MyCardBlog

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.