Best Rewards Card

[okgirl]

There is another thread about the Carnival Seamiles card and the consensus is that it's one of the worst out there. I have one with 40,000+ points on it but I haven't tried to use it yet.

I would like to hear from people that are using a rewards card that they really feel is getting them something. I'm not as interested in using the points for cruising, cause I cruise pretty affordably, but I want to use points for airline tickets. I like to fly 1st class, but this is becoming the most prohibitive cost of my cruise vacations.

I was reading a thread last week about how to maximize the points accumulation on a rewards card by getting cash advances via the casino, then saving the cash, letting the charges hit your card for the points then paying off the card with the cash when you get home. Almost like a free loan and a brilliant idea I thought.

So, please share both your positive and negative experiences so we can all take the financial strain off of at least my favorite passtime CRUISING!

[gtalum]

Depending on how much you spend monthly, the AMEX Blue Cash card can be a great bet. After you spend $6500 on it in a year, the rewards are 1.5% cash back on most items, and 5% cash back on groceries and gasoline. On the first $6500, though, the rewards are pretty low at 0.5% and 1.5%. There is no limit to the cash back, though, so if you spend a lot it is probably the best rewards card out there.

 

Another excellent choice is the Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX. It has a small anuual fee ($30, IIRC) but you get 1 Starpoint for every dollar spent. Starwood hotels are Sheraton, Westin, and the Luxury Collection. You can convert these points to most airline programs, and if you convert 20,000 points to miles, you get a 5,000 mile bonus, giving you an effective rate of 1.25 miles per dollar spent. The points are also extremely valuable if used for free Starwood stays.

[UpstateCruizer]

Here's the response I gave in the other thread :)

 

I switched to Chase Freedom last July after reading about it on these boards. Back then they offered 3% rewards on your top 3 spending categories and 1% on all the others. For us that is great as we charge anything and everything possible just to get the cash back.

 

We had been an avid fan of Discover card but their rewards options were less appealing to us and we did not want to turn in $100 in cash back for $100 cash. I wanted a program that offered more. Discover Card does have an option that allows you to trade in cash back towards a discounted amount on Carnival. The catch is you have to use their agency listed and it was higher than the rate Carnival gave me. No savings there~!

 

Chase Freedom does just that. When we have built up our cash rewards to $200 they allow us to select a $250 Chase Check in exchange of that $200. Not bad at all and we've gotten 2 of them already and are working on our 3rd soon.

 

I'd much rather have the money to deposit into my checking account and decide how I want to spend it. Whatever card you choose try to use just that card since it will help build up points or cash back value quicker that way.

 

Just keep in mind it does not matter what perks you are getting from any credit card if you carry a balance and pay some rediculous interest rates month to month. The perks of any credit card are only actual perks if you pay the entire balance month to month. Anything else negates any positive value of the card. If that's the case you are better off sticking to the card with the absolute lowest interest rate and no annual fees.

[firefly333]

Hi okgirl. I know this wouldnt help you since you want airline points. I only use my RCL VISA card because its flexible on how you use the points. You can use as little as 5,000 toward $50 off a cruise or get a free cruise, or get bathrobes for your cruise and stuff.

 

The Carnival seamiles you have to use it with the seamiles TA, the RCL card you use it with any TA and getting money off doesnt affect their commission unless you are booking a free cruise, so I got $300 off my last RCL booking, bringing it down to under $750 total for the 2 of us to cruise.

 

I like it because its easy to use the points for whatever you want, any rate you want to apply it toward and doesnt affect your booking.

 

You can open the account, get the free points, get your stuff, and close the account as many have done without having to keep it open for a certain time. I got 15,000 free points for opening it, worth $150 off a cruise. You can almost always get 10,000, and even use it for cruise stuff since you only like Carnival, close the account and go back to a card for airline points. Its thru Bank of America who I already use for checking, so I just click to pay it out of my checking account, easy for me.

 

Iv heard stories about black out dates with airline miles and such and am happy with my cruise card. Arent you moving to Florida anyway??? You probably wouldnt need to fly that much?

[happybooker1]

I have all the household bills (that can be) set up to pay automatically out of one card. It's my Citibank card. I get gift cards for Xmas presents at the end of the year. I pay off the bill each month so there's no interest. In effect, they're giving ME money!!

 

I have been known to open up CC just for their free gift, a gift card, or no interest on your purchase of XXXX dollars. I pay it off, close it, and move on to the next one!

 

I alternate between thinking the Discover card is better and the Citi-card. But I have stuck with the Citi card and I get at least $150-$200 back a year in gift cards or restaurant cards.

[Boolsrules]

We use the Capital One card and get 2 points for every $ spent. You can book your travel yourself and then apply the reward points later and they take the amount off of your card. So if you spend $7500 on your card, you get 15,000 points and with those points you can redeem travel for $150.00. We paid for our whole family cruise in August (for 6 of us) with the points we accumulated in 2 years!

[okgirl]

Keep them coming, this has spawned quite a discussion here in the office today.

 

Gtalum - AMEX Blue & Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX. Do you 1st have to have a qualifying stay at one of the preferred hotels?

 

Crazed (Betty) - Sister and I have been trying to live debt free, except rent/food/utility expenses this year and we got all of our debts including cars paid off earlier in the year. I have a Chase Freedom, but I don't use it much and had never paid much attention to the reward program. I also have a Discover but cashed in the points I built up in 2008 for 6 sets of movie tickets including popcorn and drinks.

 

Fly - Thanks girl but you know me, I'm a dedicated Carnival koolaid drinker. RCL does sound like they have a better card than the Seamiles.

 

Boolsrules - I think sister has a Capitol One, I'll have to ask her what the rewards program is.

 

We live together and always travel together so now that we have everything paid off we're trying to consolidate our numerous credit accounts into just 2 or 3.

 

The bad thing is you can't just out and out close accounts too fast or the banks and credit bureau's start thinking that you think you're in trouble and will start negatively impacting your credit rating.

 

We don't own a house right now, but when I get retired in a couple of years we plan on moving to Florida and need to move our credit scores from the low 700's to the upper 700's. So we're proceeding very carefully on managing our credit accounts.