@Anonymous wrote:
I'm thinking about apping for sallie mae visa signature 2% everything. I have fidelity 2% already but visa is everywhere,amex isn't.
I will travel at least 2 times a year so barclay travelocity serve me well. 4% restaurant.
I will try for blue cash preferred next year to get 6% back on groceries.
https://www.salliemae.com/credit-cards/cashback/ , I hadn't heard of the a sallie mae credit card! But I went digging and this is all i could find 
. Could you provide a link? 2% Everything visa would be great!
Also, I might have to PC my barclay card, I didn't know the travelocity gave 4% at restaurants! Thanks 
@ aamex
Yep, you guessed it! I'd say that the three (Discover, Chase, Citi) offer almost the same categories for about 3 out of the 4 quarters.
So far, its generally been
1st quarter- a bit different amongst the three
2nd quarter- home improvement & furnishings (all 3)
3rd quarter- gas, airlines & hotels (all 3)
4th quarter - department and clothing stores (all 3)
These companies sure know how to play stingy with these cashbacks by intentionally overlapping these categories
It can be rather annoying but what helps is that each card will often have something additional each quarter. Each tend to offer at least one differing category. For example, for the 4th quarter (in addition to department and clothing stores), Citi includes toy stores and electronic stores, Discover includes restaurants, and Chase includes movies and charities. If you happen to be a big spender, it's also nice to spread your purchase amongst the three to take full advantage of the 5% by avoiding the caps.
Hope this helps!
@Anonymous wrote:@ aamex
Yep, you guessed it! I'd say that the three (Discover, Chase, Citi) offer almost the same categories for about 3 out of the 4 quarters.
So far, its generally been
1st quarter- a bit different amongst the three
2nd quarter- home improvement & furnishings (all 3)
3rd quarter- gas, airlines & hotels (all 3)
4th quarter - department and clothing stores (all 3)
These companies sure know how to play stingy with these cashbacks by intentionally overlapping these categories
It can be rather annoying but what helps is that each card will often have something additional each quarter. Each tend to offer at least one differing category. For example, for the 4th quarter (in addition to department and clothing stores), Citi includes toy stores and electronic stores, Discover includes restaurants, and Chase includes movies and charities. If you happen to be a big spender, it's also nice to spread your purchase amongst the three to take full advantage of the 5% by avoiding the caps.
Hope this helps!
How annoying! Lol. However, it's could to know that I can get either of the 3 and that will be sufficient. Its good that they're 5%.. its just for me I limit my decretionary spending so that many of the entertainment categories just don't matter much.
But i'm officially a fan of how you use Target and Banana Republic
Yep, you guessed it! I'd say that the three (Discover, Chase, Citi) offer almost the same categories for about 3 out of the 4 quarters.
So far, its generally been
1st quarter- a bit different amongst the three
2nd quarter- home improvement & furnishings (all 3)
3rd quarter- gas, airlines & hotels (all 3)
4th quarter - department and clothing stores (all 3)
These companies sure know how to play stingy with these cashbacks by intentionally overlapping these categories 
It can be rather annoying but what helps is that each card will often have something additional each quarter. Each tend to offer at least one differing category. For example, for the 4th quarter (in addition to department and clothing stores), Citi includes toy stores and electronic stores, Discover includes restaurants, and Chase includes movies and charities. If you happen to be a big spender, it's also nice to spread your purchase amongst the three to take full advantage of the 5% by avoiding the caps.
Hope this helps! 
Not really, they are all going after the popular categories for that time of year. Spring is home improvement(deck building, gardening, etc.), summer is vacation time, and fall is Christmas shopping time. Winter is a quiet time in general.
I've wondered about this myself and I'm glad someone posted this question.
If the categories are similar among them, my guess is that they're set up to target the type of spending that's generally done during a particular quarter, i.e. offer the travel type categories (gas, hotels, etc.) during the summer months when the majority of people travel, the home improvement during the spring months, clothes and so forth during back to school time. Otherwise, their incentives wouldn't be as marketable/valuable for the cardholder - imagine if they offered hotel/gas/travel during winter and home improvement during fall. Now THAT would be annoying! 
