What are some attractive credit cards you are seeing now days?

I was offered a Capital One Venture with 2 miles on every dollar spent. Bonus of 60,000 miles for opening the card. However, has a $95 annual fee after the first year.

Wife and I are considering consolidating all purchases to a credit card. Main reason being security. I see a lot of people being hacked now days. It seems quite a bit easier to refund a fraudulent charge on a credit card than debit. Also, it would be nice to earn some rewards.

I love my Venture card. I've had it for over 3 years, and I'm easily able to accumulate 100k points in a 12 month period. I then use those points to "erase" $1000 in travel expenses when we take our big trip every summer. I am not loyal to any one airline or hotel, so rewards cards that are tied to specific brands aren't really useful to me. Also, I like that this card lets you "double-dip"...i.e., dollars you spend on travel purchases get you 2x points, which you can then cash in to get reimbursed for the travel expenses that got you the points in the first place.

I also really like the VISA signature luxury hotel collection that is offered through this card. If you book and pay with your Venture card, you get perks like free breakfast, free room upgrade, $25 food/beverage credit, etc. I've used this perk many times at different hotels and had a great experience.

Capital One also offers a money market account that pays 1.5% interest, so I've moved my cash savings there, too.

You 100% should be putting all charges on a credit card over debit card for security reasons plus getting the added rewards. If you use Amazon often, they have a card with 5% back on Amazon and Whole Food purchases plus 1% back on everything else. I have a card with Chase that gives 1% back on all purchases and a rotating 5% back on a certain industry/sector - this quarter is Paypal, Grocery Stores, and any time you use Chase Pay. I like it a lot, though there may be cards with certain bonuses you can take advantage of. If you're familiar with reddit, r/churning takes advantage of many of these card opportunities and can be a great resource for researching best cards and finding a good fit for your spending habits.

I'm about to cancel my Venture, but it is a great card.

The 60K points are great! Just make sure you use them for travel or for travel reimbursement.

The 2% is also great, it was especially great when buying cryptos where margins were a big deal. But now Capital One banned crypto purchasing. I cannot justify the fees anymore.

Another happy Venture card customer here. I hated having to keep up with the rotating mess of 5% poinys with Chase. I don't like the idea of credit card promotions influencing my purchase decisions, and always needing to look at the value of the bonus vs. The timing and weigh whether it's worth it to buy or not to buy at any given time.

Venture is easy. Spend a dollar, get 2 miles. Period. Every purchase, every time. Service has been great. Had the card number stolen twice, and their fraud dept caught it on the first fraudulent purchase both times. Had the fraudulent charges refunded, card canceled, and new cards in the mail same day both times.

Capital One shut down their travel booking portal, so you just book wherever you want, then log into your card account afterward and use your miles to wipe out the charge. Visa Signature Hotels I've never used. I've always been able to find nicer hotels at better prices on my own. I always check to see if i can stay where I want plus get the perks of Visa Signature, just havent found one yet.

I'm an Amex fan boy. the blue cash preferred I use for gas (3%) and groceries (6%). Everything else goes on Amex premier gold (2x at restaurants/bars and 3x on flights booked with airlines). They may be running a sign up bonus of 50k points after $3k spent in 3 months.

If you end up going the Amex route let me know, I got referral codes.

spence10 said:

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Chase Sapphire Reserve

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This is what I have and am happy with it. Annual fee is a little high but is significantly offset by the travel credit.

Chase Sapphire Reserve +
Amex Blue Cash Preferred +
Chase Freedom +
Chase Freedom Unlimited

Best of all worlds.

GE said:

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spence10 said:

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Chase Sapphire Reserve

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This is what I have and am happy with it. Annual fee is a little high but is significantly offset by the travel credit.

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How much travel credit are we talking?

$300

AMEX Platinum and Southwest Premier... But I travel A LOT...

2% back is my choice:

https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=citi-double-cash-credit-card

I use the Bank of America Travel Rewards Card. I just keep my emergency fund with them, so I max out the rewards. Currently 2.625% cash back with no limits. I view the cash back as a return on my emergency fund.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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I'm an Amex fan boy. the blue cash preferred I use for gas (3%) and groceries (6%). Everything else goes on Amex premier gold (2x at restaurants/bars and 3x on flights booked with airlines). They may be running a sign up bonus of 50k points after $3k spent in 3 months.

If you end up going the Amex route let me know, I got referral codes.

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you maintain (2) AMEX cards? I've only ever had the Amex gold. Still to this day the only card I maintain outside of debit.

You can use self-directed investments at Merrill to qualify for BoA Platinum Honors. That may be a better use than leaving $100,000 in cash at .05 when you can get near 2% interest on basis savings accounts now.

