# Rewards credit cards



## yeggous (May 9, 2016)

I received notice that my Citi Forward card is having its benefits slashed. It used to give 5% back on bars, restaurants, Amazon, books, music and movies. Everything else was 1% back. Given the amount of money I spent online, eating out, and drinking this was an obvious choice. Apparently it's time to move onto a new credit card.

What does everyone else use? The best I can find so far seems to be the Citi Double Cash (2% on everything), or the new Citi Costco card (4% on gas, 3% on restaurants and travel, 2% at Costco, 1% everywhere else).


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## Edd (May 9, 2016)

I've had Amex Cash Rewards for several years. Coincidentally, they've been marketing that card recently harder than ever. No fee, 3% back at supermarkets, 2% at gas stations and some stores, 1% for everything else. 

There are better deals out there but we're not motivated to switch. We've been very pleased with the customer service, the iPhone app is fantastic and uses Touch ID, which goes a long way with me due to my laziness. 

Side note: I just realized the Amazon app also supports Touch ID. It's had it for some time but it got turned on recently on my phone, for some reason. I'm way too excited about it.


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## deadheadskier (May 9, 2016)

Chase Marriott Rewards.  Only because I travel a lot for work.  I'm in too deep towards lifetime Marriott benefits to switch should my work situation change and my rewards preference change.


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## xwhaler (May 9, 2016)

Edd said:


> I've had Amex Cash Rewards for several years. Coincidentally, they've been marketing that card recently harder than ever. No fee, 3% back at supermarkets, 2% at gas stations and some stores, 1% for everything else.
> 
> There are better deals out there but we're not motivated to switch. We've been very pleased with the customer service, the iPhone app is fantastic and uses Touch ID, which goes a long way with me due to my laziness.
> 
> Side note: I just realized the Amazon app also supports Touch ID. It's had it for some time but it got turned on recently on my phone, for some reason. I'm way too excited about it.



We have the AMEX Cash Rewards Preferred. $75 annual fee but it basically doubles the cash back on the spend. 6% supermarkets, 3% grocery, 1% all else.  I ran the #s and the fee was easily covered by the cash back. 
I've had AMEX cards since I first started using credit cards. Only annoying thing is they aren't accepted everywhere.  So we carry a BOA debit card for that.


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## Edd (May 9, 2016)

xwhaler said:


> We have the AMEX Cash Rewards Preferred. $75 annual fee but it basically doubles the cash back on the spend. 6% supermarkets, 3% grocery, 1% all else.  I ran the #s and the fee was easily covered by the cash back.
> I've had AMEX cards since I first started using credit cards. Only annoying thing is they aren't accepted everywhere.  So we carry a BOA debit card for that.



I've considered that card off and on. I should probably switch.


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## thetrailboss (May 9, 2016)

We have an REI and Delta Cards.  The REI is with U.S. Bank and they can be :roll: at times.  Great benefits for buying gear--works out that I pay myself 15% back when I buy something at full retail at REI.  The Delta card is an Amex, which limits what we can do, but gets us free bags on flights and good mileage rewards.  

Lately I have turned against the idea of using rewards cards.  Mainly because when you have an issue the banks usually are terrible to deal with.  

Case in point:  we also have the LL Bean Card.  Have been with them now for over ten years.  We are going to fire them because the bank, Barclays, has really done a terrible job the last few months with customer service for us.  I've complained to LL Bean who, to their credit, has tried to get these assclowns to fix the problem.  

But Barclays is plain stupid.  The reason?  Over the past few years they have preemptively issued us new cards because of the Target and Home Depot data breaches.  The problem?  They apparently don't think that they need to actually deactivate or block those old numbers.  We had an unauthorized charge made in January and not only did the Barclay's rep insist that I "must have been mistaken" and actually authorized it (we had not) but could not understand why I would actually want those old numbers actually deactivated!  

So Barclays sucks ass.  It's sad because we did have a decent deal with LL Bean, but honestly over the past few years their stuff is just been "meh" quality at best.

Moral of the story is that these "rewards" cards are often not worth the time, hassle, or the cost of having more cards and a lower credit score.


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## prsboogie (May 9, 2016)

We have a Chase Freedom and Citi Double cash. They work well for us as we never carry balances and pay them off monthly. Cash back for no interest charged. It's like having Active Junky or Ebates in a credit card for us, more so when we do use one of those to rebate companies it's even more back.


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## steamboat1 (May 9, 2016)

All I know is when I had to wire money to my daughter in Europe who was moving from place to place almost daily the only people who could get it done was LL Bean.


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## yeggous (May 9, 2016)

steamboat1 said:


> All I know is when I had to wire money to my daughter in Europe who was moving from place to place almost daily the only people who could get it done was LL Bean.



That makes sense since Barclay's in a European bank.

