Multiple ways. It all depends on what you're buying and where your expenditures primarily are. There really is no one size fits all card.

AggieDan04 said:

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Anybody have the Amazon card? We're already Prime members and spend a stupid amount on Amazon, so getting the 5% back seems like a no-brainer. The card has some terrible reviews though. Not sure if I'm missing something.

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Nice for Whole Foods purchases as well. Really adds up fast.

Aggie09Derek said:

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TheBiggerEvent said:

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I use the Chase Southwest on everything except Restaurants/Bars which i used Uber (4% CB) - any idea how i can improve?

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Wait for another crazy offer to come up and then use it for a handful of months, get reward, then cancel the card before the annual fee hits the next year.

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This isn't completely correct. You can get the Southwest bonus once every 24 months and you can have a card already open. So if its been over 24 months since your bonus, you can call to cancel the card to apply for a new one and get the bonus again.

It really depends what your goal is. If its to get as many Southwest miles, Chase Southwest is good. Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you a lot more options....and even if you want Southwest miles you can transfer to SW for 1 to 1.

Yeah I do that, was more talking about other cards.

Chase Saphire Reserve's 100k offer when it happened is an example.

Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase sapphire preferred?

TheBiggerEvent said:

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Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase saff preferred?

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I would get the priority card if doing the SW cards and try to get the companion pass (very easy if you can also get the business card as well).

SWA Cards to just accumulate points long term aren't that good from a value proposition - better to get the referral bonus on it and then switch to Savor/Uber or something like that that is offering higher % back on most of your purchases.

I just cancelled Chase Saphire Reserve and I'm using Savor/SWA Priority/Amex Plum (business card)

TheBiggerEvent said:

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Am i just a dufous for using the southwest card vs the chase saff preferred?

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Transferred points won't count towards status. I don't believe they will count towards the companion pass either. SW card will build that those categories up.

Don't think i fly enough to earn enough points/ care about the status too much - really got the card for the sign up bonus which got me two free flights. Looking at a new one but just wasn't sure what i should get.

Where do you use your credit card the most?

94chem said:

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chris1515 said:

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Citibank also has a 2% cash back card with no annual fee.

I had their Dividend card for 1% back for years. I called them to see if they would match the 2% that Fidelity offers, and they did and switched me to the new card.

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Good job. I have the BoA Preferred Rewards card. It pays 1.5%, no fees, and works for me because I've been banking there 30 years. It pays 2.625% if you keep enough $ in savings, checking, and brokerage combined. ~1500/year cash back is good enough to keep me from shopping around too much.

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I do this too, but I combine it with the Cash Rewards Card (there's a AFS branded Cash Rewards Card). No fee. 3% on your choice of gas, dining, Travel, Home Improvement stores, or online purchases. 2% on groceries, 1% everything else. I use Cash Rewards for groceries and online purchases, and Travel Card for everything else. With Preferred Rewards Gold, Platinum, or Platinum Honors, you get an increase in these rewards of 25%, 50%, or 75%, respectively.

hypeiv said:

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IrishTxAggie said:

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Where do you use your credit card the most?

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^ this question is the key to what card to get...

If you just want one card to throw everything on and forget about it there are cards that give 2% like the Citi double cash

Even if your typical spend a months looks like:

$300 dining out
$200 gas
$500 groceries
$1000 other

It might seem like the just throwing everything on the Amex Blue Cash Preferred is better than a 2% card because of the 6x on groceries and 3x on gas, but in reality after 12 months of the above spend you average out to just 2.05% cash back after you factor in the annual fee.

If your budget is weighed heaver in one category like dining, gas, or groceries there might be a single card that can get slightly better, but if you can its best to try to break your purchases into a trio of cards.

In the above example if the person used a Barclays Uber for dining out, Amex BCP for gas and groceries and a citi double cash for everything else, after annual fees they would be getting around ~3% cash back

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Omg, who gets away with $2k/mo???

For the record... Alliant has changed policy that you cannot earn cash back now for a monthly bill over $10,000. The most that can be earned in one month is 2.5% of 10k or $250.

Pretty much ruins future purchases like buying jet ski's on credit card.

I just decided to go for the Wells Fargo Propel AmEx.

3% on dining, travel, transit (ride share apps, parking, tolls), gas, and streaming services. Those are some of my biggest spending categories.
$200 for spending $1,000 in first 90 days.
No annual fee.

Ag92NGranbury said:

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For the record... Alliant has changed policy that you cannot earn cash back now for a monthly bill over $10,000. The most that can be earned in one month is 2.5% of 10k or $250.

Pretty much ruins future purchases like buying jet ski's on credit card.

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Ask the boat people to process 1/2 the payment the day before your monthly cycle and the other 1/2 the day after.