Airline miles, cash back, that sort of thing. I’m looking to switch. Thanks!
Our Discover account tends to be the most flexible with what you can do with the points (they are the only ones we can take as straight cash, although they go further taken as gift cards against stores you were going to buy at anyway).
Our Citibank credit cards appear to give us more back in dollar terms though. This is largely due to the large amount of points they give for flight purchases, and I put all my work travel on the card. Unfortunately they are more limited in what you can use them for. I just transfer them to Barnes & Noble gift cards, which we will always use eventually.
Incidentally I only signed up for the Citibank cards because of the large number of sign up points they provided, but I have cashed in (or gift carded in?) much more since then.
You’ll probably want to go directly to these companies for the exact terms and conditions. Your spending habits might be different to mine in which case what works for me won’t work for you. In my case this is all free money since I always pay the cards in full every month.
http://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards.aspx let’s you compare credit cards by rewards programs.
I have heard, though, that because of the CARD Act, many issuers are changing their rewards programs, eg - charging a higher annual fee for them.
Do you shop at Costco, or have any interest in doing so?
Their American Express card gives a 1% rebate on all purchases, 2% for travel, and 3% for restaurants and gasoline.
Since I both drive and eat out quite a bit, it really adds up for me—both last year and this year, my rebate is just under $300.
The rebate comes as a credit to be spent at Costco. For me, it’s as good as cash, because they have many things I can use and would already buy anyway—soap, paper towels, and so forth.
Last year, I used my credit to buy myself the 26" TV/computer monitor I’m looking at right now. My most recent $288 credit just arrived in the mail, and soon I’ll go see what “gift” I’ll buy for myself!
The one downside is that you’ll occasionally run into places that don’t accept American Express. I always carry a Visa debit card, so I’m not stuck and I don’t have cash and need to buy gas.
One other thing is that you naturally need to purchase an annual Costco membership—I was already a member anyway.
BankRate accepts compensation from the card issuers for preferred placement on their credit card “search” tool. They are not unbiased. I think this is worth mentioning.
I’ve heard that the Schwab and Fidelity rewards credit cards are among the most generous, matching 2% of expenditures. Of course you need to have an investment account with one of them.
My Chase Freedom Rewards card has given me a higher cash back return than either Citibank Platinum Dividend or Discover. No annual fees for any of these.
They nerfed Chase Freedom late last year - I’ve switched back to Discover for most purchases, but they definitely used to be the clear king. Not only did awards accrue faster than Discover, you also got an additional $50 free if you waited until $200 cashback to redeem. Sadly, I only had the chance to do this once before they nerfed it. Chase Freedom still has the lower redemption amount, though, if you use the ‘pay yourself back’ feature, so it might be a good choice if you don’t charge much.
You have to make sure to check the rewards each few months, though, for both. Discover has 5% off right now for grocery and drugstore, for example; Chase Freedom often does 2% or 3% on certain categories as promotions. Over the holidays, I actually kept a little list in my wallet for which cards to use where. 
Oh, and edited to add I mean to get a Costco Amex card at some point since I shop so much at Costco. However, Amex has had kind of a shoddy track record on customer service ever since the economy tanked (people having their limits slashed to equal their current balance every time they’d make a payment, for example, or people with huge $25k+ limits slashed to $500 or $1000 without warning while they were travelling).
Note that the investing account is free, and you don’t actually have to do any investing. You can just transfer the money out to a bank account whenever you want it.
My friend has been pushing me towards an Amazon.com Rewards Visa through Chase.
You get 3 points for every dollar spent at Amazon, 2 points for gas, dining, drugstore and office supply store, and 1 point for everything else. 2500 points gets you a $25 Amazon gift card, but you can get cash as well.
My friend says he’s gotten a bunch of cash back in 2009. He seems to think there’s no limit on the cash-back-per year (Citi, and I think Discover, too, put a cap on how much cash back you can get per year. My Citi card was $300).
I haven’t been able to find out any solid info about the actual Rewards. I’m just interested in cash.
You do get $30 off your first Amazon purchase with the card. There also, as of now, is no annual fee. Their rates start just above 13%.
I think once I am done dealing with Citi, I am going to take the plunge into Amazon. Not sure if it’s the absolute best card for rewards, but other than my grocery store and gas station, it’s where I spend the most dough, so I guess it’s worth it for me.