Credit card aside, LL Bean customer service is excellent. I bought two kayaks from their outlet in Manchester. On the way home I lost a kayak off the roof of my SUV on the highway. I called customer service and somebody called me back the next day. Within a week I had a brand new kayak delivered to my house direct from the factory. No charge to me and they didn't even ask for proof.


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## deadheadskier (May 9, 2016)

What do folks pay for an annual fee? The Marriott card is $85, but it's waived the first year and includes 50k points to start. You also get one free night stay a year at category five property.  There's a new Fairfield in Waterbury, VT that's a category five.  Heading up antique car show weekend and the room rate was $175, so I'll have already made back the annual fee.


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## yeggous (May 9, 2016)

deadheadskier said:


> What do folks pay for an annual fee? The Marriott card is $85, but it's waived the first year and includes 50k points to start. You also get one free night stay a year at category five property.  There's a new Fairfield in Waterbury, VT that's a category five.  Heading up antique car show weekend and the room rate was $175, so I'll have already made back the annual fee.



I've never paid a fee. The only way I would do so is with some sort of reward like the free hotel stay.


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## drjeff (May 9, 2016)

The personal card is the Starwood AMEX - me and the wife rack up a bunch of points a year that covers a bunch of hotel stays a year - I hope when the Marriott-Starwood merger is finalized that things don't change.

My business card is the Capital One double points VISA - the $50 annual fee pays for itself many, many times over with the double the points feature, and for travel, Capital One rewards are so easy to use and redeem

I still miss the old ASC Edge VISA Days!!! My wife and I used to be able to rack up enough annual rewards points to pay for at least all of 1 of our season passes and also a good chunk of another pass. That was one credit card that really fit our lifestyle!! affy:


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## prsboogie (May 9, 2016)

None for me


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## ctenidae (May 10, 2016)

I have an airline-related Visa through Citi (United? I forget) and a BoA cash back card, neither of which I use much. Discover card seems to rack up cash back relatively quickly, though I haven't used it much in the past couple of years. The one that seems to build up useable rewards fastest is Best Buy, which I really just use for boat-related things. Bought an Apple watch with last year's boat purchases, and it gives some kind of elite GeekSquad service, or something, including a free visit every year form them to set up a home theater system, or home network, that sort of thing. I've never used it, but could be nice.

I need to get a personal Amex so I can tie the account to my corporate card and take the points, just can't get over the idea of paying a fee for a card.


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## delco714 (May 10, 2016)

Barclay world arrival and amex blue preferred


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## Domeskier (May 10, 2016)

I once had a credit card that entered me into a drawing to win a trip to space.  I never won, but they did send me some NASA patches for my jacket and a plastic twelve inch model of a rocket ship.  I lost the patches but I still have the rocket ship.


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## ctenidae (May 10, 2016)

Domeskier said:


> I once had a credit card that entered me into a drawing to win a trip to space.  I never won, but they did send me some NASA patches for my jacket and a plastic twelve inch model of a rocket ship.  I lost the patches but I still have the rocket ship.



 Winner.


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## frapcap (May 11, 2016)

If you like to travel, the Southwest card racks up points pretty quickly. Jet Blue is just behind it. 
With Southwest, you get 50,000 points for spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. Its approximately a 1.5 round trip flights. If you earn 110k points in a year, your significant other will fly free with you for up to two years on the companion pass program (easy to do if you use it for business). Premier card has no foreign transaction fees, either but you have to have high usage such as using it for business expenses.

We also rock a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. 
Its got no foreign transaction fees, 2x points per dollar on restaurants/bars, their rewards points are 1:1 with their participating travel programs (no blackouts), and a pretty good sign on bonus that would yield about one flight from a major carrier. When I call, there isn't any of that automated bullshit either.

All of those cards require excellent credit, though. 

I'd also have a Marriott card, but work has an assigned corporate card now-a-days. Unfortunate in regards to points, but easier on my monthly budgeting. 

The AmEx cash rewards card sounds solid in terns of rewards, but what is the redemption rate? Is it inflated?


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## yeggous (May 11, 2016)

frapcap said:


> If you like to travel, the Southwest card racks up points pretty quickly. Jet Blue is just behind it.
> With Southwest, you get 50,000 points for spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. Its approximately a 1.5 round trip flights. If you earn 110k points in a year, your significant other will fly free with you for up to two years on the companion pass program (easy to do if you use it for business). Premier card has no foreign transaction fees, either but you have to have high usage such as using it for business expenses.
> 
> We also rock a Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
> ...



Unfortunately companies have caught on to the benefits of rewards points. All of my business expenses have to go onto my corporate AmEx. I miss the days of cashing in those points. Likewise I don't care about foreign transaction fees. All my foreign travel is to Germany for work. Almost all of that is on my corporate card, and for anything else I can get reimbursed for transaction fees given I have the statement.

