Credit cards which bring values to you as you use

[YS2003]

There are a few threads on the credit card. But, I could not find this particular angle in them. There are so many credit cards out there and I am wondering which credit cards bring "free bees" as you use. I use Discover Card for most of my purchases (because of its 2% cash-back awads) and a MC which gives some rebate for a new car for a certain auto manufacturer (one of those auto company sponsored credit cards). They are all free of annaul fee.

Some people use Amex and cards with annual fees. I wonder what free bees (or benefits) those cards bring compared to other non fee based card (such as Discover). I am not too much interested in "brand appeal," meaning you look good by whipping out Gold Amex card in front of the clinets after a meeting, as long as the cards do their basic job (payment process) and give you some rewards by using them.

Any recommendation for credit cards for someone like me?

 

[CanadaRAM]

There are a few threads on the credit card. But, I could not find this particular angle in them. There are so many credit cards out there and I am wondering which credit cards bring "free bees" as you use. I use Discover Card for most of my purchases (because of its 2% cash-back awads) and a MC which gives some rebate for a new car for a certain auto manufacturer (one of those auto company sponsored credit cards). They are all free of annaul fee.

Some people use Amex and cards with annual fees. I wonder what free bees (or benefits) those cards bring compared to other non fee based card (such as Discover). I am not too much interested in "brand appeal," meaning you look good by whipping out Gold Amex card in front of the clinets after a meeting, as long as the cards do their basic job (payment process) and give you some rewards by using them.

Any recommendation for credit cards for someone like me?

http://www.which-credit-card-or-credit-report-is-best-for-me-online.com/

Seriously. A friend of mine runs this site and they research credit cards and post the results.


In general, this is how it works -- the merchant has to pay MasterCard or Visa or Amex anywhere from 1.75% to 5% of the total value of the charge in service fees. So the card company can turn around and give some of this back to their customers for loyalty. Beware of high annual fees on premium cards though -- you have to be spending a LOT of money to offset this, or to get the free airline ticket.

The "2% cash back" deals almost always have a catch - it's 0.5 percent on the first $2000, then 1% on the next $3000 and so on so you never hit the 2% level until you have spend a bundle.

And never, ever be late with a payment, because the interest rates are obscene.

 

[snkTab]

There are a few threads on the credit card. But, I could not find this particular angle in them. There are so many credit cards out there and I am wondering which credit cards bring "free bees" as you use. I use Discover Card for most of my purchases (because of its 2% cash-back awads) and a MC which gives some rebate for a new car for a certain auto manufacturer (one of those auto company sponsored credit cards). They are all free of annaul fee.

Some people use Amex and cards with annual fees. I wonder what free bees (or benefits) those cards bring compared to other non fee based card (such as Discover). I am not too much interested in "brand appeal," meaning you look good by whipping out Gold Amex card in front of the clinets after a meeting, as long as the cards do their basic job (payment process) and give you some rewards by using them.

Any recommendation for credit cards for someone like me?

Say that when you have a platinum AMEX card. That said a lot of people love their AMEX fee based cards. You have to pay them off every month so I wouldn't truly classify them as credit cards as I would charge cards. You get points, you get miles, yada yada yada. If you get upgraded to platinum you get a lot more. You get 24 hours concierge service. Meaning you can call people to acquire, find, source, reserve almost anything for you. Also, if you fly oversees you get a free companion ticket. That's worth a lot. Plus you get into the airport special rooms. Both gold and platinum get you invitations to events.

As far as what I use, I use either a MC that gives me 5% on at grocery stores and gas stations and 1% everywhere else. I have others that I use for balance transfer fun.

 

[snkTab]

There are a few threads on the credit card. But, I could not find this particular angle in them. There are so many credit cards out there and I am wondering which credit cards bring "free bees" as you use. I use Discover Card for most of my purchases (because of its 2% cash-back awads) and a MC which gives some rebate for a new car for a certain auto manufacturer (one of those auto company sponsored credit cards). They are all free of annaul fee.

Some people use Amex and cards with annual fees. I wonder what free bees (or benefits) those cards bring compared to other non fee based card (such as Discover). I am not too much interested in "brand appeal," meaning you look good by whipping out Gold Amex card in front of the clinets after a meeting, as long as the cards do their basic job (payment process) and give you some rewards by using them.

Any recommendation for credit cards for someone like me?

Also, you never really said what "someone like me is". Are you young, old, good credit, bad credit? I would at least get a visa or mastercard in the US. Just for the acceptance factor.

 

[bursty]

I recommend any card that does a "% cash back" program. Those points and flyer miles and yada yada never worked out for me. Cash is good.

 

[Abstract]

I've got to look at cash back cards. I get points, and I don't think I'll ever use them. I can use them towards flights through them, but I think they charge more for flights. I can always get a better price than they offer.

 

[atszyman]

My wife and I exist almost solely on credit cards (we pay them off every month). I never have cash and have actually charged less than $1 before on multiple occasions. Frequent flyer cards are great for our situation since we travel to Wisconsin at least twice every year and the amount we charge in a year is usually enough for a free ticket or two (especially now that we put daycare on the card). Our situation works well since we always fly the same airline to the same location, so we have that airlines frequent flyer card.

I do not recommend the Captital One Miles cards though. We used to have one of them and by the time we actually wanted to use it they had changed their policy. It used to be ~20000 miles would get you a domestic ticket in the same region on the airline of your choice. They switched to a system where their Travel planners would find the cheapest fare they could and charge you 100 points/$1 for the ticket, effectively turning the card into a 1% cash back card, at which point you would probably be better off with a better cash back card.

The airline specific cards typically offer tickets for 25,000 miles which is great since the Wisconsin trip usually costs > $300 due to having to deal with the little puddle-jumpers to get to the airport closest to my hometown.