I need a new credit card. Our household does most of our purchases through credit cards and our current setup isn’t maximizing the benefit I think we could be getting. Up to this point I haven’t been willing to pay an annual fee for a credit card but I’m thinking it may be worth it depending on the benefit. I’m looking for recommendations. Here are some relevant details:
[ul]
[li]We don’t carry a balance month to month, everything is paid in full.[/li][li]Monthly spend is about 10K-15K, with some months more spikey than others.[/li][li]This is a mix of both personal and business spend[/li][li]Our current reward setup is at about 1%, usually in the form of cash or credit off the bill.[/li][li]I’m not a fan of airline miles - I find the usability, convenience, and the fact you are locked in to a less than liquid return to be less valuable[/li][li]Places that offer credit like Amazon dollars for using an Amazon credit card are fine.[/li][/ul]
I use Chase’s Amazon card, which gives you 3% back for Amazon purchases, 2% back for [I forget what] and 1% for everything else. As far as I know there is no limit to your rewards per year, which is better than other cards I’ve used which cap it at $300 or so.
I seem to rack up points quickly, and Amazon makes it really easy to apply your points to Amazon purchases. It’s also easy to apply them to your credit card if you prefer, or just get a check or whatever other thing they offer.
I think you are making a mistake putting business and personal uses on the same card–separate them. FatWallet has a useful fixed thread about the best credit cards:
If you’re spending $10k-$15k a year on credit cards, it would almost be a certainty that you would benefit from the premium cards.
American Express’s Bluecash Preferred is $75 annually (waived 1st year) and offers 6% cashback on supermarkets, 3% back on gas and 1% everything else. If you just spend 1500 on groceries a year ($125 a month) then the annual fee is paid for without even getting into how much you’d save on gas. FWIW, I look at the 3% gas cashback is knocking off 10 cents per gallon.
Just straight up cash back you can get
2% Fidelity American Express (deposit into “cash management account” - no brokerage acct required) - you can get a visa version of this card that is 1.5%
If you do any kind of travel:
2.2% Barclay Arrival Visa (must be redeemed against Airline/Hotel/Car rental expenses to get 2.2%, but not “miles” or anything, you buy straight from the travel provider and get reimbursed)
If you are willing to use more than one card, there are a bunch with bonus categories:
5x Office supply stores (staples, etc), 2x Gas - Chase Ink Bold/Plus (business card) - these give ultimate rewards points which are $.01 if redeemed for cash, or can be transferred into a bunch of airline/hotel programs at 1 UR pt = 1 mile. Most valuable partners are United Airlines and Hyatt.
2x Restaurants, Travel - Chase Sapphire Preferred - also UR points
There are a whole list of gas only bonus cards, like
Pentagon Federal Credit Union 5%, Costco Trueearnings 3% (personal)/4% (business)
Signing up for lots of new cards with signup bonuses is far more lucrative than every day spending though.
We currently do separate business and personal spend - each is on a card that offers 1% cash back. The spend is monthly, not annual.
I like keeping cards for longevity - it helps with the credit and I actually don’t like the hassle of switching for the sign up bonuses. Too much other stuff to deal with so I’d rather not add another thing to track.
I’ll look into some of these and the fatwallet thread. I’m always open to more suggestions.
I have several credit cards, and one of them offers a service called “Shop Safe” specifically designed to protect you when you shop on-line. It works like this:
[list=“1”][li] You find something you’d like to buy on-line.[/li][li] You note the price.[/li][li] Go to the card’s web site.[/li][li] Click a few links, and enter the amount you plan spend. (I allow a little extra in case there’s some extra charge for shipping or handling or sales tax or whatever.) Say, for example, I’m going to buy something for $85.00, I’ll enter $100.00[/li][li] You also specify a relatively short time-limit (like, one or two months) in which you will spend all that.[/li][li] You get assigned a new unique card number (including those three digits on the back), with your specified amount as its limit, and the time-limit you specified as its expiration date.[/li][li] Now, go do your on-line shopping with that card. You can make multiple separate purchases, but once you make the first one, all subsequent purchases can only be made from the same vendor.[/li][li] The vendor never knows that you’re using a one-time throw-away card number.[/li][li] Once you’ve used up the limit amount or the time limit expires, that number can’t be used any more.[/li][li] The amount you spend gets billed to your regular credit card account.[/li][/list]
The card I have with this service has been sold and bought by several banks over the years. Currently, it’s a Bank of America card, although I’m not sure if it’s really BoA or if it’s still FIA doing business with the BoA logo.
ETA: Slight disclaimer: I haven’t actually used this service for several years, and that was before BoA bought the card. To the best of my knowledge, they still offer this service.
For no-annual-fee cash back cards, I currently use:
Chase Freedom, for 5% back in a different category every quarter. For 2Q 2014 it’s restaurants and Lowes. Last quarter it was gas and movies.
Barclays Sallie Mae MasterCard, for 5% back at grocery stores, bookstores and gas stations. There’s a per-month limit for each category before it reverts to 1%, but I rarely go over.
Fidelity American Express, for 2% everywhere else.
Capital One for 1.5% at places that don’t take Amex.
How easy is it to get the money out of the Fidelity account after they deposit it? I’m leaning toward the 1.5% Capital One card since there seems to be the least hassle. The rotating categories is annoying, as well as the ones who apply the rebate in a weird way. The Sallie May 5% for certain categories card looks good - I probably wouldn’t run into the limits.
Anything else out there? That Fatwallet thread was a great resource.
The best card for you is something that takes a little research. It depends on how much you spend, sure, but also what you spend it on.
For me, I prefer to use no annual fee cash rewards cards. If you travel a lot, an airline or hotel card may be better, but I prefer the flexibility of cash and I don’t travel much for work so I don’t rack up extra points often. At your level of spending, you might also consider the premium (annual fee) cards like Chase Sapphire and various Amex rewards cards. I’d head to one of the deal or credit forums directly – Slickdeals is a good one for finding signup bonuses in particular. You can get cash or equivalents of up to $200 or $250 with some cards. It pays to play the game and open new accounts regularly, as long as you’re keeping a longstanding credit card too (for credit score purposes).
I use multiple cards, and use the best one for each transaction:
Discover and Chase Freedom are basically identical in cashback (1% everything, 5% on rotating categories) but the categories of 5% vary between them, so it’s best to have both. Each also has caps for how much you can spend at 5% (usually $1500 per quarter).
I also keep a Bank Americard Cash Rewards for 3% on gas, 2% groceries (also has 1% on everything).
I keep a Target card for the 5% discount in Target stores. You might also like their pharmacy rewards plan.
I keep a Costco Amex for cashback at Costco; if you spend a lot at Costco, this is basically the only way to get cashback there. They also give 3% on gas and 2% on restaurants/travel.
Since you’re spending so much, you’d want to split up the charges on cards to get multiple caps at the greater than 1% cashback, or again investigate the premium cards - I just don’t spend enough to bother.
After much looking it appears that the Capital One Quicksilver card is my preferred choice. 1.5% on everything, period.
I can’t be bothered to adjust spending based on categories and I don’t travel very much. Those seem to be the big things that a lot of the other cards focus on. The Fidelity card seems okay, but the added inconvenience of accessing the funds seems not worth it for .5%. I’ll probably apply for two of them, one personal and one business.
I’ve had Citi cards Dividends World MC, had it for more than ten years, very happy with their customer service, easy to communicate with, never had a hassle with it. 1% cash back. Never carried a balance, they haven’t made a penny off of me.