Reward Credit Card

[Deleted]

What is your favorite cc? What rewards, if any, do you get? And, do you pay an annual fee, if so, why is it worth it? Do you use different cc for different reason/purchase and which one?

[Plain Old Petunia]

I love my Chase Freedom card. I usually rack up $200 per year or so in cash back. I do not pay an annual fee. If they start charging one, I will switch to something else, like maybe Discover.

[Deleted]

We use the Amex Blue card for everything.
We get cash back. This year we are getting around $775 back.
There is no annual fee.

[sapphire12]

Pen Fed Visa -- 5% cash back for gas; no annual fee. I have no clue what the interest rate is as I don't carry a balance.

[runewell]

I might have to look into that Pen Fed Visa. I currently use an AmEx 529 College Rewards card that gives 2% back on everything but it gets directed into a college savings account.

I drive about 12,000 miles/yr @ 26mpg = 462 gallons @ $3.37 = $1,555 x 3% more reward = $47 more each year.

Wondering it's worth my time. Hmmmmmmmmm.

[wewillsee]

Chase rewards. Minimum 1% back, sometimes more depending on type of purchase such as gas or groceries. No annual fee. I charge everything on it I can including business expenses and pay it off at the end of the month. I'm guessing the interest rate is somewhere between 12% and 15% but I don't know.

[runewell]

I used to have chase rewards, it was great when I was getting 5% back but they trimmed the rewards and I ditched it.

[Gardening Grandma]

I use the Chase Freedom card as well. I'm still getting the $250 check for $200 in purchases so am pretty happy with that. No annual fee. If they do institute one, I'll re-evaluate, but might still keep it depending on the amount of the fee. I really hate paying fees though....

[sapphire12]

runewell -- Pen Fed Visa pays 1% back for everything else, if that matters. The cash back is applied to your statement, so no end of year check if that matters. It does to some.

[spartan7886]

I'll second the AmEx Blue Cash card, although I am looking into the Fidelity AmEx. That one's 2% cash back on everything into your Fidelity handled Roth (I think you can also direct it to other Fidelity handled accounts).

[isabella]

Chase Freeedom, no annual fees. They have a quarterly rotation on rewards qualifying for 5%. First quarter 5% on grocery store and drug stores. Second qtr will be 5% on home improvement, lawn and garden, home furnishings. All other purchases are 1%.
I have noticed some post they get $250. when they reach $200. in rewards .. my card has not ever been one of those, I opened the account probably a bit over a year ago.
oh and a I have a Capital One that pays 1% on all purchases, no annual fees either.

[lynnerself]

I have the Juniper MasterCard that is from Emigrant direct (the on line savings). No annually fee. It only pays 1.5 % on everything, but there are no hoops to jump through to get rewards. Every quarter the money is automatically deposited into my Emigrant account.

[shanendoah]

I like my Elite Rewards card. Originally it was through MBNA, but now its BofA. I liked it better when it has a fixed 5.9% APR, but about a year or so ago, they realized that was killing them and raised the APR to 10.9%. Still, I pay it off each month, so the APR doesn't matter that much.
I don't get cash back; I get points for each dollar I spend. Some expenditures earn you double points, though I don't generally pay attention to that.
You can use the rewards for just about anything. We mostly use them for gift cards- at the $100 value if we're getting them for ourselves or lesser values and give them as gifts.

ETA: No annual fee.

[alsmez]

I used to use my Amex Blue Cash and Citi Dividends cards for everything, but when Citi cut their rewards and went to that ridiculous quarterly rotating system, I started looking for something new. I got the Costco True Earnings Amex and now I use it almost exclusively. 3% back on gas and restaurants, 2% on travel and 1% on everything else, no rotating categories. No annual fee as long as you have a Costco membership. No idea what the interest rate is as I never carry a balance.

[runewell]

Mar 8, 2011 22:14:30 GMT -5 sapphire12 said:

runewell -- Pen Fed Visa pays 1% back for everything else, if that matters. The cash back is applied to your statement, so no end of year check if that matters. It does to some.

Yes well my AmEx is 2% on everything else so i would only use the CC for gas. However it involves joining a CU and for me I'm not convinced it's not worth the hassle for another $50/yr.

[katkuddler]

Chase rewards card that pays back 3% on gas, groceries and drugstore. It started out paying 5% which was great but 3% is still more than most. All other purchases earn 1%. No annual fee and I have no idea what interest rate is since I pay full balance every month. On average I make $200 a year.

[jk70]

I use fidelity's 529 card which dumps $$$ into my kids' college plans each month.

[Clifford]

Discover Rewards. 1-5%, but the real reason is the Spend Analyzer. If you charge everything (like I do), it is a great tool.

[Deleted]

DH and I use hotel and airline credit cards. I avoided the airline ones but AA offered 75,000 miles for its Visa and AE if you spent $1500 in 4 months. I got both and we now have 150K miles. 100K will get you Business Class round trip to Europe if you aren't picky about dates, so that's very valuable for us. This will get cancelled as soon as the annual fee kicks in.

The other ccs are Marriott Visa and Hilton AE brands. Both carry annual fees but they provide Elite status, which has gotten us perks well beyond the cost of the cards- free breakfasts, room upgrades, Executive Lounge access, free WiFi at properties that usually charge for it, even an occasional bottle of wine from management. We pay in full every month so we don't care about the interest rates.

The Hilton AE requires $20K spending to keep Gold status, but I try to avoid sticking small businesses with that because they have higher merchant fees. We use the Visa for smaller businesses.

[dogmom]

I like Discover, no fees, Spend Analyzer, 1-5% rewards.

[midjd]

I have 2 Chase Freedom cards (both are joint, DH uses the lower-limit one). We charge just about everything but the mortgage, so ~$2,000 per month. Depending on what 'season' the rewards category is, we get back anywhere from $50 - $100 per month in rewards (the 5% on gas/groceries/lawn & garden is a huge help). Plus you can combine rewards, so if I have 999 points on one card and 1,001 on another, I can get a $20 cashback. Chase also has the Ultimate Rewards Mall where you can get $0.03/$0.10+ back by shopping online at any of their stores... we ended up getting almost $100 back when we bought the iPad

I'm very happy with both cards and would highly recommend the Chase Freedom.

[schildi]

We use three different CC's:
- Fidelity Amex for everything except see below. Gives a straight 2% cash back on everything from the very first $, no limit.
- Costco Amex for gas and eating out: 3% straight cash back.
- Chase Freedom for their 5% quarterly promo (up to the max they allow for the promo).
No fees on any of them.

We use the Chase MC also for the few places that don't take Amex (does not happen very often) and get only 1% in that case.

[schildi]

Mar 9, 2011 10:22:04 GMT -5 spartan7886 said:

I'll second the AmEx Blue Cash card, although I am looking into the Fidelity AmEx. That one's 2% cash back on everything into your Fidelity handled Roth (I think you can also direct it to other Fidelity handled accounts).

Yes, you can have the 2% reward directly deposited into a Fidelity brokerage account (like I do). You can then transfer it to wherever you want, or even write a check directly from the brokerage or pay bills, etc.

[TheOtherMe]

Debit card from Chase that gets me United miles

Just got a CC with rewards. Don't know the amount.
Credit union CC has no rewards, but is by far the lowest interest rate if there is an emergency.