Best Reward Credit Cards

[rhetoricalphd]

I have 2 credit cards. I pay each off before interest accrues each month. I try to use my Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa card a lot because I get rewards points towards flight miles. I usually get at least 4 of more flights free per year by doing this. I can also use the points for other things like hotels, rental cars, etc (which I just found out).

It does have an annual fee of 100 dollars. I am wondering if there are other cards with even better rewards than this (I know there are).

What cards do you use or recommend that has great perks?

[SuperSavingTips]

I have a Wells Fargo Visa card which I pay in full each month and my mortgage is also with Wells Fargo. The credit card has no fee and I earn 1% of my purchases in rewards currency. Although there may be cards with higher percentages, I am able to use my rewards currency to directly pay down the principle of my mortgage, saving in interest charges as well. There are other rewards available such as travel, gift cards and cash rebates. You get to choose the one that works for you.

[rhetoricalphd]

I have a wells fargo visa and a wells fargo mortgage and I don't get that benefit. I will call tomorrow and inquire. Thanks!

[disneysteve]

I think the "best" rewards card is the one that makes sense for you. For example, your Southwest card would be worthless to me because we hardly ever fly anywhere. We do, however, travel a lot and have earned dozens of free hotel nights with our Marriott Visa. We're using a free night next week as a matter of fact.

We also use a Chase Visa and Discover and focus our use of those to take advantage of the quarterly 5% bonus categories. Also, Discover occasionally sends an offer to get an extra bonus by charging a certain amount to the card over a certain period of time.

[krantcents]

I have had 2 airline cards for over 20 years. Although there is a fee, I (my wife & I) have taken multiple overseas business or first class. It was definitely worth the fees. BTW, I always pay my entire balance every month.

[disneysteve]

It does have an annual fee of 100 dollars.

IAlthough there is a fee

I often hear Suze Orman say to avoid cards that charge an annual fee, but I take issue with that. If the rewards card pays you well, the fee may be entirely worth it.

For example, my Marriott Visa has an $85 annual fee. However, once a year on my account anniversary I get a certificate good for one night at a category 1-5 hotel. The cheapest hotels run close to $100/night at this point and a category 5 can easily be well over $200, so the $85 fee is a no-brainer. I'm using this year's certificate next week. The hotel we're staying in would have been $159 plus tax so just by having the credit card, I'm saving about $90.

So don't automatically rule out credit cards with annual fees. Explore what that fee gets you in return.

[97guns]

i like chase and discover cards, amazon accepts their rewards points for payment on goods

[purplish]

I like percentage awards. If I were still shopping for a card, I would compare rewards rates that pay out regularly. You'd be surprised how much it adds up. I've seen people pay a small monthly bill that way based on rewards from a card they were using regardless.

[Drake3287]

I commented on this question on a different thread the other day but I find the best consumer credit card is the free Costco American Express Card. For years we've had this card and routinely get a yearly cash rebate check of over $1,000. The card pays either 1%, 2% or 3% on all your purchases.

We charge EVERYTHING, and I mean everything. My mortgage payment and property taxes are the only things I can't pay with a card without paying a service fee. I even pay all my kids college costs with it. We pay the monthly bill in full each month and have never paid a cent in finance charges.

As for the few places that don't take AMX, we down graded our United Airlines Mileage Plus card to a unadvertised free card that gives half the miles compared to there typical card that has a yearly fee. Even these free miles at 50% add up.

If you can discipline yourself why wouldn't you get this card? We use our $1,000+ check for 2 airline tickets to Hawaii each year. No more hassle of hoping to score free airline seat anymore!

[joshuaking]

My favorite is my Navy FCU cash rewards card. No annual fee, 1.5% cash back on EVERYTHING, and I can redeem as little as one dollar at a time, no threshold to get to to get my rewards.

[isaac]

I use my Discover IT card for the 5% on quarterly purchases. Also the Shop Discover website is great. Example, we needed a new Washer & Dryer last winter. We waited for Black Friday and ShopDiscover was offering 10% CashBack at Home Depot .com. We were able to combine Home Depot's Black Friday sale + 10% CashBack + 5% CashBack. Triple savings made me pretty happy

For everything else we use our USAA Cash Rewards MasterCard, it's only 1.5% but there's no points to track or dollars to redeem, it saves it all up until January of the next year and you get one nice bonus all at once per year.

I am very intrigued by SuperSavingTip's card that rewards toward the principle of his home.. I will definitely be checking into this with my bank.

[Tabs]

I agree with Steve above in that you want to get the card the works best for you.

I have a rewards credit card with my investment company, that pays 5% cash back for certain essentials, and 2% for everything else. And because it's from my investment company, it makes that much simpler for me to track my balances as well as pay it off.

[Drake3287]

What kills me is standing in line at a store and watching someone pay cash for a large purchase! Seems criminal not to get those rewards!

[~bs]

I use a 2% fidelity visa & amex card for most purchases.

I have a chase card with "bonus" categories that go up to 5%.

[MarkInCA]

I mainly use 3 (4 kinda) credit cards:

1) Amazon Visa: 3% back on all Amazon purchases, 2% back on all gas/restaurants/drugstores, and 1% on everything else. This is great because I'm an Amazon Prime member so I buy a crapload of stuff there. No caps, no annual fee.

2) Capital One Quicksilver: 1.5% on everything, all the time (I'm sure you've seen the commercials). No caps, no annual fee.

3) Discover: 1% back on everything, but every 3-month block during the year, they'll give you 5% back on select categories (gas, restaurants, hotels, etc etc). There is a cap (it varies) during the 5% categories, but no annual fee. Plus, Discover has gift cards from many popular retailers that you can redeem your points at for more (e.g. redeem $20 in cashback for $25 gift card).

4) Target Card (not a credit card; it's only usable at Target): 5% back on everything at Target.

So essentially I get 5% back at target, 3% back at Amazon, 2 or 5% back on all restaurants, 2 or 5% back on all gas, and 1.5% back on anything else. Pretty good deal!