For as long as we've been married we have put most of our recurrent monthly expenses on one credit card, paid it every month and collected the miles, all with a very smug feeling. You know that feeling I'm talking about, right?
HAAAAA, WE GOT ALL THESE MILES AND DIDN'T PAY ANY INTEREST ON ANYTHING, JOKE'S ON THEM! WOO! FREE TRIP TO MAUI!
When, really, the joke is not on the credit card company it is on the poor merchants that we inflicted our $4 transactions on (that they pay a 2-5% fee for), all in the name of gathering 4 Aadvantage miles when I buy a salted caramel mocha. But, you know, that's the game and we all play it. We've parlayed this method into at least six round-trip tickets to Maui.
Jennie and I were recently talking about this game we all play as adults (seriously, the Game of Life from Milton-Bradley has nothing on Credit Card Points and Reward Strategies For First World Grown-Ups).
We have been with the Citi Aadvantage card for years and I've been unhappy for awhile. Most of this ire comes from the fact that American Airlines keeps changing the redemption structure for flights (requiring more miles for the same flight) but Citi is not offering any more miles per dollar spent. So, in effect, our program loses value year after year. I am also not that pleased about being tied to just ONE company. I mean, what if American decided tomorrow to radically change the Aadvantage program? I would be BEYOND pissed off and have a stack of miles that are actually worth nothing because, let's face it, they're just made up currency. I also really dislike American Airlines and I haaaaate feeling tied to a brand and company that I have no faith in or enthusiasm for. Why bother investing ourselves further?
So, I thought I'd ask you guys. What are your credit card reward and point program(s) of choice? How do you earn the most and where do you feel like you get a lot of value for your effort, fees and trouble? I would like to stay in the travel category, but get points/rewards that I can use with multiple vendors/carriers. But, I'm not opposed to other cards/systems like Amazon where I can just get STUFF. (My brother has that card and likes it pretty okay.) Cash back programs are interesting but I'm not sure they actually pay out the same in relative value. Or, are you the kind of person that has several cards and ways to earn? Does that actually work out for you?
What kind of rewards are YOU actually getting? What is the most efficient way to earn? And, the fees! Which fee is more "worth" it? Which vendor has the most availability and ease to actually USE the reward? (Hint: It is not American Airlines, I'll tell you that.) There are just a crap-ton of ways to structure this financial chore these days.
I am not interested in playing any "Join now and get a million points!" games where I have to open ten accounts and then close them. No, no, no. I just want to find a card or a program where I get maximum rewards/earnings on things I would actually buy.
Tell it to me straight: How do you tackle this in your house and what are you getting for your efforts?
I recently switched to a cash back card from BofA. I have a World Points card that I've had FOREVER, but I changed one of my cards to a cash-back one, and I've been considering going to Discover, too.
After everything we've been through with cards and miles, etc. etc. I came to the conclusion that the only reward I'm really happy with is cash. When Sam's a little older, we might get a Disney card for some short-term trips, etc.
Posted by: jonniker | October 09, 2011 at 08:31 PM
We have no credit cards, because I have no faith in us to use them responsibly. Okay, I have quite a bit of faith in myself, considerably less in my husband. This may have something to do with the $6000 in debt he had accumulated (with an ex girlfriend, UGH) that we paid off just after we got married.
Posted by: Elsha | October 09, 2011 at 08:46 PM
We've got a chase freedom card and you can change the points to whatever you want when you redeem them. You get 1% on everything and 3% on your top three spending categories. Which I like because if we have a big month of some type of shopping, we get the 3% on it. I used to LOVE the card because when you hit 200 points and chose cash, they'd send you 250. So a free 50 bucks. And I love free money. But they just changed it so there's no more free money. Overall it's still a good card
Posted by: meghan | October 09, 2011 at 08:48 PM
We primarily use the card from our credit union. The rewards are not fantastic - it's points that we can redeem for a variety of things, but I think they expire and such, so sometimes we have to use them or lose them. HOWEVER. We can pay it by simply transferring money from our savings account or what have you, and, honestly, the ease and simplicity of this is worth more than miles.
We also have an AmEx so that we can get a free Costco membership, so we use that at Costco and for gas, because it's double points for gas. It's cashback. I like cash.
Posted by: Dr. Maureen | October 09, 2011 at 08:52 PM
We changed from the Citi Advantage card to the CApital One no hassle rewards card about 2 years ago, and have been really, really happy with the switch. It is REALLY easy to redeem- you can apply your points to any charge on your card that is travel-related, all on the website.
Posted by: pseudostoops | October 09, 2011 at 09:08 PM
I used a card tied to my Fidelity retirement account. Whatever I earn in "points" must be added to my retirement account. Lame, I know, but I don't have much interest in another Gap gift card or airline miles that I will never use.
Posted by: Kimberly | October 09, 2011 at 09:29 PM
I use a US Bank credit card tied to my checking account. It automatically takes the full balance on the cc out of my checking every month so I don't even have to deal with it. I love the rewards and usually redeem them for Starbucks gift cards (higher value than cash back), so my salted caramel mochas are "free." It's actually the reason I don't want to switch to my husband's bank - the rewards on his Wells Fargo credit card aren't as good as mine.
