Sorry for a boring and MM topic on rewards cards

[gogreengowhite]

We use chase freedom and discover.

We didn't really research and probably should. However, we get a few hundred per year "for free" so I don't feel the need to dig deeper right now.

[Deleted]

I have three rewards cards and the only one that's really working for me is my Southwest card. I never pay for domestic flights anymore -- it's great. Getting that one was obvious because we fly a lot and it's the closest thing we have to a "hub" airline where we live.

I also have a BofA cash back and the Amex Blue. Like you, I got the same AmEx Platinum invitation and I had the same questions you did. Curious what others have to say; DH does not think it's worth the $600-something annual fee (we'd both need cards to really maximize the rewards.)

[cosmos]

I use US Bank Flexperks, which I like a lot. We get triple points for charity, and DD's daycare qualified as a one since it's a non-profit. That helped us rack up so many points over the last year. You can redeem the points for lots of things, but I use them for travel. They will work with anything on travelocity, and you can still get miles from the airline as well. I haven't paid for a flight since I've gotten the card.

Now that daycare is over, I'm going to look into other cards for comparison.

[cosmos]

Does anyone have the Barclays Starwood Amex? That's the one I'm most interested in based on preliminary research.

[Marmee]

I have a BofA world points MasterCard. I didn't choose it, it just changed to that over the years (I've had it 15yrs). It's my personal card (aka not joint) so I rarely buy on it (mostly DH gifts). The points have good stuff to buy but I only used them once (actually DH used them when he got tired of waiting for me to use them). I should use it more

[Mushe]

Aug 23, 2014 15:11:25 GMT -5 cosmos said:

Does anyone have the Barclays Starwood Amex? That's the one I'm most interested in based on preliminary research.

We have an SPG Amex, and use it a lot. I go between that and the Sapphire Preferred. Cash & Points hotels are your best deal there, although they also do a bonus on transfers of every 20k points to many airlines, so that can work out too. We're currently saving points for a Disney World trip, as the Swan and Dolphin hotels are SPG, and only 10k points per night. The redemption deals are really where we feel we get the best value, like with the Maui Sheraton, we did redeem 4 points nights, get 1 more free. We also got a special offer for the westin in Kauai because of the card, which we just bought (5 nights in a studio villa (will try to upgrade with our kiddo in tow) + 5k points + $185 towards an Avis rental car).

I haven't seen it referred to as being a Barclay's card, though, so not sure if you're talking about something else.

[cosmos]

Aug 23, 2014 15:23:01 GMT -5 Mushe said:

Aug 23, 2014 15:11:25 GMT -5 cosmos said:

Does anyone have the Barclays Starwood Amex? That's the one I'm most interested in based on preliminary research.

We have an SPG Amex, and use it a lot. I go between that and the Sapphire Preferred. Cash & Points hotels are your best deal there, although they also do a bonus on transfers of every 20k points to many airlines, so that can work out too. We're currently saving points for a Disney World trip, as the Swan and Dolphin hotels are SPG, and only 10k points per night. The redemption deals are really where we feel we get the best value, like with the Maui Sheraton, we did redeem 4 points nights, get 1 more free. We also got a special offer for the westin in Kauai because of the card, which we just bought (5 nights in a studio villa (will try to upgrade with our kiddo in tow) + 5k points + $185 towards an Avis rental car).

I haven't seen it referred to as being a Barclay's card, though, so not sure if you're talking about something else.

I may be mixing up two different cards. Lol.

Thanks! I will look into it.

[Mushe]

cosmos the Barclay arrival card is newish and popular. MH got it for the $400 worth of sign on bonuses, and I think he's going to cancel and I'll get one now.

[anaps28]

We have an Amex platinum and a Chase Sapphire Preferred. The Chase Sapphire has a way better point conversion than the Amex. We have shifted to using the Sapphire exclusively lately.

[frlcb]

We love our Chase Sapphire Preferred and use it for everything - and we use the ultimate rewards for travel.

[lemon]

Up until the beginning of this year, one of my favorites had been the Amex Blue Cash Preferred, which gave us 6% cash back on groceries and 3% back on gas. I used it exclusively as our groceries and gas card and made about $1k on it each year. Except they decided to change things and make it crappier, so now it caps groceries once you've spent $6k and defaults to 1%.

My new favorite is the Barclaycard World MasterCard, which I use most of the time now. I also signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred this year for the sign up bonus, but will probably cancel it before it renews next year.

[v]

I have a complicated scheme going.

I have a Barclay Arrival Plus card for every day purchases (which I'll define as "any purchase that isn't otherwise handled below"). I get 2.2% back when I redeem for travel-related purchases (which covers hotels, transportation, tourist attractions, etc., purchased anywhere). No foreign transaction fees and it is a chip + PIN card (super rare among credit cards issued in the US -- almost all with EMV chips are signature only). $95 annual fee; free the first year.

For restaurant/bar and bookstore (including all Amazon) purchases (these are very big spending categories for me), I have a Citi Forward card. No annual fee, and I earn 5 thank you points per dollar on those purchases (1 point per dollar on everything else). Because I also have a Citi Prestige card (discussed next), I get 8% back out of those points when I redeem for AA or US Air flights; and 6.6% back when I redeem those points for any other flight.

For flight purchases, I have a Citi Prestige card. Sadly, the flight points feature of it is getting phased out next year so I won't go into that, but Thank You Points from purchases on that card (1 point per dollar), and from points I earn from my bank account, and from my Citi Forward can be redeemed for flights at a rate of 1.6 cents per Thank You Point for AA/US Air flights and 1.33 cents per point towards other flights. As I said, this makes my TYP worth more.  Plus I get a ton of extra points (a percentage of my annual accrual) on my membership anniversary.  My annual fee is $350 because I have a Citi Private Banking relationship -- normal fee is $400 or $450? But I get $250 towards airfare/airline incidentals a year, $100 towards Global Entry (only good once every five year), lounge access, buy 3 nights/get 1 free on hotels, enhanced flight redemptions as already discussed, and no foreign transaction fee, so I get way more than my money's worth on it.

I have a UPromise card that I use for all online purchases that can be made though the UPromise shopping portal. I get 10% back on those purchases. No annual fee.

I have an Amex Blue Cash that has no annual fee. It gets 1% cash back on everyday purchases, and since my other cards beat it I use it for groceries (where it gets 3% cash back), Amex special offers (not infrequent) and important purchases (because Amex's purchase protections -- extended warranty, return protection, etc. -- can't be beat).

Complicated system, but I've redeemed my points from my various cards for over $3600 worth of rewards and I've gotten $100 back in Amex special offers YTD, so it's working for me.