I have 12 credit cards from the following credit card issuers: BOA, Citi, Chase, AMEX, Discover, National City, WaMu, University of Illinois Credit Union and HSBC. To be a smart credit card user, I just selectively use some of them. Here I’d like to share my experience with you.
1). National City Everyday Rewards Visa Card-up to 4% cash back on everyday purchase. You can get 4% cash back at gas stations and 2% cash back at restaurants. This is my first credit card in US. I definitely will keep it all my life. It will automatically send out a check once you reach $100 in rewards. I usually use it at restaurants and gas stations.
2). Chase Freedom Visa Card-3% cash back on the first $600 of purchases in your top 3 Everyday Spending Categories and a 1% rebate on all other purchases. Right now, they also offer $100 sign-up bonus after first purchase (officially you can only get $50). I use this card to pay my cell phone and cable/internet bills. I also use this card at Meijier (a supermarket similar to Wal-Mart from where you can’t get 3% cash back). You can get a check when you have $50 in rewards, or you can get a $250 check once you reach $200 in rewards. It seems you can make 3.75% and 1.25% cash back if you can wait to reach $200 in rewards. (This is what I’m planning to do.)
3). Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card-1 point per $1 spent. You can get 10,000 bonus points after first purchase which will let you get 3 free night stays at SPG hotels. If you can spend $15,000 in the first 6 months, you can get additional 15,000 points. You can start to redeem a free night stay at SPG hotels for as low as 2,000 points. The other feature of this card is you can transfer the points to miles mostly on 1:1 basis plus bonus points. For examples, 20,000 points can be redeemed as 25,000 miles. The points can be redeemed as almost any airline miles. The annual fee for the first year is waived, and is $45 per year if you’d like to keep it.
4). Household Bank Platinum MasterCard -2% cash back on everything. I have nothing to say about this card. It’s just wonderful! You can request the cash back check for every $25.
5). Discover Open Road Card-5% cash back on the first $100 of purchase for gas and auto maintenance per month. It’s good that I never spend more than $100 at gas stations and have a 4% cash back card as a backup.
If you have any ideas, please let me know.
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December 6th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
ABOUT 2) chase freedom card:
you mentioned there is $100 signup bonus right now. Is there a link? I can only see $50 bonus on their website.
Thanks
December 6th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Yep,there should be a link in my site.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
see this post.http://www.mycardblog.com/2007/11/credit-cards-with-100-bonus/
December 7th, 2007 at 10:27 am
thanks a lot.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I am a student now, and just get one-year credit history. Is it ok for applying the 5% cashback discover card?
December 12th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Hi Karen. Sure. You can apply for the discover student card. Don’t forget to read my post about promotion with cardbenefit.com to get extra $25.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
that Household Bank Platinum MasterCard no longer has 2% cashback on everything, the site says it has 1%.
and National City Everyday Rewards Visa Card is not avaliable in my area, I live in Los Angeles.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hi joyce. The Household (Orchard bank) 2% card is by invitation only. However, I have a link to apply HH/Orchard 2% card previously. You can check it out.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Hello, I just received the Starwood Preferred Guest card from AMEX. I have also registered at SPG website. Do I need to do something to link my card account to my SPG account in order to see my point balance at SPG? Thanks for sharing your experience.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Hi Han, congratulations. I was also notified by cardbenefit that they have put $25 in your account. For your question, you don’t have to do anything to link your credit card account with your SPG account. AMEX will report your starwood point to SPG every billing cycle. You just use your starwood point at SPG.com.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Hi, thanks for your post. Do you know anything about the Chase Freedom Plus card?
Liz
July 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Hi Liz, there’s no Chase Freedom Plus Card. Chase has Chase Freedom Card and Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa Card. The freedom card offers 3% cash back on 3 (5 for Chase checking account customers) categories. The Chase Cash Plus Rewards Card used to give you 5% cash back on everyday purchases (grocery, durgstore, gas).It’s a very good card but they are not issuing new card right now. Chase is promoting Chase Freedom which is the best cash back card at Chase currently.