Posted by: Jessica | October 09, 2011 at 10:02 PM
We have an AmEx gold card for all joint/married stuff, and I really like it -- it's great for travel because you can just convert the points into whichever of your frequent flier accounts you want to use (50K AmEx points, for example, can be transferred over to become 50K Flying Club points on Virgin Atlantic. And guess what 50K Flying Club points is? A one-way ticket in Upper Class from SFO to London!)
Posted by: Nothing But Bonfires | October 09, 2011 at 10:53 PM
Chase sapphire.
End of discussion.
Posted by: Rollin | October 09, 2011 at 11:04 PM
Check out the Amazon card again, you can actually use points for airline tickets and you are not locked into a specific carrier. 25k in miles gets you a domestic ticket up to 400 in value. We had a Northwest card back in the day, but switched a few years back. Now, we can use rewards for cash, stuff or airline tickets.
Posted by: Bryan | October 09, 2011 at 11:19 PM
We have USAA, which is fantastic if you can get that, and we have an American Express through them. Whenever we get enough points for something, Matt studies a catalog of some kind and we decide what to get. Sometimes we get gift cards, sometimes airline miles. Once it saved us a billion dollars in airline miles when we had to go to a wedding. Also, the American Express card from USAA is black and apparently there is some kind of black American Express card that is all fancy and people think I have it (which I don't) and it amuses me.
Posted by: HereWeGoAJen | October 10, 2011 at 06:58 AM
We use a pnc card that gives cash back. I like the simplicity of it be wise we get checks on the mail without having to initiate the process.
Posted by: Lindaay | October 10, 2011 at 08:45 AM
We have the chase freedom card too. Since we bank at chase too we get 10% extra points and 10 points extra for every purchase. We also register each quarter for the bonus categories. This quarter includes restaurants so we get 5% plus the bonuses at restaurants. Points can be exchanged for cash or stuff. So far it is pretty good.
Posted by: KLTTX | October 10, 2011 at 11:24 AM
We have a Chase freedom card and we just get cash back. We had a Discover card but they kept changing the rules and I don't want to wait until i have $50 to get my cashback, chase lets us get it at $20. We don't travel or I'd probably look into miles cards - maybe when the girls are older.
Posted by: Jibbertwit | October 10, 2011 at 12:38 PM
We have a Continental VISA and a Starwood AMEX. Airline points go to my account, Hotel points go to my husband. We primarily use the AMEX and VISA where AMEX is not accepted.
I don't love being tied to one airline, but it is the hub here and we find that we primarily fly Continental. We get free bags when we fly as well, so that is a perk that kind of pays the annual fee. We'll have to switch to a new card with United, but I'm ready to as Continental is now partnering with Mastercard and it's been a pain to get the free bag thing automatically. And I'll get the bonus of the new points. We pay our daycare bill with VISA and it is nice to get the points for that.
As I said, the AMEX is our primary card and we are very loyal to the Starwood brand. Husband is gold because of our spending and We rarely pay for hotels unless we are limited by location or the event.
Posted by: Megan | October 10, 2011 at 01:51 PM
We do what you do! We have Mastercard and collect American Airlines. We have 25,000 miles right now and I would like to use them to buy a trip to NYC. EXCEPT there's nothing available during the days I want to travel. And 25,000 only buys me a one way that lasts 9 hours. So instead we spent $480 flying continental! I wish AA wasn't the hub for DFW, it's just a TERRIBLE AIRLINE.
Every year when they tell us to pay the fee, Micah calls up and threatens to quit. Then they waive the fee.
Posted by: natalie | October 10, 2011 at 05:33 PM
Oh one more thing. I don't like thinking about that 1 mile=$1. That means we spend WAAAAAAAAY too much per month!!! Ack!
Posted by: natalie | October 10, 2011 at 05:34 PM
Chase Sapphire Preferred!
comes with 50K pts. transfer partners are Continental Airlines, Marriot, Hyatt, etc.
The card gives you double points for food and travel spend.
check out this blog:
www.thepointsguy.com
he has awesome tips on travel credit cards!
Posted by: Lauren | October 11, 2011 at 11:51 AM
We currently have a Chase Disney card because we've been planning a trip to Disneyworld FOREVER with the hub's family. Supposedly the card gives us special in-park perks but I can't testify to that quite yet.
Posted by: Renae | October 11, 2011 at 10:42 PM
We've always done the same with our credit card. We have one and we use it for pretty much everything, and it gets paid off at the end of the month (I have a rough idea in my head about how much money we actually have, so if we don't have money for something major, we wait.) As for points, we have a Chase Sapphire card. I've only ever cashed the points in for, well, cash :) I like getting the checks in the mail every few months! Plus it seems like they're less likely to play games with that as a reward (black out dates, etc) It's $1 for 1 point, very simple and straight forward. I think we've had the card for 6 or more years? Been pretty happy with it.
Posted by: Jen | October 14, 2011 at 09:32 PM