Yea you really gotta be more specific.
Annual fee card or no-AF?
How much are you traveling annually?
How much are you willing to spend on a card annually if you want an AF card? $75? $150? $250? $550?
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Annual fee card or no-AF?
How much are you traveling annually?
How much are you willing to spend on a card annually if you want an AF card? $75? $150? $250? $550?
I've heard good things about the sapphire here, is the reserve the only good one? You've gotta be traveling pretty frequently to get the credits though right?
Most likely 1-2 trips a year. I'd like to avoid a af if I can but if I can make the most of the card I'd consider one.
Do any of yall predict a huge promotion coming from Chase with their sapphire line? Was going to apply to CSR but COVID happened and didn't really need a travel rewards card
No pain in waiting. Maybe they do a big promo in the spring to take advantage of things reopening
I don't really see the point of a travel card without a AF. Good hard or go home imo.
It's very easy to take advantage of the Reserve credit. Tolls, parking, hotels, flights, a lot of stuff counts. So effectively, the fee is $250. At 1/2 trips you'll get your worth imo. Points for trips, the priority pass (this is amazing when you can take advantage) the dashpass and Lyft perks, etc etc.
Maybe do a little math? Two trips and up it's clearly worth it imo, and 1 I'd think about what kind of trip.
AmEx Savings is as it says. But it's not currently the best deal.
Best all around is with T-Mobile Money (sounds weird, but it is true).
If you have a T-Mobile phone account, TMoM gives you 4% interest on the first $3k and 1% interest past that.
If you don't have a T-Mobile phone account, TMoM gives you 1% interest on everything.
If you're trying to MinMax, Netspend prepaid allows you to link a savings account that gives you 5% on the first $1k. The prepaid card is shit tho, and is only useful for transferring $$$ in and out. You can stack this w/up to 5 accounts. If you get a referral, NetSpend gives you a free $20 for the first account. I setup an account and automated it to avoid fees. It's not super difficult but does require a little planning.
But if you don't want hassle, just get an account at T-Mobile Money. I don't think any other standard savings account or money market account currently beats their interest rate.
I am possibly in the market for a credit card soon. I currently have the Debit, Discovery with no annual fee, Amazon Prime(Huge Mistake), Care Credit (to cover front loaded costs for my dog on Health Insurance) and a Paypal Card. What is a good card for small purchases like food, gestations and restaurants?
I don't see that it has been mentioned here but apparently Chase is offering $150-$250 retention offers to existing cardholders. My annual fee comes up in January so I'll be calling them to see if I qualify. There is a large thread on Slickdeals if you are interested.
If I don't qualify I might just close the account and open a new one for the sign up bonus. I have not been churning much lately, but I really like my CSR and if I'm going to keep it I might as well get another sign up bonus.
If I don't qualify I might just close the account and open a new one for the sign up bonus. I have not been churning much lately, but I really like my CSR and if I'm going to keep it I might as well get another sign up bonus.
What's the best grocery card that's not Amex Blue Cash Everyday/Preferred. I actually have the Everyday one, but had to stop using it. Since I live in the WA/OR area, I mainly shop at Fred Meyer for groceries, but Amex for some reason, classify the store as something other than a grocery store (I forgot exactly what, wholesale warehouse I think.) Because of that, I don't get the additional grocery benefit from the card. Some light research indicates Amex is the only CC company that classifies the store this way.
Chase Freedom Unlimited/Flex for the first year gets you 5% at grocery stores.
I calculated it out, and Alliant Visa Signature Card doesn't seem like a good idea. Good on paper, but doesn't add up over time.
www.alliantcreditunion.org
- Industry leading flat 2.5% cash back on all purchases (up to $250 per billing cycle, or $10000 in spending per month)
- Cash back as statement credit or cash deposits in Alliant savings account
- $0 annual fee for first year, $99 after that.
In 2020 I spent $12596 on discretionary purchases. I have it on CapitalOne Quicksilver with $0 annual fee, or $188.94 in annual cashback.
Theoretically I would get $314.90 in yearly cash back with this card, but minus the $99 annual fee that would bump it down to $215.90, or a net effective cashback of 1.7% outside of its promotional first year, barely better than the 1.5% I have now. AKA the extra stress of the annual fee isn't worth it to switch, especially if I reduce my spending for 2021.
Now if you had a LOT of purchases, the value proposition of the 2.5% unlimited cash back becomes a lot more appealing. The maximum theoretical cashback is $2901 per year which is fantastic.
