Credit Card for Bonuses and Perks

[Ksols]

We use a Chase Visa for Marriott points. Use the card for all everyday purchases and have 1-2 wonderful vacations each year...free. This year was Grand Cayman (Christmas/New Years) and JW in Tucson (Spring Break) Past years have been JW in Phoenix and Cancun, all during peak season and either free or upgrade with slight fee, all during peak season. I calculated that if I was given 2% back it would have covered about half of the price of these rooms.

 

[pb4uski]

There are some websites out there that you enter your annual spending on a credit card and the amounts for various categories, whether you carry a balance or not, etc and it recommends cards that will maximize your rewards. I don't recall the websites but do recall learning about them in Money magazine.

I've used Discover Cash Rewards card for years and have been happy with it, but recently changed to Escape by Discover. While the Escape card has a $60 annual fee, it offers double points.

 

[flyfishnevada]

We use the AMEX Green. We get 1%, low annual fee and no interest, though we are required to pay it off every month. My DW uses it for her business and we get all those points. We use it for all but grocery shopping and paying other bills. Easy to use the points. We use them for air travel. Just call AMEX and make a reservation.

We also have a Chase Southwest Airlines card too. Not sure how good of a deal, but we use Southwest a lot. We've scored about 11,000 points using the card for dealing with my FIL burial and estate, all reimbursed by the estate. We got it because we got two free Southwest flights and didn't have a credit card. Glad we did so. We didn't expect to use it except for emergencies, but then the FIL situation popped up. Glad we had the CC.

 

[sundance]

I have an American Express Starwood Card. I have found GREAT VALUE in using it for hotes & resorts. I stayed at the Aruba Westin for 7 nights and it cost me 10,000 points a night & the 5th night was free (no points). It cost me 60,000 points! It would have cost me about 3000 dollars. This card can be used for airlines or hotels. BEST value in hotel. Gold member gets free upgrade. Annuel fee $65.

 

[Chuckanut]

Chase Sapphire Preferred

I recently received an email informing me that gasoline purchases through the end of this month - June - are eligible for the pay myself back plan. If they offer 1.25% benefit for points, that would be a nice discount. However, they are somewhat unclear on that point.

It’s been a while since any of the pay myself back deals have been of use to me.

 

[athena53]

My main card is the Fidelity Visa- straight 2% cash back on everything but they do charge FX fees.

Next priority is Costco Visa for 3% cash back on travel and 4% on gas, no FX fees.

I got a no-fee Hilton Amex with an 80,000-point sign-on bonus and use it only for Hilton. Also got an AA MasterCard for a 60,000-mile sign-on bonus and will now use it only for AA purchases after meeting the $6,000 spending required to get the bonus. That one has a $450 annual fee and includes lounge access. I may or may not renew it.

I've concluded that the branded cards give you a better deal than straight cash back only if you actually use them for that brand- and of course they can change the value of their points at will by "enhancing" the program.

 

[brett]

Our best returns, other than free Marriott nights, have been on from credits cards that provide car rental insurance (we travel frequently), from trip cancellation (2X$1600 for our one and only ever cancel claim) from one card. and from cash back towards travel products.

The other big plus from us has been cards that do not charge that 2.5-3 percent admin uplift to FX transactions.

The cards are all different. The trick is to match the card costs, benefits, with your lifestyle and spending habits. There is no one perfect card for everyone IMHO.

 

[Koolau]

Ever try to cash those points in? I have. It is nearly impossible to get any "advertised" trip/upgrade unless you double/triple the points you are cashing in.

I learned a long time ago to take the cash refund over airline points.

When I was still employed (and traveling to Europe every month) I would accumulate a lot of points that the company did not require to "return". I/DW received a lot of free travel to Europe/US, but that was not through my personal charge card. I looked at it as a comp for the many weekends/nights I spent away from home.

I would never get a personal charge card just to score some points - it's not worth it IMHO.

Just my POV.

Yep. Using points makes you feel like a leper. Cash is king. Go for the gold, I mean geld - well just go for the green.

 

[CaliKid]

I buy and sell concert and sports tickets as a side hustle. A few hundred grand a year worth. The Savor card from Cap One pays 4% on entertainment. There is an annual fee but anybody that has good season tickets for sports would come out way ahead with this one.

 

[teej1985]

I buy and sell concert and sports tickets as a side hustle. A few hundred grand a year worth. The Savor card from Cap One pays 4% on entertainment. There is an annual fee but anybody that has good season tickets for sports would come out way ahead with this one.

How do you find tickets that you know will sell and won't have to eat? Don't teams make it hard to resell season tickets?

 

[Flieger]

We use Sam's club for the 5% back on gas (get all of our gas with that card, you don't have to buy gas at Sam's necessarily).

Use a combination of Chase Hyatt for hotel points, and switch to Chase Sapphire for other travel once we hit Globalist level for Hyatt. We use these cards for everything we can, such as setting up auto pay for utilities, etc (with exception of gas mentioned above) and pay off each month. We take a couple of trips a year to NYC and California (Carmel/Napa) and rarely pay for flights or hotels.