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Anyone have one? If so, what is considered the best card with the best rewards that doesn't charge an annual fee?
I've read/heard American Express has the best customer service and that their cards are good overall -- just not accepted everywhere due to high vendor transaction fees. I'm interested in their Blue Sky card. Comes with quite a few perks and each dollar spent is worth approx. 1.33 miles per (which is good for a card that doesn't have an annual fee).
I've also considered the Chase Sapphire card. Only 1 mile per dollar exchange, but it comes with slightly better perks. It's also a Visa so I won't have to worry about whether or not it's accepted in certain places. On top of that, it comes with a 10,000 point ($100) bonus, which again is a nice perk.
Despite the lack of a bonus, I'd probably easily lean Amex if it wasn't for the fact that it isn't as widely accepted as the Visa. I also travel to Europe every few years and don't want to be stuck with a card that I can barely use (although I'd most certainly have multiple cards with me.
So, I guess my question is two fold:
1. Which card would you go with based on what you know about the two card companies and/or cards.
2. Is there a better option that I may be overlooking?
I can't offer too many comments. I have an amex gold card that has travel rewards, but that has an annual fee (but it has other benifits as well). Even their standard card has an annual fee.
You can exchange the points for frequesnt flyer miles or gift awards from their catelog, when I translate the points to a dollar equivalent I can see that gifts are highly inflated in cost. Your best bet if you go that route is to get like a department store gift certificate.
Also remember, when they say "you can get a free flight after 30,000 miles/points" don't believe it. Those are airlines low point "teaser" seats, they are never available. Expect using twice as many miles, and thus spending twice as much money. Also airlines are constantly increasing the miles you need to get a free flight. Frequent flyer miles are constantly being devauled (mostly because of these credit cards, it's a money maker for an airline to sell these miles to CC companies) and thus the miles you need to get a free flight are subject to inflationary pressure. If you don't plan to spend enough to get a free flight until 3 or 4 years, well you will be in a suprise as you may never make your goal.
I can't offer too many comments. I have an amex gold card that has travel rewards, but that has an annual fee (but it has other benifits as well). Even their standard card has an annual fee.
I've got AMEX Blue Cash and it doesn't have a annual fee and the rewards are good if you spend over $6,500 in a year.
Quote:
Also remember, when they say "you can get a free flight after 30,000 miles/points" don't believe it. Those are airlines low point "teaser" seats, they are never available. Expect using twice as many miles, and thus spending twice as much money. Also airlines are constantly increasing the miles you need to get a free flight. Frequent flyer miles are constantly being devauled (mostly because of these credit cards, it's a money maker for an airline to sell these miles to CC companies) and thus the miles you need to get a free flight are subject to inflationary pressure. If you don't plan to spend enough to get a free flight until 3 or 4 years, well you will be in a suprise as you may never make your goal.
I did American Airlines and I got 25k miles after the first $300 in purchases or something like it. I had about 40k of miles and used it to book a great hotel and some activities instead of trying to wrack my brain trying to find the flight.
If you’re simply planning to do a little driving out of town, a gas credit card, like the Discover Open Road Card might be a better option for you. Many of the top gas cards offer anywhere between 1 to 5 percent cash back on gas purchases from affiliated gas stations. http://www.creditcardassist.com/blog...his-year-6485/
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skeet09
I did American Airlines and I got 25k miles after the first $300 in purchases or something like it. I had about 40k of miles and used it to book a great hotel and some activities instead of trying to wrack my brain trying to find the flight.
Someone I know personally recommended the AA card that starts you off with the 40K in airline miles ... I was put off with the high interest on that card but should I reconsider, how easy was it to access your 40K airline miles? How many free flights did that translate towards? Feedback please!
Someone I know personally recommended the AA card that starts you off with the 40K in airline miles ... I was put off with the high interest on that card but should I reconsider, how easy was it to access your 40K airline miles? How many free flights did that translate towards? Feedback please!
The miles are easy to access. As soon as the billing statement closes, the miles are transferred to your AA account. I never used the miles for flights though (I found it to be too tough to find the schedule I wanted using the miles)...I used them to book hotels. I was able to get 4 nights or so with 50 k miles.
Our BankAmericard Visa gives us one point for each dollar spent, and 1.5 to 3 points per dollar spending on many online stores, gas stations, and selected groceries. Their online stores include the same ones you normally see at the malls: Victoria Secret, Bass, J.C. Penney, etc. There are several options to redeem points: cash, hotel, or airline mileages. We selected cash the first year but since then, have been using points for dozens of hotel stays, for ourselves and as gifts to our adult children.
Why we think this is a great deal: No annual fee, only 7.24% interest for life (providing payments are not late,) and points are never expired.
We also have a Disney Visa card from Chase, only because with the first purchase (no matter how small) came $250 cash back. Also no annual fee and with point rewards. We only used it once for the $250 check, and since we *always* pay everything off immediately (most of the time even before the bill arrives,) our credit cards are more beneficial to us than our spending habits are to the credit card companies.
Last edited by Ol' Wanderer; 07-19-2011 at 08:30 PM..
I have and Amex Gold and we do pay $250 a year in fees but I put everything on it and pay it off monthly so I cash in a lot of points for gift cards, usually $700-$1000 a year depending on promotions. They also offered to waive the fee for the first year and included 25,000 bonus points. If you are interested in Amex, call and say you are interested but not sold, maybe they'll offer you a good deal too.
The customer service is great. I had a stupidly complicated flight and car rental thing to book for my husband and it had too many legs to do online, called them up and they breezed right through it. They also have some good vacation packages.
I can use it at probably 90% of the places I shop, including Europe and Australia.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,023,210 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles in PGI
Why we think this is a great deal: No annual fee, only 7.24% interest for life (providing payments are not late,) and points are never expired.
Don't believe the hype about the fixed APR as I had a card through BOA and they raised my APR nearly double and I ALWAYS paid on time and maintained good credit.
Don't believe the hype about the fixed APR as I had a card through BOA and they raised my APR nearly double and I ALWAYS paid on time and maintained good credit.
This is our 4th year with that card. The statement still shows 7.24%.
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Travel Reward cards
