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@Citylights18 wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:As stated in your previous thread, that article is factually incorrect. The author reversed the transfer direction (Hilton to MR, rather than MR to Hilton) using the previous 1:1.5 transfer ratio.
Yeah I can't find anything else that backs up this article.
If it was true the card would be amazing and by far the best mid tier card.
It would be the best credit card ever! Infinite points per dollar.
Not throwing you under the bus for it; a lot of those blog writers get articles thrown up without them being thoroughly proofread. Even among the better sites like The Points Guy, when guest authors post you'll often see the first few comments on the article are fact-checking by readers. As a rule, hotel points can only be used for that hotel chain or for transfer to airline partners. Airline miles cannot be transferred whatsoever, with the sole exception of United allowing elite members to transfer up to 50,000 miles to Marriott per year (hat tip to @CaptJOB for bringing this one exception to light).
@HighGoals wrote:
Who cards would you say are the best?
Best for travel and best for cash back?
As other replies above, this is MUCH too broad a question topic for this forum. There are many recent threads on best cards by category that are already available and easy to search. (Best travel cards, best non-travel cards, best gas card, best 2%+ cash-back cards, best supermarket cards, etc.) Suggest you start with searches to fine-tune what cards might be best for you and provide more details on your needs such as major areas of spending, amount of monthly spending, how often you travel (plus how and where, business or personal), existing cards and banking/investment relationships, military affilitaions (including through family connections), whether you prefer points or cash-back, whether you prefer the simplicity of one or two cards versus optimizing rewards categories by spend, and whether you're averse to annual fees. And that's just a starter! Hope you find the information you need!
Relevant to the discussion an article comparing Wells Fargo duo against the Chase Trifecta.
https://thepointsguy.com/news/critical-points-wells-fargo-duo-better-than-csr/
The Wells Fargo bonus I don't think he's got right. I always calculate a SUB with the base earning rate factored out. This is particularly important when the bonus is advertised as a dollar spent bonus. So the WF Visa Signature with a x5 gas, groceries and drug store bonus has to be thought of as a x4 above the base rate of x1. Then its potential 50,000 point bonus (kind of difficult though) and the assumption should be you'll be redeeming it on a 1.5 rate not the 1.75 which requires 50,000 spend. That means the bonus is realistically worth $750 dollars.
To broad a question for a simple answer.
@HighGoals wrote:
Who cards would you say are the best?
Best for travel and best for cash back?
@Citylights18 wrote:Relevant to the discussion an article comparing Wells Fargo duo against the Chase Trifecta.
https://thepointsguy.com/news/critical-points-wells-fargo-duo-better-than-csr/
The Wells Fargo bonus I don't think he's got right. I always calculate a SUB with the base earning rate factored out. This is particularly important when the bonus is advertised as a dollar spent bonus. So the WF Visa Signature with a x5 gas, groceries and drug store bonus has to be thought of as a x4 above the base rate of x1. Then its potential 50,000 point bonus (kind of difficult though) and the assumption should be you'll be redeeming it on a 1.5 rate not the 1.75 which requires 50,000 spend. That means the bonus is realistically worth $750 dollars.
Yes. While I think the argument has a lot of merit and have pushed it here for those that don't want to deal with transfers, two paragraphs are very odd:
"The current Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonus of 50,000 points is worth $750 when redeemed through the Chase portal (potentially more when the points are transferred, but we’ll get to that in a moment). On the other hand, if you maximize the $12,500 in 5x spend for the Visa Signature card, it’s worth between $937.50 and $1,093.75 depending on whether you spend $50,000 on the card or not. Add in the Propel Amex’s 30,000 point welcome bonus and that’s another $450-$525, for a total potential value of $1,618.75 from the sign up bonuses compared to $750."
This is hardly apples-to-apples, as is it talking about different levels of spend. Even taking 937.50+450, this takes 12,500 (on the 5x) items + $3000 on the propel, so $15,500 vs $4000 for the CSR. And as for spending $50K on Visa Sig, this makes points 1.75, still below the 2c you would get on a 2% card, so you would need a big bank of points from Propel to justify doing this after the initial year.
Second:
Second, the flights that cost me $0 out of pocket will earn elite qualifying and redeemable miles, making the points even more valuable. This is the same as when redeeming CSR points for flights, but Go Far Rewards are better in this circumstance because they take the stress out of deciding whether to transfer or not, as I don’t feel like I missed out on outsized potential value when I redeemed them for paid travel.
So lack of choice is good! So why not use a non-reward earning card, even a debit card or cash, so you don't have to worry about whether to redeem for travel or something else
Keep in mind TPG is a major division of Red Ventures, a marketing company with thousands of employees. It makes a lot of money from ads and referrals. It has little incentive to say something bad about a current or potential advertiser.
Yet many people treat it as the full and frank opinion of a few bloggers with no conflict of interest.
@HighGoals wrote:
Who cards would you say are the best?
Best for travel and best for cash back?
The best credit cards are the ones that fit your spending and lifestyle.
Everyone focuses on SUBs, but it would be nice if we had a list of the best cards to keep long-term.
For cash back, is there a better combo than Navy Federal More Rewards + Flagship Rewards?
@kerplunk wrote:Everyone focuses on SUBs, but it would be nice if we had a list of the best cards to keep long-term.
For cash back, is there a better combo than Navy Federal More Rewards + Flagship Rewards?
In such a dynamic market, I don't think long-term makes much sense. Plus, what is the metric, to maximize cash back? In that case, going for SUBs is much better!