I've been using them for awhile now, almost all for travel. In the past 6 years the most I've paid for airfare in total has probably been $100-200. And that's just the .gov fees and taxes that they charge when you book your ticket that you can't use points for.



The Southwest Chase Visa is the one that I've had the longest. I got 50,000 points when I initially signed up which at the time was enough for 2 round trip tickets.

The other ones I've had are a combination of these three.


I had used the Amex until Jetblue decided to break that partnership and switch to Barclay's Mastercard. The points seem to go a decent distance. Although I just signed up for the plus card in addition to the standard card, which will give me an additional 40k points after I spend $1k in 90 days.

I had contemplated getting a hotel card but from what I've seen they're all garbage as far as the points go and they don't have any good promotional offers. With a lot of them you'd need 100k points just to get a few free days.

So my wife got the Chase sapphire rewards card that can be used towards travel purchases. This gives you more bang for your buck so to speak when booking hotels.

What does everyone here use?

I prefer cash back cards.

AmEx Blue Cash “Classic” (not offered anymore, replaced with the Preferred and the basic Blue Cash)

5% back on gas, supermarket and pharmacy
1% back on everything else

I don’t think that can be beat, honestly. No annual fee...

Given our annual volume, I should probably switch by apathy has killed that.

I've always figured that a 1% cash back card isn't that much different than my AMEX points (worth about a penny per point per dollar spent) and wife's Hilton card.

I have a friend who actively games this whole market space. He spends way too much time on in IMHO, but he can't stop now it seems.....

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
AmEx Blue Cash “Classic” (not offered anymore, replaced with the Preferred and the basic Blue Cash)

5% back on gas, supermarket and pharmacy
1% back on everything else

I don’t think that can be beat, honestly. No annual fee...

A version of this AmEx is still offered through USAA with the 5% being on everything bought on a military base. 1% on everything else. No fees. Called AmEx Cash Back Rewards Plus.

Chase Sapphire Reserve. 3% back on all restaurants and travel. Plus annual credit towards travel, another credit towards Global Entry or TSA Precheck, and etc. This is my primary card.

REI Mastercard. 5% back on everything at REI, ontop of the 10% member dividend.

Target Card. 5% back on everything at Target.

Chase Freedom, Citi Dividend Platinum, and Citi MasterCard all have revolving 5% categories that change quarterly, or 1% back.

Citi Costco Visa - 4% back on Costco Gas, and 2% at Costco. This is ontop of the 2% back you get direct from Costco if you have their Executive membership.

Chase Amazon Prime - 5% back on Amazon purchases.

Between all of the above, most purchases are between 3 and 5%. Rarely need to rely on 1%.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Aeteocles,

I used a Southwest Airlines Visa for work-related expenses/travel for a number of years before we went to company-issued credit cards. Got a few free trips out of it.

Nowadays I just use my bank's rewards card (cash back or points to buy stuff in their "store"). Paid for a WC Centurion Tactical that way.

Costco Citi Bank card has cash back on all purchases. From 4% to 1%. We accumulated almost 400.00 in 10-months. They send you a certificate that you take to Costco where it can be cashed. You can buy the 1.50 hot dog with your certificate and get all your change back in cash.

Highly recommended...and NO monthly/yearly fee

If Southwest flew here I would probably have that card. As of right now my primary card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Aeteocles already mentioned most of the perks, but one he didn't mention and I use often is the free membership to Priority Pass. This allows you and your family/travel partners to accesss lounges enrolled in the program.

PriorityPass.com

I also use the Chase Freedom card to take advantage of their 5% back catagories.

Being "into" a credit card might not be a wise thing.
However, if you use it (as I do) and pay it off each month and then reap the rewards ($ %) then that would be wise.

Capital One Spark Business Card - 2% cash back on everything

I think it's ~ $50 a year fee

If you spend a lot of money in your business ( supplies, etc... ) this thing can become a cash cow.

I pay for everything with my rewards card now.

I usually cash out with 100 dollar amazon cards.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
However, if you use it (as I do) and pay it off each month and then reap the rewards ($ %) then that would be wise.

Yup, that's all I do.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Being "into" a credit card might not be a wise thing.
However, if you use it (as I do) and pay it off each month and then reap the rewards ($ %) then that would be wise.

I should have mentioned responsible spending. Racking up debt on any single card will cause the interest to cancel out any rewards.

Chase Sapphire Reserve just took care of my airfare for a dive trip. I put everything on my card these days.

My Navy Federal VISA has been 1% forever. I just recently started using it for things I normally wouldn't so the points accrue faster. I pay it off, or at least under $100, every month.

I just today signed up for the Amazon Rewards VISA. I buy so much stuff from them every month, it just seemed logical.

I will pay paying that down to 0 every month as they have a completely stupid interest rate of 15.75%!!! I bet a lot of people get screwed on that one!

SPG and Marriott sign up bonuses. Consider there are personal and business flavors of both, and can be combined with spouse (that’s 8 sign up bonuses). There are sign up bonuses for all of them, and some referral bonuses. Then google Marriott flight and hotel packages. For around 200k Marriott points, you get 7 nights in a hotel and 50k SW airline points to go with it. You can vary the airline, number of airline points, and hotel category for different amounts. Note, 1 SPG Point = 3 Marriott points when you transfer between the programs. But in August all SPG points convert and there is only Marriott points going forward due to their merger. The flight and hotel packages remain.

quote:

Originally posted by Harleysbluff:
Capital One Spark Business Card - 2% cash back on everything

I think it's ~ $50 a year fee

If you spend a lot of money in your business ( supplies, etc... ) this thing can become a cash cow.

The Capital One Sparks Business card has no annual fee. The consumer version, Venture One also has no annual fee, but cash back is 1.5% but there are other perks for travel related spending and meals.

Chase Amazon Prime and Amex HHilton
Both are great cards

quote:

Originally posted by Harleysbluff:
Capital One Spark Business Card - 2% cash back on everything

I think it's ~ $50 a year fee

If you spend a lot of money in your business ( supplies, etc... ) this thing can become a cash cow.

This is what I use for my business excluding Costco runs on my Costco Executive Citi. No annual fee. I usually get between $1K and $2K each year.

Half that went to Mr Burke for some work