What credit card gives you most bang for the buck for OBC/points, etc.

[Bowie MeMe]

I have just recently opened Sapphire Preferred and Chase United Mileage Plus and banked 95,000 bonus points (50K United +5K 2nd user and 40K + 5K 2nd on Sapphire) One cruise and shore excursions took care of the spend requirements of $2,000 and $3,000. There are $95 fees on both but waived for first year. I have heard tell they might waive that fee for good spenders but if they don't BYE. I hope to earn the air fare to and from Japan with cc and have already "spent" the cost of 4 nights hotel in New Zealand so far this year so doing OK there. Sapphire Preferred pays 2% on travel and dining and 1 % on everything else. First experience with transferring points to United was excellent and bonus because I had some United miles about to expire and they were "saved".

 

Still open for ideas on what to open. Hubby is more conservative on this but he is getting into it. How do you pay your bills with the credit card to get points? We pay by electronic bill payer through the bank now so few checks and almost no cash (DH sad because he is coin collector and gets no coins now)

[Illyria]

How do you pay your bills with the credit card to get points? We pay by electronic bill payer through the bank now so few checks and almost no cash (DH sad because he is coin collector and gets no coins now)

Some things can't usually be paid with credit cards - like mortgage and utilities that goes through bank's bill pay service. However, we have cell phone, internet, satellite TV, garbage collection bills all getting automatically charged to credit card.

 

I like the cash back bonuses on my Costco Amex card. But the PenFed Visa Signature that I just got apparently has pretty good points rewards, I need to read the brochure more closely to see if it's a better deal to use it for gas and groceries instead.

[ISLABONITA]

Still open for ideas on what to open. Hubby is more conservative on this but he is getting into it. How do you pay your bills with the credit card to get points? We pay by electronic bill payer through the bank now so few checks and almost no cash (DH sad because he is coin collector and gets no coins now)

 

 

Head over to flyertalk and check the credit card programs thread..

 

IHG ( formerly Priority card is great for hotels) Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt ( free weekend) Fairmont, Wyndham, Starwood ( can transfer to United also)

For airfare- Southwest, USAirways ( last call on this one)CitiAA, JetBlue,

and more..

 

We flew to Cancun on USAirways miles then headed over to Cozumel for 5 night free stay with the IHG points., planning on going to Aruba next Dec. with the USair miles and IHG points.

 

A lot of these cards you can cancel before the end of the free annual fee and wait 6 mos or so then apply again and get the bonus (again).

You can also book cruises through most airlines and earn miles.

Some companies like Chase bank have you wait it out much longer sometimes 18-24 mos .

[muah3iluvzu06]

Love my Chase Sapphire Preferred, booked our flights to Europe for next month using the points we've been saving up for the trip! :)

[ISLABONITA]

Love my Chase Sapphire Preferred, booked our flights to Europe for next month using the points we've been saving up for the trip! :)

 

Just now? there was availability?

[Bowie MeMe]

Sapphire Preferred allows for any seat to be purchased with miles that is available. Catch is that it is 2X + the number of points. Example Super saver award on UA is 40K for blue button and 85K for yellow button for Asia trip. So can wait a bit for award booking but then you pay more.

[sprint180]

We use both of the above with fantastic results. The are both zero annual fee, and give 1% back on every purchase everyday. But they offer quarterly specials that offer 5% back on purchases in special categories. For example in the third quarter Chase Freedom will give 5% on all fuel purchases up to $1500. So in the third quarter I will buy $1500 worth of fuel gift cards and use throughout the year. Sometimes the quarterly special is on groceries, so that quarter I go and get $1500 worth of Kroger gift cards. During the year I then buy all my groceries with the Kroger gift cards

 

I also put all bills that I can and daily purchases on my Discover. At one time you could get 5% back if you booked a cruise through them. Not sure if that is still going on.

Now, wish I had some place to buy gas cards and grocery cards. That is a great idea.

[muah3iluvzu06]

Just now? there was availability?

 

We booked the flights in March for our trip in September.

[mikesteg]

I also put all bills that I can and daily purchases on my Discover. At one time you could get 5% back if you booked a cruise through them. Not sure if that is still going on.

Now, wish I had some place to buy gas cards and grocery cards. That is a great idea.

 

I don't think DISC is doing that currently, at least I don't see anything on the site. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though. :D Looks like they do have a few promos going on, but nothing that reaches that level.

 

Chase did this at least for some term ~2 years ago. It was +4 points, so a total of 6 points when using Sapphire. Sapphire may have been required... I don't recall. 6 points in Ultimate Rewards can easily be worth 10% back if used with a transfer partner. I'd love to see that deal again too!

