Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF


@longtimelurker wrote:

Asking for a daughter who might be living abroad for a while.    Looking for a card with no FTF that gives rewards on foreign grocery stores and earns more than 2%  (She has the paypal 2% card).   I have the Penfed Plat Rewards which gives around 2.54%, just wondering what is better....


Besides all the previous suggestions, I’ll add the US Bank Altitude Reserve, but there are a few things to take into account.

If you don’t have any current relationship with US Bank, you need another product to qualify for it.

You need to be able to use mobile pay, and much better if you have Samsung Pay. 

It has a $400 AF minus $325 travel credit, so a net $75 AF unless you can use or value some of the other benefits.

 

If you’re ok with that, it offers 3x on every mobile wallet transaction, which translates to 4.5x if redeemed for travel. Personally, I see it as a 4.5x card because I only redeem my points for travel.

 

This is probably my favorite card when I travel abroad because I don’t have to guess how the merchant is going to code. As long as I can use SP or even Apple Pay, I’m good. Just one warning: An issue I’ve run into with Apple Pay is that many countries have a low limit on contactless transactions, and for some reason, Apple Pay seems to be affected at many places if their terminals aren’t updated to differentiate a mobile pay transaction from a contactless transaction. Even when I tried SP as a contactless transaction, it wouldn’t go through until I discovered that if I placed my phone (Samsung) next to the swiper instead of the “tap” area, it’d work just fine. Basically, you get around mobile pay to use MST if you put the phone in the right place.

 

If you can deal with the caveats, I don’t think you can beat the 4.5x earnings with any other card. If I remember correctly from past threads, you use Samsung Pay, but I’m not sure about your DD.

Message 19 of 27
digitek
Established Contributor

Re: Grocery card with no FTF

I'll throw in the SDFCU Premium Cash Back +. 2% card with no FTF and Chip+PIN priority on the visa network.

Join the credit union first and then apply for the CC. I don't recommend doing both at the same time.

I also like Inaxi's recommendation of Altitude Reserve with a Samsung phone that has MST. You get 4.5% when redeeming for travel on almost any payment terminal. The MST mimics the magnetic stripe of a CC so you technically get a mobile wallet transaction on almost any payment terminal.

Hope she has fun over there 😄
Message 20 of 27
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.