What's your goal when you say you're trying to get into the rewards game? If it's just to make a little extra money, sign up bonuses far exceed the value of any cash back %'s, especially in the short term. You might want to be careful with your selections with that in mind because there are limits to how many cards you can sign up for. Chase cards have a known hard limit - if you've opened 5 credit cards in the past 24 months (from any bank), you'll be auto-denied for all of their best cards. And they have some very good cards. So you'll want to get those first. Other banks may also start denying applications if you're on a credit opening spree, to protect against blatant bonus whoring and/or because it's a red flag that could indicate you're in a bad financial position. There's also the practical matter of clearing the bonuses. The good ones require $3-4k in spending over the first 3 months. There are ways to manufacture spending if you're not naturally spending that much but if you plan on clearing multiple bonuses that might be a limitation you need to plan for.

If you travel enough that you can make use of hotel and airfare rewards, there are cards that offer more valuable signup bonuses and rewards than any cash back card. They'll require more planning though because the best cards vary depending on what airlines and hotels you use. They also usually have annual fees which can factor into whether the card is worth keeping long term, picking up for a year just for the bonus, or avoiding altogether.

As for the Uber card, 4% on restaurants is pretty good for straight cash back and no annual fee. You can do better if you're OK with travel rewards and an annual fee though. 2% on shopping is whatever considering there are cards that will give you 2% on anything, sometimes more for targeted stores and/or time periods.

I think this chart has been posted here, but if not it's a good strat map

https://i.imgur.com/CL03bva.png

Rapini it mostly depends on how deep you want to go. If you're just looking for 1-2 cards then sure, get the Uber card if it piques your interest.

But if you're interested in building up balances in miles and points to do some travel, the uber card is probably not the most optimal. Something like the Chase Sapphire Reserve gets 3pts on travel and dining, but each point can be worth 1.5c towards travel or more if you transfer to united or hyatt etc.

Basically, this 'game' is an infinite rabbit hole that you need to decide how far down you want to go.

Thanks d10, noseeds, and JL for the quick and informative responses. I'm gonna take your advice and hold off on the Uber card so I don't handicap myself later on if I do decide to go hard at this game. And I enjoy traveling--specifically to Europe--so travel rewards would make sense for me.

Currently i have a Citibank Dividend Rewards card, which is garbage but I've had forever, and a Capital One Quicksilver, which I like but I'm sure there's way better options out there.

Thanks again and I'll check back in in about two months after I study this thread and come up with a plan.

Rapini,

Call Citi and ask them to "product change" your dividend rewards card into a doublecash. That alone will be getting you a flat 2% on all purchases and is a great baseline and a big improvement form your current setup, and its a card you can continue to keep forever. It also makes your quicksilver obsolete (at 1.5%), which you can either cancel, or sockdrawer if you want to keep the history open and reporting, or you need additional credit line.

Done. Thanks again! You guys are geniuses.

If you travel a lot I think the Chase Saphire Reserve is a slam dunk 1st card

I'm unsure of current sign up bonus (pretty sure you missed out on 100k ultimate rewards (UR)) but it's at minimum 3% back on any travel/restaurant spend (that's if you redeem for cashback) up to at least 4.5% (if you redeem through their portal for airfare/hotels/rental cars/cruises) and potentially more as someone mentioned above. They have lots of airline and hotel affiliates that you can transfer 1-1 to their respective rewards programs if a deal that fits you pops up

It's a high annual fee ($450) but you get $300 back on your first $300 travel purchases of that year and other perks such as priority pass (which for me is easily worth ~$300 year) I spend a lot of time in airports and almost always eat since Im a fatass and bored. Most of the lounges food is subpar but it does me just fine vs my old habit of eating a meal at insert random airport fast food place.

There may be a case for Amex Platinum as a first card if you travel a lot, especially if you can get targeted for the 100k sign up, but I am unfamiliar with their currency, membership rewards (MR). My only 2 amex cards are co-branded cards so I've never had or looked into MRs vs URs. I do know the amex lounges are superior to priority pass lounges (chase) which makes me jelly

think about doing a Bank of America App O Rama even. they seem so lenient on approvals. U could sign up for three different versions of their cash rewards card on the same day and it wouldnt surprise me if you get approved for all three with a decent credit score. That would mean spend $1500($500 on each) for $450 back. if u own a BoA checking or savings, u transfer the rewards to the acct for 10% more, so now $495 back on $1500 spend(of your choice)And then those cards all get 3% on gas, 2% grocery. Over 33% back on $1500 spend of your choice, bink

one is responsible with credit, has finances in order, no mortgage, no car payments, and a healthy emergency fund, and is offered up to $8k(credit limit) in cash at 1% fee, how does he not take it? Savings accounts alone are on the rebound and offering 1.7%(mine) and 6% on up to $5k(https://www.mangomoney.cards?rpid=9900065898, gotta give Mango some love because of interest, $) I feel like $8k could be put to pretty good use. Aside of the credit score taking a temporary ding, what else should I be considering as downsides?