 

Freedom currently (until the end of August) has 5% back at gas stations. I've loaded up mostly on Amazon cards. I like them because we spend a fair bit there, and you just apply them to the account straight away so they'll never get lost or temporarily forgotten.

 

Chase has also upgraded the website so you can see if the 4% of bonus is awarded as soon as the transaction posts. That way you can confirm if the gas station convenience store purchase is actually awarded the bonus points before loading up. Of course, only 2 days left...

 

To the OP: for general purpose (ie, not a bonus category), we use Cap1... I think the venture card. This gives 2 points per dollar, which are good at 100% as long as redeemed against travel. Past experience is that Carnival Bon Voyage and gift card purchases count as 'travel' so we could effectively use it as 2% against part of the cruise. Also, you can make a partial payment in an appropriate which should post as travel.

 

That said, I tend to consume our Cap1 points on hotel stays and similar travel costs. Same difference to me, and it's easier to consume since Cap1 requires that you pay the full cost in points. Chase UR points can be used as partial payment if you book through Chase. However, you only get 125% of value that way, and Chase UR points can typically be used at a higher value when transferred to partners strategically. (For instance, you get 1-for-1 with Southwest where the points are worth 1.6 cents each.)

 

That said, if you sign up when Sapphire has a high sign on bonus it can be very valuable even at the 1.25 multiplier. Sapphire gives 2 points per dollar on travel, so you effectively get 2.5% back in value when you charge a cruise on Sapphire.

 

Both Cap1 and Sapphire have annual fees, FYI. In all cases, google to see the range of sign on bonuses. All companies run promos where the 30k bonus may be 50k for a couple of weeks. Cap1 venture had the famous 100,000 bonus about 2 years back... that was worth $1000 if used for travel. :eek: The Points Guy is a great site to know what are the best bonuses going at the moment, and how best to utilize those points.

[ISLABONITA]

Only a couple of days left for the Chase United Explorer card giving you 50k miles plus 5k for additional authorized user.. great deal we ended up getting this plus CSP to get us to Hawaii for free in first class from the east coast this past March.

 

Other benefits are lounge passes, free baggage and first year annual fee waived.

 

Wonderful card to have!

[nicecruiser]

Only a couple of days left for the Chase United Explorer card giving you 50k miles plus 5k for additional authorized user.. great deal we ended up getting this plus CSP to get us to Hawaii for free in first class from the east coast this past March.

 

Other benefits are lounge passes, free baggage and first year annual fee waived.

 

Wonderful card to have!

Hi all Thank you for all advisesorts just wonder where you are buying gas gift cards Thanks for help

[nicecruiser]

Hi All,

As usual a lot of wisdom... Please tell where you buy gas gift card I could not find them in ny. Thanks a lot. Irina

[ISLABONITA]

https://www.gosunoco.com/gas-gift-cards/

[waterbugohio]

Great thread.

 

I have been saying for a year (or more) that I need to retire my Bank of America Royal Carribbean card and go for one with more rewards.

 

Looking at Capital1 Venture. But you guys have me rethinking this. Need to check out Discover 1 and maybe take advantage and buy gift cards. Also want to check out the Sams club card someone mentioned. Is the 5% off gas only if purchased at Sams club??? What about walmart's Murphy gas pumps??

 

Lots of research to do. Will also check out the site someone mentioned: flyertalk

[ISLABONITA]

Great thread.

 

I have been saying for a year (or more) that I need to retire my Bank of America Royal Carribbean card and go for one with more rewards.

 

Looking at Capital1 Venture. But you guys have me rethinking this. Need to check out Discover 1 and maybe take advantage and buy gift cards. Also want to check out the Sams club card someone mentioned. Is the 5% off gas only if purchased at Sams club??? What about walmart's Murphy gas pumps??

 

Lots of research to do. Will also check out the site someone mentioned: flyertalk

 

I did and it is an awesome board... if you are willing to have more than a few cc and have the ability to pay off the balance each month, you can find savings for air, hotels, gas, etc.. with the previously mentioned cards in this thread. Together you can save money in all areas.. good luck. ib

[Bowie MeMe]

Do you need to be rather careful of Discover card and it being accepted in countries other than US/Canada? I find Visa most accepted and MasterCharge Second by a bit in my own travels. Discover a travel companion had troubles getting it accepted (some years ago) and we had to get enough money for all 3 of us to help her out.

