audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I prefer cash or statement credit back.
We travel overseas several times a year and have found the best use of credit card points is to upgrade from economy to business class. Each of the major cards ( chase and Amex ) have various airline partners. To do this, you sign up as frequent flier on airline , hold the flight you want, make sure upgrade is available then transfer points from credit card to airline. The savings has amounted to 4-10 cents per point and saved us thousands.
We travel overseas several times a year and have found the best use of credit card points is to upgrade from economy to business class. Each of the major cards ( chase and Amex ) have various airline partners. To do this, you sign up as frequent flier on airline , hold the flight you want, make sure upgrade is available then transfer points from credit card to airline. The savings has amounted to 4-10 cents per point and saved us thousands.
I find I just don't spend enough to get the points needed to get the big deals on things like business class, etc. The signup bonus is a help, but after that it is hard to build miles up, at least for me. If I was a big spender or had a business with lots of expenses or worked for a company that allowed me to charge to my personal card and earn points that would be different. ........
My rule with points is to spend them when I can. I don't hoard them. Devaluations can happen at any time. Bonuses are get bigger, churning is common and devaluing a reserve of points is any easy win for airlines and lenders
The point (pun intended) is that if I'm going to earn points, I don't save them for a rainy day. If you're too much of a saver, or if you don't do much international travel, just earn cash. The value of cash is easy to track
I think the capricious nature of "points" is the best reason to stick to cash rewards. We had points devalued once too often and cut up cards soon after. Now, it's cash only cards.
I suppose if you can earn travel points from a business card, it might make sense to do so. You can spend those points on personal travel with no hassle (points is points). But we are long past business travel. Show me the money, er, cash!