I use Chase Sapphire Preferred. 1% cash back on everything, 2% on Travel and Dining. $95 Annual Fee.
What sold me on the annual fee was 2% cashback on dining. I spent ~10k last year on dining. That extra %1 more than covered the annual fee, but now I get the 2% on travel, no foreign transaction fees, and they gave me 40,000 points ($400 bucks) just for upgrading from the regular Sapphire.
It’s tailored more to the traveler/business entertainer, but if your spending habits match like they do in my case, it can be a good fit.
It’s also a metal card that is noticably a lot heavier than other credit cards. Badass.
Agree with other posters… to play the rewards game you have to pay in full every month. The second they charge you intererst you’re bunk.
I have one annual fee card, Citi AAdvantage (AA’s loyalty program). The fee is $95/year, but I put $35k - $40k on the card every year (pay off every month). That get’s me a domestic round-trip tickets every 7-8 months. I also get priority boarding and 2 free checked bags for everyone in my party. I forgot to do it this year, but I threatened to quit last year and they not only waived the fee, they gave me 5,000 bonus miles (wish I had remembered this year too).
Some credit cards have additional savings for certain stores, so if you pay with credit card A you will get a 10% discount, but another credit card will give you a bonus if you spent more than $ amount, so you have to think which is better.
Then there are still some credit cards are better at booking concert/ plane tickets, some put you on priority list and VIP.
On top of everything, the points on each cards can redeem different things so it depends on what you want and what they promote at the time that interests you.
I travel for work too. I just don’t want a ton of airline miles and hotel reward points. PlasticIQ Website has valuation models for reward programs and at best, many of these miles/points are worth less than $.01 each. Therefore Airline cards give you about a 2% rebate while hotel cards give around 3-4% rebate. Whooptie do. I have over 1,000,000 Hilton Honor Points that I struggle to use. The few times I do travel for fun, the good hotels are either blacked out for reward stays or have a ‘special rate’ of 75k points a night. Dafuq? Don’t even think of using points/miles for that new iPad. You’ll spend 2x in point value what it costs retail. Airline miles are one in the same. Devaluation of points/miles is real as these programs can/will change without notice. As far as priority boarding and free checked bags; loyalty status on airlines gives you this as well. No need to pay for the card. But I did sign up for the cards anyhow and cancel prior to the $95 fee. I put nearly $50k on the Delta Skymiles Card that year and they still wouldn’t waive the fee. So long!
Citi Forward gives you 5% cash back for dining. No fee. F Sapphire.
Barclays Arrival gives you 2.2% back for all travel (airfare, car rental, hotels) with no transaction costs and no fee.
Capital One has no transaction costs and 1.5% cash back on everything. No fee.
Chase Freedom/Citi Dividend have cards with 5% cash back rotating programs. Not bad to have on hand. And, wait for it, no fees!
I abuse the sign up rewards on cards (AOR!). I got both Chase Sapphire and Sapphire Preffered to get the $250 and $500 sign on bonus. I used the cards for a year, called to have the fees waived, got refused, so I closed them. Minor impact on my credit score. Paying your bills on time is the biggest factor in credit score. Hard pulls and account age are very minor. I use CreditKarma (no fee) to monitor my credit and maintain my ~790 credit score.
^^ Fair enough in your case. I always fly American, so I actually use the miles and $95 doesn’t buy you a roundtrip anywhere. AAdvantage doesn’t give you priority boarding or free bags unless you fly way more than I do, don’t know about the other airlines. I don’t have any particular love for American, but they’re the only airline that flies from the US to Bolivia, so I’m kind of stuck with them.
If you have a million Hilton points, you could easily travel really nicely and get your points worth. The fact you don’t isn’t the points problem! I only have 750K Hilton Points right now – used a few on a trip to Italy.
But it’s hard, if not impossible, to not use your credit card these days.
Every online purcahse requires credit card information (except perhaps paypal?) and then there are hotel reservations, plane tickets, big purchases where your debit may not be able to make because of daily limit.
i think as long as you don’t leave a balance and pay everything each month you’ll be fine.
You sure you ain’t black brah? You alwayz payin’ straight cash homey!
