FINANCE: Cash Back Credit Cards

[wap]

I applied for the PenFed Platinum card.

5% back on gas
3% on groceries
1% on everything else

No yearly service fee or foreign transaction fee.







DENIED. Guess I'm stuck with the Chase Sapphire card I got by accident?

Did you need to be a one-legged transgender WWII veteran farmer to be approved?

So there's hope for me?!?

[Desertbreh]

AMEX breh. It more than pays for itself. And their fraud protection is sweet too. I had someone 2 weeks ago try and use my card at a pizza hut. AMEX was like, our dude don't eat no fucking pizza hut (usually), flagged it and notified me before the pizza was out of the oven. Sent me a new card and then they called all the people I have reoccurring payments with and updated my info so I didn't have to.

Newsflash: all credit cards do this.

The cash back is solid though, I should do some to see if it makes sense.

Usually I get 5% back on groceries and gas from Chase/Discover for at least quarter or two per year though.

Newsflash: AMEX has the best customer service of any credit card in the world. Fully staffed by English speaking, intelligent customer service people 24/7/365. Zero fucking around, customer always comes first, or at least it has since 1991, when I started with these guys. My aunt got defrauded by some asshat in Miami who got her card # and partied in South Beach, racked up an $8000 tab over New Years on hotels and bottle service. My aunt lives in Seattle, is an 82 year old lesbian who goes to bed before 9:00 every night. Capital One fucked her around and would not write off the debt until she told them to sue her because she was never going to pay it. The guy was added to the card as an "additional cardholder" by fraud. Had to hire an attorney and finally the collection attorneys Capital One hired realized they were barking up the wrong tree. That's the kind of shit that never happens at American Express. I am absolute believer in AMEX. I believe I pointed to the Amex Blue Card, and the math works like this....yes you have an annual fee, but yes you also have to buy groceries. At 5% back at grocery stores you end up netting a minimum of $300/yr. just for living your life (eating) and paying your bill on time. I also have the AMEX Platinum, which yes is a Waxer card at $500/yr, but the perks add up to well over $500 if you fly to any degree......you get a $200 bag rebate with a chosen airline each year, and airport lounge access makes up the price in a hurry if you've ever had a long layover and hit the bar you know how this works. All annual fees are not bad, only ones that don't comp you.

Other example. I lost my AMEX in Manhattan a few years ago. I called to cancel at 10 p.m. FedEx with a new card was at the hotel desk the next day at 3 p.m.

[troyguitar]

Newsflash: all credit cards do this.

The cash back is solid though, I should do some to see if it makes sense.

Usually I get 5% back on groceries and gas from Chase/Discover for at least quarter or two per year though.

Newsflash: AMEX has the best customer service of any credit card in the world. Fully staffed by English speaking, intelligent customer service people 24/7/365. Zero fucking around, customer always comes first, or at least it has since 1991, when I started with these guys. My aunt got defrauded by some asshat in Miami who got her card # and partied in South Beach, racked up an $8000 tab over New Years on hotels and bottle service. My aunt lives in Seattle, is an 82 year old lesbian who goes to bed before 9:00 every night. Capital One fucked her around and would not write off the debt until she told them to sue her because she was never going to pay it. The guy was added to the card as an "additional cardholder" by fraud. Had to hire an attorney and finally the collection attorneys Capital One hired realized they were barking up the wrong tree. That's the kind of shit that never happens at American Express. I am absolute believer in AMEX. I believe I pointed to the Amex Blue Card, and the math works like this....yes you have an annual fee, but yes you also have to buy groceries. At 5% back at grocery stores you end up netting a minimum of $300/yr. just for living your life (eating) and paying your bill on time. I also have the AMEX Platinum, which yes is a Waxer card at $500/yr, but the perks add up to well over $500 if you fly to any degree......you get a $200 bag rebate with a chosen airline each year, and airport lounge access makes up the price in a hurry if you've ever had a long layover and hit the bar you know how this works. All annual fees are not bad, only ones that don't comp you.

