Multiple ways. It all depends on what you're buying and where your expenditures primarily are. There really is no one size fits all card.

AggieDan04 said:

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Anybody have the Amazon card? We're already Prime members and spend a stupid amount on Amazon, so getting the 5% back seems like a no-brainer. The card has some terrible reviews though. Not sure if I'm missing something.

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Nice for Whole Foods purchases as well. Really adds up fast.

Aggie09Derek said:

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TheBiggerEvent said:

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I use the Chase Southwest on everything except Restaurants/Bars which i used Uber (4% CB) - any idea how i can improve?

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Wait for another crazy offer to come up and then use it for a handful of months, get reward, then cancel the card before the annual fee hits the next year.

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This isn't completely correct. You can get the Southwest bonus once every 24 months and you can have a card already open. So if its been over 24 months since your bonus, you can call to cancel the card to apply for a new one and get the bonus again.

It really depends what your goal is. If its to get as many Southwest miles, Chase Southwest is good. Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you a lot more options....and even if you want Southwest miles you can transfer to SW for 1 to 1.

Yeah I do that, was more talking about other cards.

Chase Saphire Reserve's 100k offer when it happened is an example.

Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase sapphire preferred?

TheBiggerEvent said:

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Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase saff preferred?

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I would get the priority card if doing the SW cards and try to get the companion pass (very easy if you can also get the business card as well).

SWA Cards to just accumulate points long term aren't that good from a value proposition - better to get the referral bonus on it and then switch to Savor/Uber or something like that that is offering higher % back on most of your purchases.

I just cancelled Chase Saphire Reserve and I'm using Savor/SWA Priority/Amex Plum (business card)

TheBiggerEvent said:

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Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase saff preferred?

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Transferred points won't count towards status. I don't believe they will count towards the companion pass either. SW card will build that those categories up.

Don't think i fly enough to earn enough points/ care about the status too much - really got the card for the sign up bonus which got me two free flights. Looking at a new one but just wasn't sure what i should get.

Where do you use your credit card the most?

94chem said:

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chris1515 said:

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Citibank also has a 2% cash back card with no annual fee.

I had their Dividend card for 1% back for years. I called them to see if they would match the 2% that Fidelity offers, and they did and switched me to the new card.

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Good job. I have the BoA Preferred Rewards card. It pays 1.5%, no fees, and works for me because I've been banking there 30 years. It pays 2.625% if you keep enough $ in savings, checking, and brokerage combined. ~1500/year cash back is good enough to keep me from shopping around too much.

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I do this too, but I combine it with the Cash Rewards Card (there's a AFS branded Cash Rewards Card). No fee. 3% on your choice of gas, dining, Travel, Home Improvement stores, or online purchases. 2% on groceries, 1% everything else. I use Cash Rewards for groceries and online purchases, and Travel Card for everything else. With Preferred Rewards Gold, Platinum, or Platinum Honors, you get an increase in these rewards of 25%, 50%, or 75%, respectively.

hypeiv said:

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IrishTxAggie said:

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Where do you use your credit card the most?

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^ this question is the key to what card to get...

If you just want one card to throw everything on and forget about it there are cards that give 2% like the Citi double cash

Even if your typical spend a months looks like:

$300 dining out
$200 gas
$500 groceries
$1000 other

It might seem like the just throwing everything on the Amex Blue Cash Preferred is better than a 2% card because of the 6x on groceries and 3x on gas, but in reality after 12 months of the above spend you average out to just 2.05% cash back after you factor in the annual fee.

If your budget is weighed heaver in one category like dining, gas, or groceries there might be a single card that can get slightly better, but if you can its best to try to break your purchases into a trio of cards.

In the above example if the person used a Barclays Uber for dining out, Amex BCP for gas and groceries and a citi double cash for everything else, after annual fees they would be getting around ~3% cash back

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Omg, who gets away with $2k/mo???

For the record... Alliant has changed policy that you cannot earn cash back now for a monthly bill over $10,000. The most that can be earned in one month is 2.5% of 10k or $250.

Pretty much ruins future purchases like buying jet ski's on credit card.

I just decided to go for the Wells Fargo Propel AmEx.

3% on dining, travel, transit (ride share apps, parking, tolls), gas, and streaming services. Those are some of my biggest spending categories.
$200 for spending $1,000 in first 90 days.
No annual fee.

Ag92NGranbury said:

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For the record... Alliant has changed policy that you cannot earn cash back now for a monthly bill over $10,000. The most that can be earned in one month is 2.5% of 10k or $250.

Pretty much ruins future purchases like buying jet ski's on credit card.

