Off-topic: Credit Cards and cashback/rewards

I am wondering what everybody out there uses for credit cards, or are regarded as the top cards for cashback?

I have good credit, use my credit card for nearly every purchase, and pay it off in full at the end of each month. Pretty disciplined with my spending and bill paying, so I am not worried at all about not paying it off in full each month. Right now I just have a credit card through my bank that simply offers 1% rewards and a few other things that occasionally double in rewards. Curious what is out there that routinely offers good rewards for gas, groceries, and always paying the bill in full?

If you’re an Amazon shopper I have their Prime Visa. 5% back on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas, restaurants and drugstores, and 1% everywhere else.

They also give you a $70 gift card upon signing up.

I’ve gotten back a bunch of money.

You should be able to get 2% across the board from a few cards. If you charge everything, that’s probably better than a more specific higher %.

We use the capital one Venture for most everything we can put on it and also an Amazon prime card used for our prime purchasing only. The Venture is a travel card, but you can also get gift cards or erase your balance @ 2%.

My wife corrected me, 2% for travel only, 1% otherwise. My bad. Any travel charge can be erased – Hotels, taxis, flights. I believe I did VRBO a few years back, so it’s not a limited travel program like an airline card.

Nerdwallet.com has reviews of different cards that are usually up to date. I just stick with my capital one quicksilver that is a flat 1.5% on all purchases, I could never remember which card gets what when I tried to maximize with different cards. That Amazon one sounds pretty good though…

edit: the Amazon rewards are only good towards amazon purchases I think

edit: the Amazon rewards are only good towards amazon purchases I think

Correct, however if you’re purchasing a lot on Amazon anyway you may as well get more back. Does it really matter where that money is spent later?

I’ve had the same credit cards for about 10 years that I’m ok with.

One is Discover, which gives me 1% anywhere and 5% at certain retailers quarterly. So the 1% ain’t nothing special, but this quarter, for example, I get 5% back at gas stations. So every time I fill up the truck I use Discover and get 5% back up to $1,500 in purchases this quarter (I can’t remember what that ends up being and I don’t want to math right now).

My other main credit card is Cabela’s Visa, which gets me 1% back and 2% on Cabela’s purchases. This is honestly one of the worst rewards cards based on percentage/cash back but since it results in free money at Cabela’s I’ll probably have it in my wallet until the day I die.

The last one I have is the Target RedCard, which I can only use at Target. It gets me 5% off every single time I shop at Target or Target.com, plus always free shipping and occasionally discounts that aren’t available to the rest of customers. If you make weekly or even every other week trips to Target I think it’s way worth it, I’d say every year I end up with the equivalent of at least one week’s worth of groceries free.

There are probably better cards out there than what I’ve got but I guess I’m decently happy with what I have and don’t want to go through any credit changes.

As you said mnrabbit, I pay mine off every time. In fact since I turned 18 and had credit cards I’ve only had a balance one month in my life. This entire thread is a moot point of a person carries a balance. You’ll end up paying more in interest than you’ll ever earn in cash back. But if you do pay off each month, you’re literally getting free money.

My MP Shield .40 and my Humminbird Ice-55 were 90% paid for with cash back and no cost to me. That’s when it’s fun and useful.

Citi Double Cash – 2% cash back. No restrictions, no limits.

If you have a Costco nearby, might want to check into one. Cash rewards once per year. Gas savings alone earns me cash. So far (1 year), loving it…

Good luck. Tough choices. If you travel a lot Sun Country card? Fly cheaper/free…

Cabelas card sure allowed us to purchase more Cabelas merchandise….

American Express Gold Premier Rewards. Too many benefits to list but the reward levels and the flexibility in where you can spend rewards are the best I’ve found.

Also the customer service is like having a personal assistant.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

American Express Gold Premier Rewards. Too many benefits to list but the reward levels and the flexibility in where you can spend rewards are the best I’ve found.

Also the customer service is like having a personal assistant.