Visa® Signature Card | Alliant Credit Union
An Alliant Credit Union Visa® Signature card is a true cashback credit card with a high cashback percentage and low annual fee.
- Industry leading flat 2.5% cash back on all purchases (up to $250 per billing cycle, or $10000 in spending per month)
- Cash back as statement credit or cash deposits in Alliant savings account
- $0 annual fee for first year, $99 after that.
In 2020 I spent $12596 on discretionary purchases. I have it on CapitalOne Quicksilver with $0 annual fee, or $188.94 in annual cashback.
Theoretically I would get $314.90 in yearly cash back with this card, but minus the $99 annual fee that would bump it down to $215.90, or a net effective cashback of 1.7% outside of its promotional first year, barely better than the 1.5% I have now. AKA the extra stress of the annual fee isn't worth it to switch, especially if I reduce my spending for 2021.
Now if you had a LOT of purchases, the value proposition of the 2.5% unlimited cash back becomes a lot more appealing. The maximum theoretical cashback is $2901 per year which is fantastic.
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Ended up getting the 125k Amex Platinum offer, which I took. First Amex card, anything I should be doing with it right out of the gate? If Chase doesn't really up the Sapphire game this year I'll probably downgrade out of it when my annual fee comes back up.
Check AmEx Offers every day. The web interface will only show you a max of 100 at a time so add some that are close to expiring so you can see more. AmEx Offers are really good and will help offset the portion of the annual fee that's not already covered by stuff like the Uber/Uber Eats credit and such.
I'm in the market for a new iPhone and if I were to finance it, I might as well get the flagship iPhone 12 Pro (128GB) + Apple Care + accessories for under $1500. (The Pro Max is too big for me)
I researched various Credit Cards. I found this for the best deal:
www.americanexpress.com
Earn $200 back on purchases over $1000
1.5% cashback or about $22
0% APR Intro for 15 months from opening account date (around $100/month interest-free).
Any suggestions on which card to apply for the best deal would be appreciated. Thank you.
I researched various Credit Cards. I found this for the best deal:
American Express
Earn $200 back on purchases over $1000
1.5% cashback or about $22
0% APR Intro for 15 months from opening account date (around $100/month interest-free).
Any suggestions on which card to apply for the best deal would be appreciated. Thank you.
It's generally better to check Amex's offers in Privacy/Incognito mode because sometimes the offer you see isn't the best available. Like I just did it and checked the BCE card and it went from 200 back to 250 along with the 0% APR for 15 months.I'm in the market for a new iPhone and if I were to finance it, I might as well get the flagship iPhone 12 Pro (128GB) + Apple Care + accessories for under $1500. (The Pro Max is too big for me)
I researched various Credit Cards. I found this for the best deal:
American Express
Earn $200 back on purchases over $1000
1.5% cashback or about $22
0% APR Intro for 15 months from opening account date (around $100/month interest-free).
Any suggestions on which card to apply for the best deal would be appreciated. Thank you.
Also check their prequal page if you haven't already: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers/
Does anyone know if American Express would let me downgrade from the Blue Cash Preferred card to the normal (no fee) Blue Cash card after a year? Right now they are waiving the fee for the first year, but I don't think I spend enough to each year to warrant keeping the card after that.
Thanks. Any other recommendations on good rewards cards I should consider? My credit score recently cleared up after a few sketchy years, so I should be eligible for a lot I would have previously been denied for.
Currently have a 2% everything card I use for almost all my purchases, plus an Amazon store card.
Currently have a 2% everything card I use for almost all my purchases, plus an Amazon store card.
First things first.
What's the goal? Straight Cash back or travel/perks?
I think primarily cash back. I take a couple of vacations a year, but otherwise don't travel for business or anything so I don't think I would hugely benefit from a travel card.
I have the Uber card, which was my travel card until they basically killed it.
Probably Costco card for the 3x and 4x categories, if you have a Costco nearby
AMEX Gold is probably the best card currently with $120 Uber/Eats and $120 dining credits. Comes out to $10 a year. You can use the points for gift cards or statement credits but you wouldn't be maximizing your return that way.
currently Discover for grocery (once that is done I will move back to my american express for that since it gives me flat double points for grocery which after conversions work out to like 1.5% back, but I like having points for various bonuses across sites that AMEX sometimes does) and capitol one quick silver for everything else. I should get the citi double cash for everything else at some point and the chase card with rotating cats as well, but I wanted to get my SO to get those to help build their credit up a bit more, and the chase form failed to submit once and because of that it's been a two month battle to try to get them to sign up for it again lol.