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Ask the boat people to process 1/2 the payment the day before your monthly cycle and the other 1/2 the day after.

Goldman bails out of Apple Card, Now the largest western bank (JP Morgan) set to take over credit card operations for the 3rd largest tech company (Apple).

another useless bump. Thanks

AMEX Platinum here. Had it for about 3 years knowing we would travel 2-3x per year. In 2024, I calculated our received value at $1700 for the $750 fee we pay for it.

Even only traveling 1x per year the benefits are great especially if you can utilize lounges in the airport. With two teenage boys, a 2-3 hour wait in an airport is much more tolerable when you have free food - real food - and comfortable seating with wifi and TVs. Our last trip I calculated we ate and drank prob $200 worth of stuff in the lounge. Pays for bag fees, pays for digital entertainment and some uber.

It's worth it until it isn't. Once boys are out of the house we will probably downgrade.

don't think there's anything out there that can match Robinhood Gold Card's 3% cash back on everything with no limit
(still gradually rolling out from waitlist)

the only 'fee' being Gold membership ($60/year) that includes other benefits like 4% APY on cash in brokerage (2.5M FDIC insured) and 3% match(untaxed) on Roth contributions which more than pays for it, also 1K in free brokerage margin which held in something like SGOV would also pay for most the fee

OasisMan said:

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HYC_AG said:

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Google the "Chase Trifecta". It's the sapphire reserve (for the perks, travel and dining), freedom(for rotating categories at 5X points) and freedom unlimited (for 1.5X points on anything else). Then you pool your points on the reserve to redeem.

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ink business

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My main is chase ink business. 2% cash back on everything. No need to deal with points, restrictions, conversions, etc. They gave me $1K after spending 1st 6K in 3 months. 2k back on every 100k purchase is unbeatable unless I want to deal with mega hassles.

Lounges in the US have become a joke. I dont even try anymore if it is a US airport lounge. Seems like everyone with a pulse has Priority Pass or access and its too damn crowded.

Since AMEX stopped with the free guest pass to the Centurion lounge, I have noticed an improvement in the overcrowding. I would say 9/10 Im able to get into the IAH Centurion lounge (and other Centurion lounges around the US) without any sort of wait. Same goes for Priority pass lounges.

If I'm traveling during the busy holiday season, then I check in to the Centurion lounge using the AMEX app right before entering the airport. If theres a wait, then they will send me a QR code when they are ready for me to enter. That has been really helpful when trying to access the lounge around the holidays.

Fidelity has a good every credit card at 2% cash back on everything. That's my go-to for daily use.

3% > 2%

I'm dropping my Amex platinum later this year. Looking for a new card, annual spend on the card is around 80-100k/yr paid off in full every month. I don't need anything tied to travel perks. I think I want just a straight cash back card. What is the best cash back card I should be considering?

if you can qualify for the Robinhood Gold Card, it's worth looking at. Straight 3% cash back is pretty hard to beat.

My only gripe with them so far has been the fraud response. I got nailed by a Pemex station on vacation and RH was pretty useless. Burden of proof was totally on me initially. I got it straightened out in the end but very different experience than Chase and Amex. Could have been an isolated incident, but I doubt it.

Diggity said:

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if you can qualify for the Robinhood Gold Card, it's worth looking at. Straight 3% cash back is pretty hard to beat.

My only gripe with them so far has been the fraud response. I got nailed by a Pemex station on vacation and RH was pretty useless. Burden of proof was totally on me initially. I got it straightened out in the end but very different experience than Chase and Amex. Could have been an isolated incident, but I doubt it.

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Yea but you have to pay $50-60/year for the Robinhood Gold membership, and be affiliated with Robinhood's less than stellar ecosystem. I would prefer Fidelity rewards 2$ cash back with no annual fee.

for the guy spending $80-100K, that's a rounding error.

There's also some benefits for the RH Gold that basically pay for the fee.

The app for the card is actually pretty great. Nicer than any other cards I've used. Makes it very easy to do virtual cards and track spending.

We split between United and Amex platinum for business. Our family of 5 travels a lot for non work purposes so works for us. We're also very fortunate to b able to spend a lot on the two cards and rack up points/miles.

I recently downsized to simplify my life.

Bank of America Aggie card since 2001 at 1% cash back
Citi double cash back since 2016
Barclay elite travel card since 2016 2.5% cash back
NFM card for 0% interest deals since 2019

My limit is still $27,000 due to the age of my oldest account. Once the 3 are old enough to travel, I'm sure a travel card will be nice to have again.