nightdiff

What do you guys and gals think?

SW17LS

Eh, I'd rather have a card with rewards I can use for a wider variety of things

mmarshall

Agreed. I typically cash in my Mastercard reward-points for gift cards for Starbucks, Olive Garden, or Carabba's.

Johnhav430

Cash is king, meaning cash rewards redeemable at as little as 1 cent. For gas, PenFed is 5% deducted monthly, permanently, not sure why anyone would accept less than 5% for gas, or use a debit card (that is strange, see it sometimes at Costco/full serve NJ). We all use gasoline, my bill is sometimes $400 to $600/mo., so it may sound small, but why not shave off $20-$30 for doing nothing. Everyday should be no less than 2% cash, that's the going rate without rotating all over the darn place.

I loved when Chase did a 5% for Samsung Pay. Costco has fought hard to reject any sort of apple or android contactless payment. Clerks were amused when I placed my phone near the Verifone and payment went through. One clerk in Gaithersburg, MD, said let me see your credit card, we don't accept that. I said don't accept what, your register spit out a receipt. She said we don't accept payment by phones I need to see your credit card. I said nope. But I had to wait for a manager. Samsung is genius, beat Costco who won't accept NFC payments...

Johnhav430

I just went with Citi Double, I suppose if you didn't pay in full every month then it's not a true 2% cash. But I pay in full every month so you earn 1% when you charge, 1% when you pay, redeemable at any amount. If there are thresholds like $20 before you can redeem, then there is a tendency to miss break-points and leave cash on the table.

NavyFed has a cash 1.5% that I always used until Citi Double. Of course no foreign transaction fees but more and more cards are doing that, even Citi Costco.

p.s. as an aside we used to get the calamari at Carabba's. Since 2008, I swear the portion is 1/2. One time the waitress overheard my wife saying I think they gave us a small and didn't hear we wanted a large. Without us doing anything, the manager brought over an order 2X the size of what we had been given, and explained that corporate has cut the portion almost in half and many customers have noticed. Sorry that you felt that the portion is small, that is a large. What great customer service! And we never went back! lol

edit Citi Costco has no foreign transaction fee. Citi Double "has" a 3% fee (killer) Discover also has no fee (but doesn't appear to be widely accepted, Tim Horton's did not)

situman

Technically, you can use the rewards for anything by using the points to pay the credit card bill.

SW17LS

I think if you look at the value of those points though you will find you can do MUCH better elsewhere.

Chc4au

mmarshall

Two and a half million miles of being packed into today's Stuff-'Em-In airline seats like sardines? Hmmm.....I might just pass on that one.

Chc4au

Diesel350

Ehh, you can get 4% cash back on gas and 3% cash back on travel and restaurants with the Costco Credit card. I also use a Fidelity Rewards card that gives me 2% back on everything else.

Johnhav430

When I was a young buck out of B school, I wanted to get a Hartman portfolio and briefcase. Amazing how stuff we used to want, we no longer do. Also wanted an Omega Seamaster and too bad I did not get it in 2008, the value has gone up.

My wife has tons of Delta miles and good thing they never expire as we don't fly much as a family--we just forfeited all our SW miles. I have hundreds of thousands of United but they do expire, so I have to be careful and order some magazines or make sure I fly or stay at a Marriott. Dang sometimes life makes me think of a Harry Chapin song.

One last thing about programs and rewards--I believe the issuers stipulate they can be modified/canceled at any time, so make sure you don't get bilked. There usually is a grace period, but say you don't read the email or letter in the mail, and you lose all your points.

situman

Each point is worth 1 cent or 100 points gets you a dollar to pay your bill or whatevers. Which credit cards points translates to more than 1 cent per point? It is true that a lot of other credit cards allows you to earn more points.

Johnhav430

I thought we had generally agreed there are 2% cards out there with cash rewards redeemable 1 cent at a time, like Citi Double, all of them, Captial One, Navy, etc.

Johnhav430

I thought we had generally agreed there are 2% cards out there with cash rewards redeemable 1 cent at a time, like Citi Double, all of them, Captial One, Navy (1.5%), etc.