>1% cash back cards

[bch238]

If you have a BOA account into which you deposit your BOA Cash Rewards earnings, you earn an additional 10%, effectively 1.1%, 2.2%, and 3.3%

Better still, my wife's BOA Privileges Card with Cash Rewards gets a 50% bonus, so it's an effective 1.5%, 3% (groceries), and 4.5% (gas), with the $75 annual fee waived with $50,000 on deposit with BOA or Merril Lynch.  The only downside I see is the gas and groceries is capped at combined $1,500 / quarter.

[Themanwhocan]

---

@angelcred10 wrote:

Always hearing about this Sallie Mae Card, that much better than BCE?

I never noticed those are pretty high %'s back!

May go apply...

---

Sallie Mae Rewards card is better than a BCE. You did see the spreadsheets earlier in this post, right

However, the Sallie Mae Upromise.com card, while 5% + 5% in online shopping is very nice, its only on the stores that they have listed. Its a nice, large list, and very useful, but how often do you you buy clothes online, etc. Its not anywhere near as useful as the 5% on amazon.com is with the other Sallie Mae card.

Just don't confuse the two cards

[longtimelurker]

---

@Themanwhocan wrote:

---

@angelcred10 wrote:

Always hearing about this Sallie Mae Card, that much better than BCE?

I never noticed those are pretty high %'s back!

May go apply...

---

Sallie Mae Rewards card is better than a BCE. You did see the spreadsheets earlier in this post, right

---

Agree.  One great use of this forum would be to educate people that you shouldn't get card X because card Y is better, but we keep seeing people getting the BCE.   To reiterate without the chart:

There is almost no spend point where the BCE is the card to get.   If you spend relatively little on gas and groceries, the Sallie Mae is better.  If you spend ~ $6K on groceries (including gift cards)  BCP may be better (but still get the free Sallie Mae as well for the gas and Amazon) and if you spend a lot (either real or manufactured) the Blue Cash is the card to have.   And if you spend enough at select department stores (the advantage of BCP/BCE over SM) then again the BCP would be better.

The exception is if you want your first Amex, or an additional Amex for backdating.  But even then, now the Everyday might be a better choice.

[Anonymous]

Outstanding thread for information. Have been wondering about this. Also thought the Sallie Mae was for students only and found it was not! Thanks for the work and education!!!

[NikoD]

Upromise now has Amazon as one of their stores. However, only for certain specific Amazon catagories that they change regularly. For example, right now some of the categories are pet supplies and childrens shoes. So most of the time it wouldn't be very useful.

BTW even though I do have the BCE I agree that it's not a good card to get except under very specific circumstances: I only wanted cash back (not rewards); I wanted to be able to shop at Costco with a CC but didn't want to deal with Costco coupons/checks that can only be redeemed at a Costco or have to maintain my Costco membership indefinitely, so the TrueEarnings card was not a good fit; I didn't want an annual fee because I don't spend enough to make it worthwhile; I've never had an Amex before so I wanted to get my MSD sooner rather than later.

I do plan on doing a PC as soon as something better comes along or when my spending habits and requirements change.

[yellowcake]

---

@angelcred10 wrote:

Always hearing about this Sallie Mae Card, that much better than BCE?

I never noticed those are pretty high %'s back!

May go apply...

---

It is an awesome card, but do note that there are monthly caps on the rewards.  I think it's $250 for gas and groceries, $750 for bookstores. 

[celluloid17]

---

@NikoD wrote:

Upromise now has Amazon as one of their stores. However, only for certain specific Amazon catagories that they change regularly. For example, right now some of the categories are pet supplies and childrens shoes. So most of the time it wouldn't be very useful.

BTW even though I do have the BCE I agree that it's not a good card to get except under very specific circumstances: I only wanted cash back (not rewards); I wanted to be able to shop at Costco with a CC but didn't want to deal with Costco coupons/checks that can only be redeemed at a Costco or have to maintain my Costco membership indefinitely, so the TrueEarnings card was not a good fit; I didn't want an annual fee because I don't spend enough to make it worthwhile; I've never had an Amex before so I wanted to get my MSD sooner rather than later.

I do plan on doing a PC as soon as something better comes along or when my spending habits and requirements change.

---

The best Amex to use at Costco for cashback is probably the Fidelity Amex (2% back), which isn't even part of the Centurion family of cards.  What I love about Amex is that once you have one, even if you end up canceling your first card with them, you still get to backdate any future Amex cards to the original MSD.  I've been thinking of getting rid of my TrueEarnings Amex in favor of apping for Fidelity since I don't do a great deal of shopping at Costco.  If it weren't for the backdating, I wouldn't consider it though, so I'm happy to have already locked in my MSD via TrueEarnings.

I concur with the chorus of praise for the Sallie Mae card.  It really does seem almost too good to be true and I really hope they don't nerf it in the future.  It's not exactly a highly publicized card and doesn't even show up on Barclays website (only on Sallie Mae), which makes me think they want to keep this one somewhat under wraps in favor of the less than stellar Upromise version.  I would have never known about this card if it weren't for this forum.  I'm so glad I discovered it though, because it's fast become my favorite card.

[angelcred10]

I won't go above those ever unless I somehow get time to travel out of town

I'll need to recon 😔
Anyone have the backdoor #?
I found the thread is it still accurate?
Barclays correct?

[Themanwhocan]

---

@angelcred10 wrote:
I won't go above those ever unless I somehow get time to travel out of town

I'll need to recon 😔
Anyone have the backdoor #?
I found the thread is it still accurate?
Barclays correct?

---

Sorry, I didn't quite understand what you wrote.

This thread was started 3 days ago, so yes it is still accurate.

What exactly are you trying to recon? the Two Sallie Mae cards are Barclay cards, if thats what you mean.

The backdoor numbers are in the stickies, but here is a direct link http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Backdoor-Numbersu/m-p/408066

[angelcred10]

---

@yellowcake wrote:

---

@angelcred10 wrote:

Always hearing about this Sallie Mae Card, that much better than BCE?

I never noticed those are pretty high %'s back!

May go apply...

---

It is an awesome card, but do note that there are monthly caps on the rewards.  I think it's $250 for gas and groceries, $750 for bookstores. 

---

Hardly ever get that high in spending.

What do they consider "bookstores"