Grouse

Looks good but I have a hard time paying $195/year for a credit card.

munchy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
American Express Gold Premier Rewards. Too many benefits to list but the reward levels and the flexibility in where you can spend rewards are the best I’ve found.

Also the customer service is like having a personal assistant.

Grouse

Looks good but I have a hard time paying $195/year for a credit card.

Most of the time there is a standing offer for no first year annual fee.

After that the fee often is waived. Ours is automatically waived so I believe it must be based on total spend. We put everything on the card.

Grouse

If you shop a lot online, sign up for Ebates. It’s easy cashback of 1-6% and sometimes special offers of even more. You can use it everywhere from Amazon to Bass Pro.

Sign up here

You can tie your cards to a store as well and get in-store cash back. So if you use a credit card with cashback online and use ebates you can double the cash back.

I thought it was dumb when the wife was using it. Then I signed up. It’s a nice surprise getting a check from them once in a while.

Citi double cash gives 2% back in actual cash value… I run everything thru it and get back more than I used to having a Cabelas black card plus now I’m not limited to where I can use.

Will

Thanks for the replies. We (wife) do A LOT of shopping on Amazon Prime. Having a young family, it is just very convenient for us to have it on our doorstep in 2 days rather than heading out somewhere. I am going to look into that option a bit more.

You can check the links I’ve attached for some ways for credit card hacking.
http://madfientist.cardratings.com/
https://www.cardratings.com/advisors/travelmiles101?SRC=637743
You can get quite a few rewards by learning the rules and sequence of cc cards to get. We have done most of the cards on the blogs already. We currently are using American Express to get $500 (gift cards) after spending $2000 in 3 months.

I know that the Cabelas card doesn’t give the best return. But I have had it so long and have received so much free stuff from using my points that when I buy a $$$ item from Cabelas my wife doesn’t ask anymore and just assumes I had the points for it.

I use discover. There are better ones out there but customer service is excellent when the card # gets skimmed or stolen.

I also keep a delta card because if I fly even once a year it more than pays the fee with 1 free checked bag/person.

mnrabbit wrote:

Thanks for the replies. We (wife) do A LOT of shopping on Amazon Prime. Having a young family, it is just very convenient for us to have it on our doorstep in 2 days rather than heading out somewhere. I am going to look into that option a bit more.

The American Express Premier Rewards Gold card can be connected directly to your Amazon account so that you can pay with the points you’ve earned.

In truth, this is how we spend most of our rewards, getting free stuff that we would have bought anyway. That was the whole logic behind getting a rewards card, get free money by spending money that we would have spent anyway.

Grouse

Grouse, have you ever had instances where the merchant doesn’t accept American Express?

blank wrote:

Grouse, have you ever had instances where the merchant doesn’t accept American Express?

Yes. The Municipal Liquor Store in Sisseton, SD still does not take American Express which means when I go to fish Roy Lake I have to pay for beer with my debit card. The ultimate first world problem.

I’d say about 3 times a year I run into a place that doesn’t take AmEx. It’s very rare. I’ve actually had places where the clerk didn’t think they could take it and when I tell them to try it, it works. I think many stores have changed their merchant processing service and most big services take everything.

I have other cards and of course an ATM/Debit card, so it’s never been a problem except that I lose the reward points.

Even outside of the US, I’ve rarely encountered a place that doesn’t take AMEX. The PR Gold card has no foreign transaction fees, which is very nice if you travel.

Grouse

Being in business I hate Discover and AE cards. They gouge the business the biggest handling fee of any card out there. The business is footing the rewards you are receiving.

Citi double cash back is our card. 1 percent when you use and 1 percent when you pay. Very happy with it.

I have been very happy with the US Bank Cash+ credit card. It is a visa card and I would be surprised if other banks didn’t offer the same card.

You get to choose one %2 cash back category and two 5% cash back categories every month. Everything else is 1%.

You get $150 for spending $500 in the first month.

https://mycard.usbank.com/credit/mycardusb/html/usbank_cash_plus_visa.html?redirect=cashplus&lang=en&exp=

Pretty sweet.