OP
OP
Here's what I currently have and what I use them for. I really only care about cash back:
Chase Amazon Prime Rewards
- Amazon.com (5%)
- Gas (3%)
- Ride shares (3%)
- Transit (3%)
- Travel (3%)
- Streaming services (3%)
- Dining (3%)
- Drugstores (3%)
- Wholesale Clubs, Internet, Cable, & Phone Services, Select Streaming Services (5%, January — March)
- Gas Stations, Home Improvement Stores (5%, April — June)
- ??? (5%, July — September)
- ??? (5%, October — December)
- Grocery Stores, Walgreens, CVS (5%, January — March)
- Gas Stations, Wholesale Clubs, Select Streaming Services (5%, April — June)
- Restaurants, PayPal (5%, July — September)
- Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com (5%, October — December)
- Groceries (3%)
- Target (5%)
- Everything else (2%)
- Just opened this a month or so ago and collected the 60,000 UR points on $4,000 spend signup bonus. Will cancel before the annual fee renews next year. In the meantime I just check the UR portal for useful promotions. For example, right now they have 10x points at Best Buy.
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Discover it
Citi double cash
American Express blue cash everyday
Chase Amazon prime rewards (I'm actually throwing this one in the lock box and replacing it with Chase freedom unlimited card as I'm done with anything Amazon related).
Why not a Chase Freedom Flex? You've already got a floor of 2% back with the Double Cash so the 1.5% back doesn't help you, and it complements the Discover It with rotating 5% categories in addition to the same always-3% categories as the Freedom Unlimited.
They also have the same signup bonus right now ($200 back on $500 spend).
I just got a local credit union card with 2% cash back at grocers, the Discover It with 5% (rotating), and an Amazon Card which gets me 5% on all amazon purchases. So far so good as I'm fairly new to the credit game.
Sorry, the Sapphire Reserve. My fiance has the Sapphire Preffered and also transferred all her points to me.
I don't care about cash back, just want travel related bonuses and perks. Don't see why I'd switch to another card, except the comparable American Express card in the future. But even then AE sucks internationally in terms of acceptance.
Edit: I also have the Unlimited, and use that when that makes sense. And then transfer the points to my Reserve of course.
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I'm currently big on Amex. Over the past 6 months I've been averaging about 6k MR points a month from purchases (low of 3.5k in February, high of 8.5k in November), plus a few thousand extra from Rakuten, which I'm happy with. That's basically a free domestic roundtrip flight every 3 months or one way business class to Europe every 10 months.
Here's my exact setup:
- Amex Platinum
- Mostly just for the perks and flights.
- Amex Gold
- Food and groceries. Where I get most of my points from.
- Amex Blue Business Plus
- General spending that doesn't go on the Platinum or Gold.
- Chase Amazon Visa
- I have Prime and buy a decent amount from Amazon so the 5% back is nice for no AF.
- Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select
- My local airport (PHL) is dominated by AA so I get good value from the free checked bag and enjoy preferred boarding. I put gas on it (2x, so same as BBP except I get AA miles) and tend to put low dollar amount purchases on it (like if I spend $20 at CVS) just to build up AA miles.
I honestly wanted something that was a bit better for travel that was a visa and I didn't want to deal with the 5% rotating categories. I signed up for the discover card years ago but half the time I can't use the rotating categories in a way I would like. I know visa is more accepted everywhere (like Costco) but I wanted something I didn't have to put much work into.
People who have cards with annual fees, can you ever stop using that card or something to avoid having future annual fees?
I recently saw a promotion a Chase Sapphire preferred with 80,000 bonus point = to about $1,300 in value after spending $4,000 within 3 months.
It does have a $95 annual fee.
I've never had a card with an annual fee, I only use my Chase freedom.
Does anyone have experience with this card?
I recently saw a promotion a Chase Sapphire preferred with 80,000 bonus point = to about $1,300 in value after spending $4,000 within 3 months.
It does have a $95 annual fee.
I've never had a card with an annual fee, I only use my Chase freedom.
Does anyone have experience with this card?
US Bank Cash+
you can always do a product change and switch to a no-AF card.
You can downgrade when you like.
Just do the math, if the cash back plus perks is enough for you, it's cool.
you can always product change to a lesser card. it's going the other way that can be more challenging.
Chase
- CSR
- Freedom
- Prime
- United Explorer
- Hilton Aspire
- Bonvoy Brilliant
- Bonvoy Personal
- Bonvoy Business