Ragoo said:

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FancyKetchup14 said:

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I'm an Amex fan boy. the blue cash preferred I use for gas (3%) and groceries (6%). Everything else goes on Amex premier gold (2x at restaurants/bars and 3x on flights booked with airlines). They may be running a sign up bonus of 50k points after $3k spent in 3 months.

If you end up going the Amex route let me know, I got referral codes.

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you maintain (2) AMEX cards? I've only ever had the Amex gold. Still to this day the only card I maintain outside of debit.

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Yes, pretty much all my expenditures go on those cards.

You only put gas and groceries on the blue and everything else on the gold? The gold seems to grow miles so slowly.

Tough to beat AMEX Blue Cash Prefferred for 6% on groceries if you have kids

We use Amazon for 5% back on prime, but the AMEX even gets more back at Whole Foods than the Amazon card

Correct. I've had the gold card for a few months now, the points seem to come in steady. I've also got the AA card for the free checked bag, but don't really use it. If you travel 4x a year and check a bag, it takes care of the annual fee.

I look for sign up bonuses on CC's to take advantage of the miles/points they offer. If I notice someone's offering x amount points after $x spent I try to go after it.

You should look at the Sapphire Reserved.

You'll essentially be getting 4.5% for restaurants and travel purchases when you redeem through the Ultimate Rewards site.

for straight cash back this is the combo:

Amex BlueCash Preferred: 6% on groceries up to 6K which I max out by getting gas and Amazon/Ebay gift cards from grocery stores also (this is the only one with a fee, so it nets $360-$75 = $285 cashback/year)

Chase Freedom: 5% cash back rotating, max out when they have grocery or Apple/Chase Pay categories by buying gift cards

Uber Visa: 4% on restaurants including BARS, 3% hotel/airfare

Citi Double Cash: 2% on everything else


with these I easily average 4+% cash back on my total spending

how much are you spending on Amazon and Ebay?

The Freedom is nice but I don't like keeping up with bonus categories. Most of them are useless to me anyway.

just use whatever I have left after covering all my grocery and gas @ 6%

not a bad idea. I don't track it that closely but no reason I couldn't. Are these caps all based on calendar year?

yea 6000/yr for BlueCash is the only meaningful one, but this year Freedom has 2 quarters of 1500/qtr on grocery/ApplePay so that should cover all my grocery/gas/amazon/gift cards for anything else I care to use

Alliant Cash Back Visa Signature Card

If you travel a decent amount and use the services a platinum Amex is the way to go. My wife and I utilize their concierge services fairly often.

What do you use it for? Always been curious about the benefits of that.

Phil Rirruto said:

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Tough to beat AMEX Blue Cash Prefferred for 6% on groceries if you have kids

We use Amazon for 5% back on prime, but the AMEX even gets more back at Whole Foods than the Amazon card

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I also use the his card and buy gift cards from the grocery store for various things. Getting 6% cash back on those too.

Primarily use platinum Amex and also have a Citi double cash. Thinking hard about going to a Chase Sapphire Reserve as my primary instead of the Amex.

I have lifetime platinum on SPG/Marriott and fly enough where AA comps an admirals club membership, and I think the Amex concierge is so-so. I have no reason to really have incidental airline spending because I can check bags for free, and when I'm in coach, they give me food for free.

The one plus of the platinum Amex is I can charge massive amounts on it and the customer service is awesome if you ever have a problem. I'm curious what it takes to get a centurion membership these days, cause it ain't $100K in annual spend.

Centurion is $250K annual spend sustained for two years.

The Venture Card is inferior to a simple 2% cashback card. The Citi double cash card gives 2% back every time and the money comes back every month and there's no annual fee.

Venture is basically a 2% cash back card, but makes you redeem the 2% cash back on travel (not a plus in comparison, at best a wash). On top of that, you have to pay an annual fee for the card.

But they have amazing marketing and people love the Venture card for some reason.

EliteZags said:

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for straight cash back this is the combo:

Amex BlueCash Preferred: 6% on groceries up to 6K which I max out by getting gas and Amazon/Ebay gift cards from grocery stores also (this is the only one with a fee, so it nets $360-$75 = $285 cashback/year)

Chase Freedom: 5% cash back rotating, max out when they have grocery or Apple/Chase Pay categories by buying gift cards

Uber Visa: 4% on restaurants including BARS, 3% hotel/airfare

Citi Double Cash: 2% on everything else


with these I easily average 4+% cash back on my total spending

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I use a similar formula, but don't both bother with rotating category cards:

Penfed: 5% back on gas
Uber: 4% on restaurants
Amazon Store Card: 5% back at Amazon
Citi double: 2% everything else

Also, often some of my purchases are tied up in doing mandatory spending required to receive sign-up bonuses for new credit cards (just get for the bonus and then dump before an annual fee hits).. Between my wife and I, we probably do about 3-4 a year on average.