Other example. I lost my AMEX in Manhattan a few years ago. I called to cancel at 10 p.m. FedEx with a new card was at the hotel desk the next day at 3 p.m.

You eat a lot.

[wap]

Newsflash: AMEX has the best customer service of any credit card in the world. Fully staffed by English speaking, intelligent customer service people 24/7/365. Zero fucking around, customer always comes first, or at least it has since 1991, when I started with these guys. My aunt got defrauded by some asshat in Miami who got her card # and partied in South Beach, racked up an $8000 tab over New Years on hotels and bottle service. My aunt lives in Seattle, is an 82 year old lesbian who goes to bed before 9:00 every night. Capital One fucked her around and would not write off the debt until she told them to sue her because she was never going to pay it. The guy was added to the card as an "additional cardholder" by fraud. Had to hire an attorney and finally the collection attorneys Capital One hired realized they were barking up the wrong tree. That's the kind of shit that never happens at American Express. I am absolute believer in AMEX. I believe I pointed to the Amex Blue Card, and the math works like this....yes you have an annual fee, but yes you also have to buy groceries. At 5% back at grocery stores you end up netting a minimum of $300/yr. just for living your life (eating) and paying your bill on time. I also have the AMEX Platinum, which yes is a Waxer card at $500/yr, but the perks add up to well over $500 if you fly to any degree......you get a $200 bag rebate with a chosen airline each year, and airport lounge access makes up the price in a hurry if you've ever had a long layover and hit the bar you know how this works. All annual fees are not bad, only ones that don't comp you.

Other example. I lost my AMEX in Manhattan a few years ago. I called to cancel at 10 p.m. FedEx with a new card was at the hotel desk the next day at 3 p.m.

You eat a lot.

[Desertbreh]

Newsflash: AMEX has the best customer service of any credit card in the world. Fully staffed by English speaking, intelligent customer service people 24/7/365. Zero fucking around, customer always comes first, or at least it has since 1991, when I started with these guys. My aunt got defrauded by some asshat in Miami who got her card # and partied in South Beach, racked up an $8000 tab over New Years on hotels and bottle service. My aunt lives in Seattle, is an 82 year old lesbian who goes to bed before 9:00 every night. Capital One fucked her around and would not write off the debt until she told them to sue her because she was never going to pay it. The guy was added to the card as an "additional cardholder" by fraud. Had to hire an attorney and finally the collection attorneys Capital One hired realized they were barking up the wrong tree. That's the kind of shit that never happens at American Express. I am absolute believer in AMEX. I believe I pointed to the Amex Blue Card, and the math works like this....yes you have an annual fee, but yes you also have to buy groceries. At 5% back at grocery stores you end up netting a minimum of $300/yr. just for living your life (eating) and paying your bill on time. I also have the AMEX Platinum, which yes is a Waxer card at $500/yr, but the perks add up to well over $500 if you fly to any degree......you get a $200 bag rebate with a chosen airline each year, and airport lounge access makes up the price in a hurry if you've ever had a long layover and hit the bar you know how this works. All annual fees are not bad, only ones that don't comp you.

Other example. I lost my AMEX in Manhattan a few years ago. I called to cancel at 10 p.m. FedEx with a new card was at the hotel desk the next day at 3 p.m.

You eat a lot.

Need to go on that 1.5 slice/day Little Caesar's plan

[max225]

You eat a lot.

Need to go on that 1.5 slice/day Little Caesar's plan

Cash back is a waste of resources if you travel. I’m a firm believer in point scheming. That said if you get a chase sapphire reserve you get connected to English speaking agents right away also.

Amex is a bit better on average since that’s their distinguishing feature for charging 4-5% per
Swipe va 2-3 % for the poverty cards

[Desertbreh]

Need to go on that 1.5 slice/day Little Caesar's plan

Cash back is a waste of resources if you travel. I’m a firm believer in point scheming. That said if you get a chase sapphire reserve you get connected to English speaking agents right away also.

