Best rewards credit card, preferable to cash?

[audreyh1]

From a notice on the PenFed website last year:

Alan specifically requested a chip and pin card to replace his current one, he was able to assign a pin, but when he received the new card, there was no visible chip on it. This is rather a mystery.

 

[audreyh1]

I think I'll have to request another from Penfed, as I suspected the one they sent obviously is not Chip and Pin.

I am suspicious myself.

I just remember how in Europe they would look at your card to see if it had that chip.

 

[braumeister]

Quick reaction:
Alan, are you a PenFed member in your own right, or did you become a member the way so many others did, by becoming a one-time member ($20) of the National Military Family Association?

My thought is that since the PenFed notice said they would "eventually" make chip & pin available to "affinity members", it's possible they excluded you.

I don't know; I haven't asked for a chip & pin card yet from PenFed.

 

[Lagniappe]

I think I'll have to request another from Penfed, as I suspected the one they sent obviously is not Chip and Pin.

Alan,

I have a PenFed chip & pin card, and the chip is obvious, just like the ones in Europe. Sounds like they sent you the wrong card.

 

[audreyh1]

Alan,

I have a PenFed chip & pin card, and the chip is obvious, just like the ones in Europe. Sounds like they sent you the wrong card.

Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[jetpack]

I like the flat 1.5% CapitalOne card. Most of my charges are not in any categories, and I really don't want to go chasing different specials.

I guess if you were to maximize, you'd keep track of all the 5% deals, and use the appropriate card for such.

 

[Delaney]

Discover is offering $150 cash back if you spend $750 in 3 months.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I've racked up about 250k chase ultimate reward points so far this year. Just under 400k if you count sign up bonuses. That translates to about $2500 if I wanted to redeem for cash or gift cards. Of course, I save for travel.....

Sounds great! Collecting rewards points is going to be my next hobby. What would be a sample vacation on $250K reward points?

I was thinking of trying to rack up reward points so when we sell our house we can stay in hotels for free until we buy a new house. I love all blogs on how to get points for free.

 

[Malcolm2]

I think I'll have to request another from Penfed, as I suspected the one they sent obviously is not Chip and Pin.

I have never heard of a true chip & pin where you can set your own pin. Usually it is assigned when the card and chip are stamped and cannot be set in advance or changed later .

 

[marc515]

We have the PENFED card and like the 5%/gas and 3%/Groceries.

For everything else we like the Capital One Quicksilver card which gives a flat 1.5%. The best thing about it is you can set it up to apply $25 cash to your card balance every time you accumulate $25 in rewards. No sense racking up all those rewards points while spending your cash to pay off monthly card balances!

 

[Hopeful]

We are happy with our Capital One Venture card, but it all comes down to how much you spend each year. It is 2% back and there is a $59 annual fee, but we easily overcome that with our spending levels as compared to a 1% or 1.5% card. We are sure to charge just about everything, and can easily charge over 50k a year. This gives us around $1000 cash back a year.

It is a travel reward card, but with no restrictions or expiration. You just log on and find any travel/airline/hotel/car rental charges in the last 3 months and they apply a credit. Also has the added benefit of no foreign transaction fees. It works for us.

 

[ronocnikral]

I like the flat 1.5% CapitalOne card. Most of my charges are not in any categories, and I really don't want to go chasing different specials.

I guess if you were to maximize, you'd keep track of all the 5% deals, and use the appropriate card for such.

Or find a good 5% deal where you can buy gift cards...still a pain, but doing 80/20 keeps you sane.

Sounds great! Collecting rewards points is going to be my next hobby. What would be a sample vacation on $250K reward points?

I was thinking of trying to rack up reward points so when we sell our house we can stay in hotels for free until we buy a new house. I love all blogs on how to get points for free.

depends on how you want to travel. DW and I are targeting India next year. We'll fly int'l first class most likely (assuming we can snag seats), worst case int'l business. Probably run $200-$300 for the pair of roundtrip tickets. Could cover hotels, but I want to stay in a place like the Oberoi overlooking the Taj....

To cover a vacation like that totally with points for 10-14 days, you would probably need about 500k. Hard to tell as hotels (and now the airlines) are inflating (or devaluing) their points. Travel style can make a big difference.

 

[audreyh1]

Recent PenFed article about their chip and pin cards.

Just what are chip credit cards? | PenFed Blog

Sounds like they're rolling these out more generally? I need a pin-enabled chip credit card (with no foreign transaction fee and hopefully some type of credit or cash back) for our next Europe trip.

AFAIK, PenFed is still the only game in town in terms of having "real" chip and pin - that is, the pin can be used in a kiosk in Europe for ticket purchases.

I have a BofA chip and signature cards that works just fine for most European transactions, but it cannot be used in railway kiosks, etc., because it doesn't have a pin for credit transactions (just for cash withdrawals which has high fees).

 

[Cobra9777]

Old thread, but since it's been bumped, I'll add our cash back routine:

For gas, groceries and drug stores, we get 5% using the AMEX Blue Cash. We're grandfathered on an older version with no annual fee. For everything else, we get 2% using the Fidelity AMEX. And for any merchant who does not accept AMEX, we get 1.5-2.0% using the Fidelity VISA. DW is well-trained on this routine.

Also... there is a fairly well-documented method to get 12% using the AMEX Blue Cash card to buy gift cards at Kroger. You get 5% immediately from AMEX for the "grocery" purchase. Then, Kroger gives 2X fuel points on all gift card purchases. The resulting discount at the pump is equal to an additional 7% off the original gift card purchase. Total discount = 12%.

Just last week, I saved $120 on a $1,000 purchase at Best Buy using this method. Also, all my Amazon purchases last Christmas were made with gift cards I purchased at Kroger with the AMEX card.

There is a newer version of the AMEX Blue Cash that pays 6% on groceries, but it has a $75 annual fee and a $6K cap on "grocery" purchases. So I stayed with my older card which has no annual fee, no "grocery" cap, but pays a slightly lower 5%.