I prefer the Visa (or MasterCard) because they are accepted in more places than Discover and AmEx.

One huge caveat, of course. You have to pay off the balance each month or all the advantages simply vanish under a mountain of debt interest.

We charge, they give us at least a couple free flights every year. We use them to head to Central and South America, I think those flights are the best bang for the mile.

US Bank FlexPerks is the card we use. I’ve had the most success booking rewards as they are not affliated with an airline. They use Travelocity so there are a lot of choices. Also, the annual fee is waived you spend the minimum – around $24K.

If you pay it off every month, why not get rewards?

I haven’t had a credit card for several years now, and life works perfectly well without one. They (CC companies) need us; we don’t need them.
~F.

For all people though, RUN THE NUMBERS, and look at your own personal situation. The Amex Blue cash card works for my family because we have a fairly high yearly spend, and we use that card exclusively. If you use multiple cards with lower limits, it would be hard to make the amex blue cost effective. Likewise when we find a good visa card it will be different from the Amex blue card. Since we don’t use visa as often, we’ll want something like airline miles that never expire. they won’t accumulate as quickly, but i won’t need them to…

(To avoid the judgement of the internet, yes we pay all cards off in full each mont; it’s so weird that I feel like I have to justify myself even though I’m essentially anonymous here…)

If you track your spending and know you spend less than you earn, I think it’s crazy NOT to use credit cards for things you’re going to buy anyway. Why not get rewards?

Once the loan is knocked out, rewards can go into 529s for our eventual kids.

The only caveat here is that not every place you visit accepts American Express, but that drawback seems to shrink every year. Always carry my bank’s debit card as a VISA back up just in case.

a. 3% cash back on restaurants
b. 3% cash back on Gas
c. 2% cash back on Travel
d. 1% cash back on all Costco purchases
e. 1% cash back on all other purchases

I also use a Chase Freedom and Citi Master dividend – they both have rotating categories

PenFed Visa – 5% back on gas 2% back on groceries
Chase Freedom – 5% rotating
American Express Blue Sky – 1.33% back on everything. Cash can only be used towards travel.

Optimally, if you have a fidelity account, the best makeup of cards would be:

PenFed Visa – 5% off gas
Fidelity Amex – 2% off everything
Chase Feedom – 5% off rotating categories

AMEX Blue Cash (5% on groceries, gas, & drug stores after $6500 spent, 1.5% on everything else)

Chase Freedom (3% on groceries, gas & restaurants, plus 5% bonuses on categories that change every 3 months)

As a bonus, Chase generally runs a promotion where you can get $100 back after the first use of the card (when I first signed up it was $250).

I use the Amex BlueSky – which requires points, but they are redeemable for anything travel related, airfare, rental cars, hotels – and they do it in a cash back fashion – so you just pay as if you would anywhere. I usually use it for flights – but I sometimes wonder how they really define travel-related – because I could go skiing here in New England tomorrow – and make that my “vacation” expense….

The 5% cash back on rolling categories and 1% on all other purchases really adds up – I think I’m averaging around $50 in cash back per quarter. And I’m poor and don’t spend much.

@JED – Bummer to hear these are being phased out. Will that affect existing cardholders somehow or only would-be cardholders?

I should be able to turn that 500 into 550 or even 600 in rewards from Lands End or EBGames. I’m personally challenging myself to spend only rewards and spare change turned in for dollars next Christmas. If I don’t do it, I at least think I’ll be close.

So do I. I just use a credit card to do it.

Last year I calculated what the gimmicky rates (1.0/0.5% and 5.0/1.5% after $6,500) actually work out to – it was something like 1.35%, pretty much the same as any rewards card.

I also have an MC from my bank for the rare instances where I can’t use the Amex (can’t remember the last time I put anything on it, though).

Can’t wait for the “All CCs are always Evil!” brigade to show up to grace us with their wisdom!

My Visa from a credit union has a very low interest rate, which isn’t really relevant for me, but no points. I like it anyway

The card that I did not like was the Discover Card. It promised big rewards, but often, I received very little.