Does anyone have experience with the new-ish GM BuyPower card? I have the old GM card which gives 5% back, but caps redemption limits at $1,500 when I buy a new truck. The new version offers 5% on the first $5k per year, then 2% after that. No redemption limits. No annual fee. No foreign transaction fee.

https://www.buypowercard.com/buypowercard/overview/


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## ctenidae (May 12, 2016)

yeggous said:


> Unfortunately companies have caught on to the benefits of rewards points. All of my business expenses have to go onto my corporate AmEx. I miss the days of cashing in those points.



I have a corporate AmEx, but the rewards points are actually linked to me personally, not the company account (I just need to have a personal AmEx to connect them to, which I haven't done).


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## Edd (May 12, 2016)

xwhaler said:


> We have the AMEX Cash Rewards Preferred. $75 annual fee but it basically doubles the cash back on the spend. 6% supermarkets, 3% grocery, 1% all else.  I ran the #s and the fee was easily covered by the cash back.
> I've had AMEX cards since I first started using credit cards. Only annoying thing is they aren't accepted everywhere.  So we carry a BOA debit card for that.



Well, you inspired me. I just called Amex and upgraded my card. They took a look at my spending and said our dining out alone would cover the fee. I asked if they would waive the fee for the first year and they said no. 

I'm with ctenidae on the notion of paying a fee; it drives me a bit nuts but the math is the math.


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## xwhaler (May 12, 2016)

Edd said:


> Well, you inspired me. I just called Amex and upgraded my card. They took a look at my spending and said our dining out alone would cover the fee. I asked if they would waive the fee for the first year and they said no.
> 
> I'm with ctenidae on the notion of paying a fee; it drives me a bit nuts but the math is the math.



Exactly, I make up the fee many times over just in grocery spend, never mind gas for commuting between my wife and I.


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## Domeskier (May 12, 2016)

xwhaler said:


> Exactly, I make up the fee many times over just in grocery spend, never mind gas for commuting between my wife and I.



You and your wife should move in together and save on gas.


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## xwhaler (May 12, 2016)

Domeskier said:


> You and your wife should move in together and save on gas.



LOL, clearly typed too quickly and didn't realize it read that way


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## ctenidae (May 12, 2016)

Domeskier said:


> You and your wife should move in together and save on gas.



Well played.


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## Domeskier (May 13, 2016)

ctenidae said:


> Well played.



Many thanks. :-D


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## drjeff (May 14, 2016)

I think if one feels if they're being charged an annual fee for a rewards based credit card and it's not worth it, then they probably have the wrong rewards credit card.

Between my personal AMEX and my business card, my annual fees are $150. That $150 last year got me 2 round trip tickets from Boston to Portland, OR, 2 more round trips tickets from Providence to Ft Lauderdale and almost 2 weeks of free hotel nights - I am quite happy with my annual fee/rewards ratio

Heck, I have some friends in the financial sector, who travel a TON a year, and have VISA Black cards, and they're quite happy with the roughly $500 annual fee that they pay from the concierge services and member exclusive perks that card gets them

It's all a relative cost/benefit thing to each person


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## gmcunni (Dec 12, 2016)

had been very happy with our JetBlue amex and now mastercard.  with family in FL it made a lot of sense.  now with daughter heading to Boulder and JetBlue's very limited service to Denver i'm thinking of a switch.  

Delta is my backup in terms of mileage accumulation, used mostly for work. rewards with them could be nice but I have to check on some others to see which might be better.


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## austinjfuller (Dec 26, 2016)

I didn't see this combo posted but if you use the Chase Sapphire (first year free and $95 annual after) and the Chase Freedom Unlimited (no fee) together you can maximize and combine points. Sapphire gets 2x on travel / dining and Freedom gets 1.5x on everything, using them together can get 1.5x or 2x points for every transaction and the combine points on Sapphire card when redeeming :beer:


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## delco714 (Jan 13, 2017)

austinjfuller said:


> I didn't see this combo posted but if you use the Chase Sapphire (first year free and $95 annual after) and the Chase Freedom Unlimited (no fee) together you can maximize and combine points. Sapphire gets 2x on travel / dining and Freedom gets 1.5x on everything, using them together can get 1.5x or 2x points for every transaction and the combine points on Sapphire card when redeeming [emoji481]


I paired it with sapphire reserve. Even better

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


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## thetrailboss (May 9, 2017)

Well, just called and ended our LL Bean Credit Card.  After 10 years the service crashed and burned.  Neither LL Bean nor Barclays could resolve it.  I was really disappointed because Barclays had been AWESOME.  One less credit card.  Good riddance.


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## RedSoxFan (May 15, 2017)

deadheadskier said:


> Chase Marriott Rewards.  Only because I travel a lot for work.  I'm in too deep towards lifetime Marriott benefits to switch should my work situation change and my rewards preference change.




Likewise here. Lifetime Gold looking to hit lifetime platinum in the next couple of years.


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