I am not entirely sure of how it will be utilized yet but chances are it sits at 1.7%. That would be safest, perhaps I could find a cd with something better over the course of a year(already seeing 2.5% for 1 year). Could go long on btc as well

well, in that regard, if I choose to max out a cc, my credit is going to be down for a bit. I may do an apporama quick for some signup bonuses with decent cashback, any ideas? I'm pretty high(my wife and I both) on hard pulls, I think, so I need to have "easier approvals" in mind. And while i'm doing that i may borrow more on a different credit line at 2%

credit's sick

Arrival+ right now has a ~$500+ signup bonus that can be turned into straight cash. Always lots of great offers, just depends where you're at on the 5/24 Chase, 24 month Citi, and total cards with Amex. Also depends whether you're looking for straight cash, miles, or points.

Keep in mind that you will get a 1099 for taxes on that bank interest. On 8k, you're looking at an annual $560 profit before taxes (you'll be sent a 1099 for the full $1360 in interest), plus dinging your credit score. Let's just say your top bracket is 20% taxes as a decent estimate: that means you will owe $272 in taxes. Is it worth $288 when you can sign up for 1CC and get a bonus that is at least that amount and won't tank your credit score? If you're talking about a 0% interest rate, then it gets more interesting IMO.

This seems off... wouldn't that be a 17% rate as opposed to 1.7?

I am going to reconsider and maybe hold off lmao. I never ran numbers but I could borrow 7920 and pay $80 fee and that $7920 invested for 12 months at 2.5 would become $8120

so make $200 in interest by borrowing but paid $80 to borrow = $120 profit less taxes

How many here have the Uber card? Seems like a really good card, was going to add it to my rotation next. I don't carry many annual fee cards so the 3% travel and 4% dining trump basically all my cards except rotating categories which I've gotten a bit lazy with recently

Lol. That's what quick math does to ya. Yes, that was a 17% interest rate.

$120 before taxes and it will hurt your utilization.... No thank you.

I've never considered it because the signup bonus isn't very big ($100), I can always get more than 3% for travel with the wife's CSR, and usually I can get 5% or better on dining (rotating cats for Freedom and IT, or gift cards from staples/online gc sites). Backup is the CSR for 3x UR, which puts it somewhere between 3-7% of value depending on what the URs are used for. 5xUR on the Freedom can be worth as much as 10% with transfer partners on the CSR.

However, if you only like to have one or two cards in your wallet and don't want to spend a lot of time focused on rewards and churning, it looks like a pretty good card.

if u dine often and want an easy option I think it's a good one. Like OS said, you may be able to get a bit better bang for your buck with gift cards at restaurants but that usually requires some work

Just a headsup: Ocean Resort Casino just opened last month in Atlantic City (it's the renovated Revel). Rooms on Saturday nights run $500+, but can be had for 12,000 Hyatt points. Hyatt somehow only has it listed as a Tier 3 property. Pretty good value on those Chase points.

Better yet, in AC you can match hyatt to mlife, mlife to TR Diamond, to HR and to Ocean and have top status everywhere and a bunch of free nights.

https://angelinatravels.boardingarea...c-city-summer/

that's cool. do u know if u can book same day using Hyatt points?

I don't see why not. There are rooms available for tonight for points on the Hyatt site.


Well that's awesome. What's the best way to get the initial status, as I don't have any of those? Seems that the only way for Hyatt to achieve Hyatt statuses is by staying 10+ nights in a year.

Alright, my pony is very slow, but I suppose I should try to maximize a little bit without tilting myself. Advice on a second card would be appreciated. I currently have a Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa. I have not sure what kind of rewards it has, but I think it is a flat 1% cash back. It was under the old program, at least. I had its predecessor for like 15 years as an Air Force Club Card. Recently, Chase lost the Club Card contract and converted it to the above.

I have no interest in churning in order to bonus whore. I also don't give a damn about hotel points, airline miles, etc. I am 100% not going to pay any annual fees (even if recoverable through some bonus games). I also never carry a balance. I have auto-pay set up and pay off 100% every month. I'm just looking to see if I have a better option without having to strategize other than in the card choice. Any recommendations?

Citi Double Cash will be unlimited 2% cash back for you. Chase Freedom (not unlimited) and Discover It have rotating categories at 5% every quarter if you want to put in slightly more effort to keep track of what those categories are and use the appropriate card at restaurants or gas stations or whatever.

Chase FU should be 1.5pt/$, not 1%.

If you don't want any card with an annual fee which could make your Chase FU card better (by increasing the value), you should get a flat 2% cashback card like the fidelity or doublecash.
This is the best 1 card solution for long term simplicity.

If you have 100k+ at BoA or Merril Lynch the travel or cash rewards cards could be better at 2.63%

Wow, quick and cogent responses. TYVM.

What, exactly, does 1.5pt/$ mean? On the previous card, IIRC, each point converted to one cent when I cashed them in, which I remembered to do about once every three years.

DoubleCash sounds like the best choice for me, given my extreme desire to keep simplicity, as I hate tracking these things or strategizing what goes on which card. Hell, I only have the one card right now because my second card pissed me off about something (foreign currency fees?) like 8 years ago, so I canceled it and never got around to replacing it.