Per Mint.com, I spent a total of ~$80k last year (both personal and work expenditures) on my credit cards and netted ~$2-3k in free money. To this day, I have never paid a fee nor interest on any of my credit cards. I’m a cheap basterd though and spend my money very stingily. One can see how frugal I am based on how close I watch my small expenses for McGarbage, 7-11, and so forth. I don’t track the ROI on my spending as well as I should. However, traveling for work demands that one use a credit card. One may as well reap the kickback that many card companies shell out. Go visit Fatwallet.com and see AOR (apply o rama) strategies. I also use Creditcard.com to find good cards with no fee that provide cash back. Cards that provide points are just not that great in my opinion for reasons noted above.
Based on all the scheming I’ve done to maximize ROI on spending, the cards listed above remain in my wallet constantly.
Right. But 75k Hilton points for one night is equivalent to 75,000*.01 = $750 per night. Who in their right mind would pay that much (in points or dollars) for one night in a hotel!??
Yes, all CC companies have a standard 3% of sales fee (or whatever it is) just to use the Visa/Amex/Dixcover network. However, your bank also has their own additional charges. Also, the customer’s bank can add additional charges as well.
In this case, there was a standard 3% fee, plus a .50 “swipe fee”, plus an additonal charge from the client’s bank (to pay for his cash rewards). This gets detailed out in a statement that we receive from the bank every month.
^Oh. And if you don’t generate at least $25 worth of fees for the bank every month (because June and July are slow times at the tax practice), then they’ll charge you $25 anyway.
So to answer your question, no–it’s not just “3% of gross amount charged”.
Capital One Spark Business provides 2% cash back on everything but charges an annual fee after the first year. Fidelity American express also provides 2% cash back on everything, has no annual fee but the funds have to go into a Fidelity account.
The big advantage to Capital One is the ability to download all your transactions to Quickbooks. Fidelity Amex doesn’t offer this feature.
You commented above that a rewards card costs the merchant more. So my question is, when I swipe my 2% cash back card at a merchant, does it cost that merchant more than had a swiped a non-rewards VISA card?
While many bash plastic for high fees, think of all the pros of a secured xfer of money to the merchant versus cash.
You don’t have to worry about counterfeit bills. If you do get them, and drop them, you, the merchant eats it. Cashiers are often not skilled or motivated to spot a fake bill.
You don’t have to worry about theft or robbery. Think of a spot like Walmart. How much cash is taken in daily? How much gets ‘lost’ due to stickey fingers by the $7/hr cashier? Armed robbery is a real threat. As someone who’s worked at a gas station on the graveyard shift, I can’t tell you how many times I would dial 91 on the cordless phone and wait for the ish to go down. Minimal cash on site would dissuade theives.
Counting Cash. Walmart has to count the daily cash intake for the bank drop. Think of all the salary they have to pay a team to just count money!? This is probably not a $7/hr employee.
Armored vehicle transports. This ain’t a cheap service.
When you tally up the costs and risks noted above, a whopping 3% fee for a secured xfer of revenue doens’t look so bad.
The short answer–no. If you swipe a 2% cash-back credit card and John Doe swipes a non-rewards card, then you will cost me (the retailer) significantly more money. I have to pay for your rewards.
@CVM - I don’t want people to think that I’m bashing plastic. I use it all the time. And if Wal-Mart has already priced the rewards fees into their products, then I’ll certainly use it, because I want ME to get the rewards. If I pay cash, Wal-Mart gets the rewards. (And Christy and Alice are each worth approx. $20b more than I am, so I don’t feel bad about that.)
But if I’m going to the local hamburger shack, I’m paying cash, so they don’t have to pay Wells Fargo for my rewards. I don’t even care if they report on their sales tax or income tax. That’s between them and Uncle Sam and the good state of Texas.
I suppose that on some level, Christy and Alice aren’t really paying for my rewards. The $7/hr cashier is (in the form of reduced wages), or the other customers are (in the form of higher prices). But that’s a whole 'nother thread…
I’m sure they have no way of knowing what the actual fee is going to be until they get their settlement statements. Also, I’d be willing to bet adjusting the sale price based on the card would go against the merchant’s agreements with CC companies. Merchants aren’t supposed to have CC minimums either but that doesn’t stop them.
So let me know if I understand this correctly. The fee a merchant is charged for accepting one Visa card differs from the fee charged for another Visa card and the merchant has no way of knowing what that fee will be until long after the transaction has been completed?