good rewards credit card

[amarowsky]

Found these two cards kind of trying to see which one would be more beneficial.

Amazon.com Credit basically everything retail I buy I buy off of Amazon. And the minor gas and did benefits at 2% seem good. And everything wide is just 1% which is what in getting now.

https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-...rdsCreditCards the thank you card has rotating 5% benefits rewards. And I guess the dividend one builds 1% per year from 1 to 3% max on all purchases. These all seem good. And Apr doesn't matter because I don't keep a balance. And I do have a good card with a locked 10% rate with a 10k limit should I have an emergency.

Should I get 1? Or both ? And anyone heard of any better offers?

[Goldy]

I really like my American Express blue card that gives me 5% on groceries, gas and drugstores and 1.5% on everything else.

[amarowsky]

Is that american express blue card 5% all the time ? Or just the temporary quarter benefit ?

[ukgaz]

I love my American Express Blue Cash Preferred card. It's $75 a year but I get 6% cash back at the grocery store. I shop at Amazon a lot as well so I buy gift cards at the grocery store and also get 6% back on them.

The $75 annual fee easy pays for it self

[amarowsky]

Yes I just looked at that. 6 percent back and 150 back if I spend 1000 in the first three months. So technically with gas being included in that would I be able to buy like a few hundred dollars in gas gift cards and I would be eligible for the 6‰ savings ?

[ukgaz]

Yes I just looked at that. 6 percent back and 150 back if I spend 1000 in the first three months. So technically with gas being included in that would I be able to buy like a few hundred dollars in gas gift cards and I would be eligible for the 6‰ savings ?

Yep. I tested it out when I first got the card and I received the 6%. But I fill up at Chevron and my local grocery store does not have Chevron gift cards (they have shell but that is out of my way)

Note there is a $6000 limit at grocery stores to get the 6%. After that it goes down to 1%. Still not many spend that much at a grocery store in 1 year

[SeanH]

I have the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred. The text below from their website is definitely worth a read. The breakeven for this card is not the spending required to pay off the fee - its the break even verse the fee and the fee-free 3% AMEX card. That comes out to ~$210 a month. I like this car and its served me well. Very easy to use with a valuable reward category. This is not a card to ever maintain a balance on - the minimum APR will punish you.

I don't know if its easy to use, but if I could go back in time I would have gotten the Fidelity AMEX 2% and just left it at that. I know some people do it well and it feels like free money, but the credit card reward game can get a little old after awhile. I never thought I'd say that, but I just don't have the enthusiasm I started with to chase rewards or to spread them over multiple credit cards. If your credit car encourages you to spend money you would not have otherwise spent then you lost ~98%.

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Cash back for eligible purchases is received in the form of Reward Dollars. You can redeem Reward Dollars for statement credit, or, at our discretion, additional items like merchandise and gift cards, whenever your available Reward Dollar balance is 25 or more. The number of Reward Dollars you will receive each billing period is based on a percentage of the dollar amount of your eligible purchases made during the billing period.
Each eligible purchase made in the U.S. shall qualify for 6%, 3%, or 1% cash back of the purchase amount as follows: 6% for the first $6,000 of purchases at stand-alone supermarkets in a calendar year (supermarkets do not include superstores and warehouse clubs), 3% for purchases at select major department stores (select major department stores are Bealls, Belk®, Bloomingdale’s, Bon Ton Stores Inc., Boscov’s Department Store, Century 21® Department Stores, Dillard’s Department Stores, J.C. Penney Company, Inc., Kohl’s, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears® Merchandise Group, and Stein Mart®), 3% for gasoline purchases at stand-alone gas stations, and 1% for all other eligible purchases.
Eligible Purchases means purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and restrictions apply.
Merchants are typically assigned codes and categorized based on what they sell. Eligible purchases will receive only 1% cash back if the merchant code is not in a bonus category. Eligible purchases will receive only 1% cash back if the merchant uses a mobile or wireless card reader or if the purchase is made with an electronic wallet or through a third party. In addition, eligible purchases will receive only 1% cash back if the purchase is not made directly from the provider of the goods or services.

[Goldy]

I must be grandfathered in because my card has no annual fee nor does it have a limit.

[SeanH]

You have the old version of the card which was quite a bit more complicated and required some level of upfront spending (several thousand dollars) before it kicked in with high rewards. People used to get around this complication by buying dollar coins from the US mint and then immediately dumping them back into a bank. It was so prevalent that the mint stopped selling coins purchased via credit card.

[Slug]

Sigh, every time someone mentions that US Mint scheme, my eyes get a bit watery. Those truly were the good ol days. I always used my Schwab 2% VISA. That card's gone now and so is the US Mint deal.

To stay on topic, I love the BCP card. I use the PenFed Platinum Cash Reward for 5% on gas and the US Bank Cash+ for 5% on restaurants. Then, the 2% Fidelity AMEX.

[amarowsky]

I'm going to look into that penfed card and that 2% am ex . those may be a better deal if I don't have to pay an annual fee

[amarowsky]

If anyone here lives in a state where they charge extra for paying credit or cash, do they know what a gift card counts as? Cash or credit fuel price ?

[amarowsky]

Alrighty . I think I'll go for the pen fed card. Although I'll have to talk to them on the phone to double check their gas rewards rules. It says when you pay at the pump. So they may be excluding if you go inside and buy other items with the gas as well.

[SeanH]

Its possible that it will only include stand alone gas stations and not for example - grocery stores, Walmart, Costco (won't include Costco guaranteed). Gotta know the rules down tight.

[amarowsky]

Unfortunately I just got off of the phone with american express and they said that the AMEX blue cash preferred card would basically not be useful to me. Meijer and Kroger are not included in the 6% deal, so I would only get 1% which is what I get right now w/ my card. Plus the 75$ annual fee.

Slug suggested the PENFED card, which is pretty great as well. However I have open an account with them and maintain a balance, And to join PENFED creditunion I have to either be post military or a govt. worker, which I am not. So they require a $15 minimum charitable donation. The only bummer with that card is the 5% is ONLY at the pump and not inside the gas station. All things considered its a pretty good card, but would only really be applicable to gas at the pump for me because nothing else is really covered.

If you have a brokerage account with Fidelity - use their american express product. It's by far the best card out there with 2.5% cash back

I only see the Fidelity account with a 2% cash back though. I'm strongly considering this card, because this would apply to everything I spend on and not just random stuff. I think the fact that this card is so All encompassing it would be my best option.

Considering I spend my money mostly on the following gas, kroger/meijer, bills, bar, eating out. And most cards do not cater to bars or meijer/kroger which probably amounts to $300 monthly for my spending. I think I'm going to open the fidelity account, because I have been looking to start a vacation account that I can put like 3-5% of my net check in biweekly.

https://www.fidelity.com/cash-manage...-express-cards where or how do i get the extra .5% though? that could add up in the long run with all the purchases I make.