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reward based credit cards / airline miles cards
Shazkar Shadowstorm
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so like, i have two credit cards, one I don't use really that i am probably going to cancel, it was the first one i had since like high school and so it gave no rewards or nothing and i don't keep it for anything other than emergencies
i have another that gives like... 1% cash back which is dinky, but that's what i use
my credit is fine and dandy or whatever
but i was thinking, since next year i'll be working and paying more of my own bills and whatnot and thus spending more, it might be worth it to get a rewards card like an airline miles card
for example, jetblue has an amex card, and a thing right now for 20,000 points for signing up by a certain date. then it's 1 point per $ spent, and 2 for money spent at jetblue... that's $40 a year annual fee
of course there are many such credit cards, so i was wondering what people's opinions are on whether they are worth it or not, what the downsides would be to applying for another card other than that annual fee, or anything like that?
or should i just stick with what i've got
i have another that gives like... 1% cash back which is dinky, but that's what i use
my credit is fine and dandy or whatever
but i was thinking, since next year i'll be working and paying more of my own bills and whatnot and thus spending more, it might be worth it to get a rewards card like an airline miles card
for example, jetblue has an amex card, and a thing right now for 20,000 points for signing up by a certain date. then it's 1 point per $ spent, and 2 for money spent at jetblue... that's $40 a year annual fee
of course there are many such credit cards, so i was wondering what people's opinions are on whether they are worth it or not, what the downsides would be to applying for another card other than that annual fee, or anything like that?
or should i just stick with what i've got
poo
Shazkar Shadowstorm on
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1% cash back is opretty good - keep in mind that many cards give 1% worth of "points" to spend, and that the cash trade in value of those points ends up being about $0.01. I'd rather have the cash, personally.
If you fly a lot and can take advantage of the bonuses you get via a card like the Jet Blue one, it may be worthwhile. If not, I'd consider using the card that you get cash with.
My backup card is a Sony card I got initially to get $150 off on a ps3. I use it when I find myself in a situation where I can't use Amex, and I use the reward points to get a free bluray every few months. Mostly, I just stick to the cash back amex, though.
PSN: TheScrublet
The cash-back option gives me 0.5% back for debit purchases and 1% back for credit card purchases. I think that's pretty much the best you can do without something that requires a membership fee like AmEx.
If you have need for a costco membership (and I love me some costco), it's a pretty great deal.
Appreciate the tip, didn't know that
I'm the same as you and I recently realized the difference in value between cashback and those damn points (the 1% vs. .01 that Six pointed out). I'm close to hitting the 20,000 point mark and as soon as I do I'm cashing them out for 200 and switching to cashback.
PSN: TheScrublet
I think for USAA it's actually the same. For low point amounts they screw you, but once you get to the $200 level the points and cash-back option are the same. I've stuck with the points because you can combine the MC and debit points--the USAA MC doesn't have a comparable cash-back option.
The shitty thing is, they just changed their policies and you have to spend them within 5 years.
If you travel a lot, get your airline of choice's points card, it's usually free and let's you collect points on every flight you take.
Oh but I live in Canada though, everything is different here it seems.
The Costco Amex breaks down Like this:
3% back on all Gas purchases for first 3000 bucks, then 1% Thereafter, 3% back on Restaurant Purchases, 2% on Travel (Airplanes, rent-a-cares, trips ect.), 1% back on all other purchases whereever Am-Ex is accepted. It does double as your membership which is great, because basically you're paying the 50 as the membership fee, with a free am-ex. The really cool part that you won't read about is this:
Extended Warranty -- That American Express True Earnings card extends the warranties of things you buy with a manufactors warranty by half up to one year.
Purchase Replacement -- If something you buy gets stolen, Am-Ex can credt you back or get you a new one.
Current Rates are 0.00% for first 6 months, then goes up to 15.26% apr if I recall correctly.
(I work for Costco and already cashed some rebate checks that were over 700$. The rebate for it comes on your Feb statement so it happens to come right around the same time you're getting tax refunds, which makes it double nice)
To me its a no brainer. Cash back > airline mile rewards
Yeah, I've had the costco card for years and love it. My rebate this year was about $400, but somebody threw away my feb statement, so I had to have another issued. It'll show up on my march statement.
I'll also throw out there that I love Amex in general. They've always been fantastic whenever I've had any kind of issue, so I always prefer to use that card, regardless of the cash back or rewards. Another perk is that the costco card has my picture on it (for the costco membership), so whenever I get asked for ID when using the card I can just flip it over, and it's a nice little deterrent to unauthorized use.
Also,I'm convinced that Amex staffs their call centers with phone sex operators.
citi forward gets you 5% back on restaurant and bookstore (including anything through amazon) purchases on a bunch of gift certificates to useful places. If you want cash back on that it's like 3%, you can get a prepaid debit card.
I use the schwab for everything but restaurant and amazon purchases.
AmEx blue cash also gets you 5% cash back on gas and groceries, but not until you spend like $6000 on it (in one calender year), and the amex rebates are annual. So probably not worth it.
Costco sounds like a good deal if you'd use a membership.
thats not how all point cards work.
I know I get 1 point per dollar which can't be translated into cash directly. you can only get plane tickets or stuff. the translation from points into $$ value of what you're buying is about 1% but can be more or less depending on how stupid you are. for instance a flight from Newark to LA round trip is 24500 points which would cost you $400 if booked in advance. you have to spend $24500 to get 24500 points, you have to spend $40000 to get you $400. or you can spend 16,000 points to get a 2m Monster HDMI cable.... whose true value is 3-4 bucks.
it all depends on how smart you are.
If you travel a lot on business, those airline rewards cards almost seem unfair (to the airline). I was racking up something close to 200,000 miles per year on my Delta Skymiles AMEX. 1 mile per dollar spent, plus bonuses from affiliated hotel chains, plus the bonus miles for being a frequent flyer... I haven't actually paid cash for personal plane ticket in a long time.
Same here. I spent a year traveling for work and everything I did went on my AMEX. Lots of free stuff to be had. But frankly, if you aren't traveling all the time or putting a shitload on these cards, you're hard pressed to earn a free flight in a reasonable amount of time. And even if you do, there's a shitload of restrictions. Want to use it within the next two weeks? $50 fee. Blackout periods. Bleh, screw that. I used most of my points to upgrade my flights to first class.
I am also of the understanding that getting new credit cards can affect your credit score. Not by much, but it does affect it. So take that into consideration.
It is awesome if you do a lot of traveling. Old co-worker got his honeymoon trip to AUS using points, but he started calling the airlines everyday, 9 months before they wanted to fly.
Yeah, I know, I pay off my credit card in full every 2 weeks, sometimes more often.
The ones geckahn mentioned seem pretty good.
I'll look into them and keep in mind the repercussions of opening too many credit lines.
If you do this, you may still want to run a few bucks through that card once in a while. Some cards may have an inactivity fee. [jonstewart]Why? Because FUCK YOU, that's why.[/js]
I wouldn't worry that much about having too many credit lines open; if you open up 10, sure, it'll ding your credit for a little while, but opening one or two won't make a difference in the long run unless you want to buy a house next month
Their point system basically gives you 4% cash back on BestBuy purchases, 2% on dining and groceries, and 1% for everything else. You'll get even more points if you have premier status (spend $2500 in a year), for example my last purchase was $40 and I got 100 points from it. 250 points gets me $5. The only downside is there's a $59 annual fee, and the "cash back" are BestBuy bucks only, which doesn't matter to me since I buy games and electronics frequently.