I want to mention @dukez.
2 Likes
I think the thing to remember for Cash Back is to know your spending habits and adapt around that. I eat out a lot (guilty pleasure) so I choose cards that that will give me the most optimal strategy for rewards.
My current cards:
-Freedom
-Freedom Unlimited
-CSP (this completes the Chase Trifecta)
-Freedom Flex
-AMEX Gold
-Capital Quicksilver (first credit card)
AMEX Gold has a decent sign-up bonus right now for almost 80k MR points if you spend $4000 in the first six months. If you’re interested in cash back, I would shoot for some of the chase cards because of 5/24 rule they have set up.
1 Like
Reporting in. Will read this thread in a bit! 
4 Likes
Lots of really good information here! And thanks @HersheySweet for pinging me 
A couple of thoughts for you, @cndnbkn
-
At face value, 2.5% flat cash back is very competitive, especially if you just want to apply for one card and never think about it again. My word of caution is this:
In order to offset the $99 fee in year 2 and beyond, your breakeven is $20k. In other words, you’ll need to spend at least $20,000 each membership year to earn $500 cash back (less the $99 fee), versus the $400 cash back you’d receive from zero annual fee cards like the Citi Double Cash card that others have mentioned. -
If you’re interested in a slightly more in-depth rewards strategy to increase your earnings, or believe that down the road you may want to use your rewards for something other than cash back (ie travel), you might find flat cash back/rewards cards from Citi, Chase, and Amex more appealing. As others here have mentioned, you can always venture into the “silly points scheme” of rotating categories or bonus categories where the sky’s the limit, but maintenance is required.
-
If cash is truly all you’re after, I might suggest peeping American Express cards. Thanks to the Schwab Platinum, you can cash out Membership Rewards at 1.25x, which gives all of your earnings a quick 25% bump. I’m a pretty big fan of Amex since Membership Rewards are stupid easy to earn.
But most importantly, if you have fewer than five credit account approvals within the last 24 months (which you’ll see referred to as the Chase 5/24 rule), the best advice anyone can give you is to at least take a look at Chase’s portfolio of personal and business cards. You may find that keeping track of a few Chase cards is worth the hassle of greater rewards and flexibility.
4 Likes
I can’t seem to find the 80K offer, the max I see is 60k.
For me, the card I generally use for everything is USB altitude reserve, because almost everything now can be paid via ApplePay and this comes out to 4.5% redemption for travel. The big downside is that their rewards platform is pretty inept, compared to Chase’s expedia powered.
Like the Costco Auto rebates, I think it ended yesterday
I used their website’s preapproval portal and they offered me 75k MR points for AMEX Gold. I can’t remember what they offered for the Platinum but the Gold made more sense.
1 Like
I agree with everything @dukez said above. Chase cards generally offer more rewards and flexibility in my opinion. Plus, their UR portal is user friendly and if you complete the “Chase Trifecta”, then you can transfer points to a travel card such as CSP and CSR. I used to just transfer points to one their airline partners because my points were valued more than doing than just cashing out.
I would be careful with the 5/24 rule though. Even if your credit was 850, Chase will still deny you any credit.
I would shoot for the Freedom Flex because of the easy sign up bonus, good multipliers, and go from there.
I was going to cancel my reserve, but for $450 a year…
$300 credit towards gas and grocery
$120 towards Peloton
$60 Doordash credit
Plus all of the other perks.
My wife and I also have the Freedom unlimited for the other monthly high percentage returns, and transfer all points to the reserve account.
1 Like
Thanks for pointing this out, I just saw the credits coming in, I guess with no one travelling they chose to credit gas/grocery rather than Travel.
can you elaborate on that?
I’ve been earning 1 pt/$ on my amex plat which is silly compared to what else is out there, so bumping the value would be nice.
As an update Alliant credit union was easy to apply online for their cash back signature card. They gave me $25k limit. Card should be here any day.
2.5% cash back deposited into a free account you have to open with them. $10k max per month so $250 a month.
Going to look into the chase rewards next. Thanks for all the recommendations.
Sure! With the Amex Platinum for Schwab, you can cash out your Membership Rewards to your Schwab brokerage account for 1.25 cents per point. When reviewing your MR balance, you can “invest with rewards” and deposit your points into your Schwab brokerage account at a ratio of 1:1.25. Of course, you don’t actually have to invest the money in your brokerage account. You can transfer it to a checking or savings account. That’s what it means in the screen grab below when it says:
60,000 points = $750
All that’s required is the Schwab version of the Platinum card and a Schwab brokerage account. If you already have the Amex Platinum, you’d have to apply for the Schwab Platinum separately. Unfortunately, you can’t product change your existing Platinum card.
I’d recommend having an account with Schwab for a variety of reasons regardless of whether you actually get the Schwab Platinum. The obvious added bonus is that you get a $100 statement credit each year if you have over $250k in investments/savings in your account.
1 Like
thanks this is good to know. I typically get more than 2x value per point when using it for reward travel but i’m not going anywhere and it’s good to have a backup plan. Only issue I see the annual fee of the Schwab card is going to eat into the extra .25 i’d get.
You’re doing it right
The annual fee is the same for both Platinum cards, so that should be a non-issue. If you had to choose between the two, the Schwab card is the one to get just for flexibility alone (and potential for annual statement credits if you have $250k+)
2 Likes
Off topic, but, when possible, try to order directly from the restaurant. 3rd party services can charge a ton of fees to the restaurants, as well, which of course eat into their profit. And, at a time like this, those restaurants can use all the $ they can get.
5 Likes
I go Chase Marriott for everything.
I used to flip cards around but stopped caring to do that.
It keeps me motivated to go on vacations. Flight prices are always changing and they’re easy to shop. Hotels less so. It also gives me an excuse to stay at some higher end places I wouldn’t want to pay out of pocket for.
I just really like the feeling of racking up Marriott points to where I can do 5-7 nights at a great place, and then finding a cheap flight, since I don’t really accumulate miles anymore like I used to.
My wife is very sympathetic, she always volunteered to drive to pickup 
1 Like
If you haven’t already, make sure to enroll for the bonuses this quarter on any eligible Bonvoy cards from Chase (ie the Ritz Carlton and Boundless cards).
3 Likes
This is my line up.
Stars are next to what card offers best % in that category. All 3 cards have 1% on other items so I can use them interchangeably for odd items.
I’m open to suggestions also…
-Amex blue cash preferd card-
Yes its a 95$ yearly fee… (groceries alone for the house pays the fee 3 fold a haha)
*6% groceries
*6% streaming services
*3% Transit (ride share, tolls, mass transit, parking etc)
3% on gas
1% on everything else
-Cosco visa card-
*4% gas
**3% restaurants
*3% travel (cruise, airfare, hotel, car rental)
*2% at costco and costco.com
1% everywhere else
-Td cash back card-
**3% restaurants
2% groceries
1% everything else
1 Like