 

Warning that I had my Chase Sapphire card used yesterday for fradulant charges and it was still in my hand -- none lost or even swiped yesterday. They used it in Glenn Bernie, Md. at a grocery store that Chase had a fraud alert on and they caught the 2 charges for almost $500 each and emailed me a warning. Closed the account and switch to new one. Card never out of my pocket yesterday and I'm over 25 miles from the store it was used at. MY MY

[Bowie MeMe]

I use a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and a Chase United Airlines car and I saved much money in the last 4 months (funny hubby says I spent a ton of money -- guess it is how you look at it).

 

Caught 2 good sign up bonus in June and got 90,000 bonus points. Added another person to card 10,000 on the 2 cards. Spend not a problem -- cruise to Belize took care of it just fine and the shore excursions finished off the other. I redeemed 2X points on cruise/flights/ and a few hotel rooms on a road trip and ended up with 140, 000 points which is a free economy flight on United from Washington DC to San Francisco to Taipei to Bali and back to DC from Tokyo Japan for 2 people. Quoted price just over $6000 for 2 on United.com with upgrade to Economy Plus. Each ticket 75,000 points. I will also have the hotel in Tokyo paid in points and possibly the one in Bali. I applied for the cards in late June and had my tickets by early September.

 

Just saying that the mileage points are real money and valuable if you travel. I don't drive much now so gas is not a big draw but can understand that one for many folks. With United you get a free bag too so that also saves money -- at least another $400 or possibly $800 because we are doing layovers and stopovers and get our bags back in several cities.

[ISLABONITA]

Do you need to be rather careful of Discover card and it being accepted in countries other than US/Canada? I find Visa most accepted and MasterCharge Second by a bit in my own travels. Discover a travel companion had troubles getting it accepted (some years ago) and we had to get enough money for all 3 of us to help her out.

 

Warning that I had my Chase Sapphire card used yesterday for fradulant charges and it was still in my hand -- none lost or even swiped yesterday. They used it in Glenn Bernie, Md. at a grocery store that Chase had a fraud alert on and they caught the 2 charges for almost $500 each and emailed me a warning. Closed the account and switch to new one. Card never out of my pocket yesterday and I'm over 25 miles from the store it was used at. MY MY

 

Same thing happened to my husband last year.. luckily we had the alert set low to $100 and the person tried not once but twice to charge airfare while he was on the phone with the card company.

New card sent no problems since.

Happened to me locally using my Amex too last year.

Can't trust anyone these days with your card. :-(

Edited October 17, 2014 by ISLABONITA

[Bowie MeMe]

Glad of the fraud alert because my card was in my hand and I took the phone number for customer service off of it. I always just call customer service myself using my card and it's number as printed -- anything else could be something set up to send you to the sight the thief wants you to see and they look very much like the form you are used to -- or not. Safety is YOU call the number that YOU looked up and go through the identity process . I do check the account often but maybe not daily.

[Stevanb]

We have Capital One Venture card . No black out dates no foreign fees no nothing. You buy what you want a cruise, plane ticket or anything else with your card then use the points to pay the bill for what ever you want . So you get points when you buy the cruise and then pay with the points. Yes there is a 49.00 fee but 2 points for every dollar you spend. This year we racked up 1.75 million points. Never pay for vacations :D

[mikesteg]

We have Capital One Venture card . No black out dates no foreign fees no nothing. You buy what you want a cruise, plane ticket or anything else with your card then use the points to pay the bill for what ever you want . So you get points when you buy the cruise and then pay with the points. Yes there is a 49.00 fee but 2 points for every dollar you spend. This year we racked up 1.75 million points. Never pay for vacations :D

 

Business account?

 

Have you looked at Barclay Arrival? Similar model, but Barclay rebates 10% of your redeemed miles. I don't know if there are any caps on that feature. The annual fee is a bit more, but if you accrue an extra 175,000 miles it seems well worth a few extra bucks. The annual fee is waved the first year also, so win/win.

[Stevanb]

Business account?

 

Have you looked at Barclay Arrival? Similar model, but Barclay rebates 10% of your redeemed miles. I don't know if there are any caps on that feature. The annual fee is a bit more, but if you accrue an extra 175,000 miles it seems well worth a few extra bucks. The annual fee is waved the first year also, so win/win.

 

 

I have both private and business. The fee is not even worth worrying about.

 

I talked to them when it come out and will not offer business cards. I think due to the amount you can rack up . The average user would not accrue millions of points.

 

If you do not pay off every month in full, points are not worth that much as interest is more than the points

 

Capital One just gave us Orange Bowl almost on the field tickets for being a good customer.