DH and I are looking into getting rewards credit cards. I want one for daily purchases that I'm going to be making anyway (so basically using it in place of my debit card). DH wants one to pay for his hotel stays when he is traveling for work (which is a lot. Both will be paid off in full every month.
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We use Capital One Quick Silver Rewards - no annual fee, and 1.5% back on every purchase. Capital One also doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee if you use it internationally, which is super useful if you travel a lot!
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I have had the Chase Amazon card forever. Rewards are dollars to spend at Amazon. Links with Amazon account so easy to use. Extra points earned on Amazon purchases, and since we use Subscribe and Save, it adds up fast.
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I've had the Chase Freedom, and now the Chase Sapphire and have been very happy with both. I switched to Sapphire mainly for the zero foreign transaction fee back when I needed to travel.
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Both DH and I use our Discover cards because of the cash back opportunities. We almost always use the cash back to help with Christmas gifts. The only downfall is that it's not always accepted everywhere.
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@sapphire: same. We shop a lot on Amazon, so it's a good deal for us. I've also liked our Discover card for cash back.
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Check out The Points Guy – he has really nice, easy-to-digest reports about all the rewards programs and which offers the best deals/terms/perks/etc.
What reward are you looking for? Cash back? Miles on a particular airlines? I think that’s a good place to start, so you start looking for the right card.
I have the Chase Amazon card and while it was super awesome when we ordered formula/diapers/everything on Amazon, I’m not sure I would recommend it if you don’t already order a ton of Amazon. What I do like about it is that you can use the reward points for anything – cash back, gift cards, travel, etc.
JetBlue is my preferred airline so I also have their Barclay miles reward card – but again, if you don’t fly JetBlue, probably not a great option. Delta Gold is offering 50k miles if you spend $2k in 3 months, which will get you about 1 domestic ticket; so that’s not a terrible offer if you fly Delta or plan to this year – however, some of their fees with using points make spending points there kind of a rip off.
Chase and Capital One both some really great programs with fee cards, but whether or not the yearly fee makes sense will depend a lot on your financial situation, how much you travel, etc. but don’t automatically discount a card with a yearly fee - some of them will "pay for themselves".
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@yoursilverlining: I'll definitely check out The Points Guy and get DH to look it over too. Just the kind of thing I was looking for, thank you!
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I have 2 that I love: American Express SPG (we travel a lot, and are gold members) which results in us rarely having to pay for hotel rooms. You can use the points for airline tickets, but I haven't tried it. My other one is a Chase Disney Visa. We go to Disney world every 3 years or so (family lives nearby) and the rewards earn means we gave most in park purchases covered! Food, souvenirs, etc. Makes the trip a lot more affordable.
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Do you currently have credit cards/a long credit history? Chase Sapphire Preferred is my favorite but if you don't have much credit history you may not get approved for it. In which case I'd start with the Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited then get the Sapphire Reserve after you've built up some credit history.
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Does your husband stay at the same hotel chain every time? If so, then look into getting a cobranded card for paying for those stays. You'll rack up a ton of points which you could use to redeem on personal travel.
If you just want a general cash back card, Citi double cash is 2% cash back on everything.
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I love our Discover. I've never had a problem with it being accepted. I actually just carry it and my driver's license around now. Who needs a wallet
I like to use it for discounted gift cards to buy gifts and such. Cashback pays for our old navy/gap gift cards and our eat-out date nights.
One feature that not a lot of people use (but I'm planning on doing this year) is a price match. Discover has a price match that essentially will let me buy a TV before the Black Friday sale and if I give Discover any ad where it is a cheaper price than I bought it for within 90 days, they'll give me the difference.
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@codeitall: woah, that price match is awesome! I'll check it out. Thanks!
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My husband chose Chase Sapphire because it gives access to airport lounges of participating airlines...doesn't sound like a good perk, but we travel abroad regualrly and it's nice for those long check in periods.
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We have the chase freedom unlimited for me, 1.5x points on all purchases and the chase sapphire reserve for my husband 3x points on all travel and dining plus 1x points on everything else plus perks like @looch: mentioned including global entry and no foreign transaction fees
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We have an American Express blue card that is 6% cash back on groceries, so we buy all of our groceries with that. We also have a Bank of America rewards card that does 3% cash back (and 25% bonus for being BoA preferred members) that we use for everything else. We put everything on our cards and then use the points to get gift cards and that's how we pay for Christmas gifts every year. We don't travel enough to get big rewards, so we try to capitalize on our everyday spending.
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@emilye519: American Express was the first card I was thinking about. My parents used to have one but it was for business. 6% is a lot and we spend a mortgage a month in food so, that's totally worth looking into. Thanks!
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