Amex is a bit better on average since that’s their distinguishing feature for charging 4-5% per
Swipe va 2-3 % for the poverty cards

I'm sure there are good options outside of AMEX. If you treat me well over the course of many years, I have a good feeling about you that will predispose me to use your business, and AMEX has that going with me.
We have a ton of fking credit cards, all for particular purposes,.....we have both Alaska Air and American cards that we got for the mileage bonuses, AMEX blue for the grocery store, Costco Visa is our business card, and the AMEX Platinum for travel benefits, the Amazon card for Amazon purchases. It's probably a little overkill at this juncture, no question.

[Apex]

Need to go on that 1.5 slice/day Little Caesar's plan

Cash back is a waste of resources if you travel. I’m a firm believer in point scheming. That said if you get a chase sapphire reserve you get connected to English speaking agents right away also.

Amex is a bit better on average since that’s their distinguishing feature for charging 4-5% per
Swipe va 2-3 % for the poverty cards

Amex now has programs that lessens these fees to more industry standard levels. They were missing out on a lot of transactions because merchants would not sign up to accept Amex due to the interchange fees.

[KYGTIGuy]

Amex just sent me an email saying they were giving me 1.9%apr for 9 months just to say thanks.

We don't carry a balance so we don't pay any finance charges anyway but still

[Jaxper]

I personally have the Chase Freedom and Discover cards which both have rotating 5% cashback each quarter (with 1% on everything else), as others have said. I also have the Capital One Quicksilver which is 1.5% on everything, though I mainly got it for no international fees for when my wife and I travel.

In addition to the ones that were already suggested, depending on what you mostly spend your money on, my friend has the Uber Visa card and that might be worth checking out, as well. (Generalizing here) It's 4% on food, 3% on travel, 2% on online shopping, and 1% on everything else.

EDIT: All mentioned above have no annual fee.

[KYGTIGuy]

Let me know of you want amex

[CaleDeRoo]

Damn I'm still considering an Amex card, but I just got the Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really want to hard credit checks in like two weeks.

[fledonfoot]

Damn I'm still considering an Amex card, but I just got the Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really want to hard credit checks in like two weeks.

Cluster them all together. Less of a long term score impact and it feels like they all fall off quickly/together in 2 years.

[CaleDeRoo]

Damn I'm still considering an Amex card, but I just got the Chase Sapphire Preferred and don't really want to hard credit checks in like two weeks.

Cluster them all together. Less of a long term score impact and it feels like they all fall off quickly/together in 2 years.

Probably the best way huh. Damn building credit is a chore with no loans, or at least it feels that way.

[fledonfoot]

Cluster them all together. Less of a long term score impact and it feels like they all fall off quickly/together in 2 years.

Probably the best way huh. Damn building credit is a chore with no loans, or at least it feels that way.

Can’t get a good credit score without having credit. Can’t get decent credit without a good credit score.

I had horrible credit in the 400s back in 2010 after losing my job, maxing our credit cards to survive and a couple of charge offs.

It took 3 years to build it back up to the 650 range, and another year of managing decent credit to get in to the low-mid 700s to buy a house. I still had to write a letter to the underwriters on our mortgage explaining what happened, what I did to fix it and what the plan was going forwards.

[CaleDeRoo]

I've been stuck at 760 for over a year, and can't get a loan without a cosigner due to credit age.

[Huckleberry]

I've had no issues with Capital One Quicksilver. 1.5% back on everything is nice. They also are on top of everything in the fraud department. If a transaction is made outside of the norm, I get a text informing me about the transaction and if I authorized it. If I reply "yes," then the card is reactivated. If I reply "no," then they cancel it and send me a new one.

I also have the Ebates app that allows me to get more cash back in conjunction with the rewards card.