What Credit Card Should I Get ? FAQ
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This thread is for all categories and rewards preferences.
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Right now, I’m a 3 card guy:
- American Express Preferred ($75 annual fee) for 6% back on groceries up to $6K in spend annually, 3% on travel
- Costco Visa (no AF) for 4% on gasoline on $7K(?) annual purchases
- Citi Double Cash for 2% back on everything else
You can supplement with Discover and Chase Freedom if you want quarterly 5% cash back categories to slice-and-dice a little more.
Thoughts?
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On a general note, it can be helpful to make sure you’re not opted-out of receiving credit card offers. That way you can get offers for sign-up bonuses.
I regretted opting out via OptOutPrescreen.com after reading of the sign-up bonus people were getting for the Citi Dividend card. It’s easy to opt-in again. It may take awhile to start getting offers again, but they’ll come.
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Originally I posted a link to the Original FWF “What Credit Card Should I get FAQ”. I removed it till I get word of what to do with all the original stickied threads. As of now it is still available of FW
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@orthros said in What Credit Card Should I Get ? FAQ:
Right now, I’m a 3 card guy:
- American Express Preferred ($75 annual fee) for 6% back on groceries up to $6K in spend annually, 3% on travel
- Costco Visa (no AF) for 4% on gasoline on $7K(?) annual purchases
- Citi Double Cash for 2% back on everything else
You can supplement with Discover and Chase Freedom if you want quarterly 5% cash back categories to slice-and-dice a little more.
Thoughts?
That’s a pretty good 3.
- Just for clarity, do you mean the Amex Blue Cash Preferred? It’s the only one I can think of that has 6% back on groceries, but the annual fee was raised from $75 to $95 last year. Also, I don’t think it’s 3% back on travel. It’s 3% back on gas and department stores.
I currently use:
Amex BCP for 6% Groceries 3% Gas
Chase Amazon Prime for 5% back at Amazon
Chase Sapphire Preferred for 2% Dining/Travel + perks
Citibank Double Cash for 2% on everything else.But I will be replacing the CSP and Citi Double Cash with the new BofA Premium Rewards for 3.5% Dining/Travel and 2.6% everything else.
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@jcantanixon I think you’re right. I don’t use 3% categories on it at all, so I’m probably mistaken. Also the annual fee might be $95 - I think I paid $75 last year but wouldn’t put it past AMEX to jack the fee.
How do you qualify for Platinum on BOFA? Do you have a mortgage? Because if there’s an easy way to do it, I’ll swap out CITI 2x Cash for it. I’m only Gold at present.
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@orthros said in What Credit Card Should I Get ? FAQ:
@jcantanixon I think you’re right. I don’t use 3% categories on it at all, so I’m probably mistaken. Also the annual fee might be $95 - I think I paid $75 last year but wouldn’t put it past AMEX to jack the fee.
How do you qualify for Platinum on BOFA? Do you have a mortgage? Because if there’s an easy way to do it, I’ll swap out CITI 2x Cash for it. I’m only Gold at present.
My investment accounts are at ML. Gold gets you 2.5 on Dining/Travel and 1.875 on everything else.
From https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/premium-rewards-credit-card//#rewardsCcModule
You are eligible to enroll in the Preferred Rewards program if you have an active, eligible Bank of America® personal checking account and maintain a 3-month average combined balance in your qualifying Bank of America deposit accounts and/or your qualifying Merrill Edge® and Merrill Lynch® investment accounts of at least $20,000 for the Gold tier, $50,000 for the Platinum tier, or $100,000 for the Platinum Honors tier. The combined balance is calculated based on your average daily balance for a three calendar month period.
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Blue Amex Card… With rewards.
Chase Amazon Prime card 5% amazon purchase
Citi Costco card 4% cash back for gas
Barclay Apple rewards card -Every 2,500 points gets you a $25 Apple Store Gift Card or iTunes Gift Card.
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FWIW, I don’t know how anyone lives without ShopSafe.
I use my CC online quite a bit (I imagine many Fatwalleters, and, by extension, most Phatwalleters do too), and I used to average one fraudulent charge every two or three months. I’ve had ShopSafe for 15 years or so, and not one fraudulent charge in all that time.
It’s also perfect for signing up for offers where some sleazoid vendor wants your CC "just for verification, we promise". When that happens, I generate a $1 ShopSafe number and tell them, “no problem, here you go!”
Unfortunately, the only banks I know issuing cards with ShopSafe are BofA and Citibank. But if anyone else knows of any, I’m all ears!
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The Citibank double cash card 2% on every purchase with no cap or signup required. Followed by the best 5% rewards cards in no particular order:
Chase Freedom
Discover it
Sam’s club card
Citibank dividend platinum select(may not be available anymore)
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AXP blue cash ~ this may still be available for registration although it is no longer advertised compared to the Blue cash everyday and Blue cash preferred.
PSA to those who MS at drugstores with their AXP old blue cash, most drugstores have removed the variable vanillas with $4.95 fees and replaced them with new ones that have $5.95 fees. If your drugstore still carry the ones with $4.95 fees, you might as well buy them to reach the MSR so you can start earning 5% on gas, groceries and drugstores up to $50K.
The $1 increase in fees may seem insignificant but if that’s your main hub for MS to reach the $50K cap per reward year, that is quite a significant decrease in profit.
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Citi Prestige - 3x TYP on travel
Fidelity - 2% cash
Citi Double Cash - 2% cash
Chase Freedom - 5% rotate
Chase Amazon - 5% Amazon
