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Shear Modulus posted:The Citi Custom Cash is probably the best card for getting 5% back on groceries. It's 5% back on the biggest spending category only up to $500 a month though, and lol @ spending less than $500 a month on groceries these days If you're willing to invest some time and effort I think Citi cards can work really well. Citi Custom - 5% on your top spend category in a month. Citi Rewards - 10% bonus on your rewards from other citi cards, also rounds up all purchases to a minimum of 10 points Citi Double Cash - flat 2% cashback card, you need this to link all your thank you points together and just get cashback for your purchases (via direct deposit) rather than having them pile up and redeem for things Citi Premier - Currently has an 80,0000 thank you point sub, for 4k of spend (95$ af) The premier isn't a bad card, like 3x on restaurants and groceries, but basically, you can get it, get the sub, wait a year, then ask to product change it to a custom cash. Make sure you sign up for a regular custom cash first to get the sub. If you do this you can have 2 custom cash cards - 5% each in 2 separate top spend categories, so you can write "groceries" on one and then use the other for whatever you need to spend that month: 5% eligible categories: Restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, live entertainment. So if you combine this wit the rewards card you end up with 5.5% in your top 2 categories, and a 2.2% flat cashback card and a card that rounds up, so if you use a vending machine or something. Also I think Citi is going to release a "premium" travel card again, they discontinued the Prestige but they don't offer anything in the $5-600 AF range like the other Sapphire reserve and Amex plat and the capital one venture x (only $395 AF) pseudanonymous fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Sep 23, 2022 |
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Sep 23, 2022 19:29
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Speaking of the Citi Custom Cash, does anyone know if Costco falls into one of the categories they'll do 5% back on? I spend a lot of money there but the best card I have for it is the 2.5% Alliant one.
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Sep 23, 2022 20:44
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Shear Modulus posted:Speaking of the Citi Custom Cash, does anyone know if Costco falls into one of the categories they'll do 5% back on? I spend a lot of money there but the best card I have for it is the 2.5% Alliant one. No, Costco is hard to get good cash back at, generally they code as warehouse stores. They only take visa, so you have to look for a visa with high warehouse cash back, the Costco citi visa only gives 2% at Costco. I still just use it though.
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Sep 23, 2022 21:04
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drhankmccoyphd posted:What's the best overall cashback % I can get right now for an everyday card? I have Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited. I the better of which is 1.5% on all purchases. I'm just about out of my 1 year of 5% back on groceries which I'd like to get again in some fashion as thats the bulk of my purchases. I also have a Amazon Chase card for 5% on amazon purchases. Not really sure what card I should go for next. My preference is Chase since its nice having my CCs and Checking in one place. Fidelity 2% is one of many options, can autoredeem as cash into an investment account.
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Sep 23, 2022 23:10
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Isn't the best grocery card the Amex 6% cash back? 6% on $6k of groceries are year with a $95 fee
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Sep 23, 2022 23:24
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drhankmccoyphd posted:Yeah the the Sapphire Reserve looked appealing to me then I saw the $550 annual fee. I'd have to do the math on how much I travel and eat out. The secret is it's actually a $63 annual fee. Let me explain. Chase has a thing called "Pay Yourself Back" where you can use points to pay individual items on your statement instead of cash back as a flat statement credit. Why would you do this? Well certain categories of items exchange points at 1.5 cents per point instead of 1 cent per point. This includes the annual fee. So as long as you have $363 worth of points (36,300) banked when your fee comes up, you can just use them to pay yourself back. In fact, the annual fee is the optimal thing to spend this on, because normally paying yourself back means you lose the points from the purchase you paid back, but the annual fee doesn't give you any points. It's free real estate! Okay, so it's a $363 annual fee. That's still a lot. But wait - one of the perks is that your first $300 of expenses in the "travel" category (which is really broad - flights, hotels, restaurants, rental cars, gas) are reimbursed automatically each year. I guess you could argue that you don't get the points for them, so that's $9 back on the fee, but whatever - call it a $72 fee. Basically, if you spend at least $12,400 / year on 3% categories, you've negated almost $500 of the fee. Edit: Another way to look at it if you spend at least $12,400 on travel categories is it's a card with no fee that gives you ~2.4% back on the first $12,400 and then ~4.5% back thereafter. The only caveat is you have to cash out that first chunk at a specific time of the year. KillHour fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Sep 24, 2022 |
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Sep 23, 2022 23:53
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Upgrade posted:Isn't the best grocery card the Amex 6% cash back? 6% on $6k of groceries are year with a $95 fee Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I personally stuck with the no fee version of that card that gives 3% on groceries because the last time I looked at how much I spent on groceries it wasn't enough for the extra 1%-3% to cover the 95 bucks.
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Sep 24, 2022 01:08
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Shear Modulus posted:Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I personally stuck with the no fee version of that card that gives 3% on groceries because the last time I looked at how much I spent on groceries it wasn't enough for the extra 1%-3% to cover the 95 bucks. Yeah, it's like 3200 on groceries, I'm not sure I spend enough to justify that card, Amex keeps asking me (I am single, do things like freshly and costco a lot). For some people I'm sure it's great.
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Sep 24, 2022 03:15
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KillHour posted:The secret is it's actually a $63 annual fee. Considering opportunity cost, it's a lot more complicated to figure out if the card is really worth the money though. Even if you exclusively use PYB as you suggested, it needs to be compared to the 1.25x redemption option with the Preferred for a much lower fee. But that still ignores the potentially most lucrative use of points, transferring to travel partners, for which there's no difference between the Reserve and Preferred. And that's just the tip of the iceberg...
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Sep 24, 2022 05:17
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runawayturtles posted:Considering opportunity cost, it's a lot more complicated to figure out if the card is really worth the money though. Even if you exclusively use PYB as you suggested, it needs to be compared to the 1.25x redemption option with the Preferred for a much lower fee. But that still ignores the potentially most lucrative use of points, transferring to travel partners, for which there's no difference between the Reserve and Preferred. And that's just the tip of the iceberg... Yeah, this poo poo is way too complicated to minmax unless you want to make a hobby out of maintaining spreadsheets. But it's still very easy to recoup the cost of the card if you want that specific card for whatever reason but are afraid of the yearly fee. Hell, even if you do literally nothing except collect your $300 in free travel credit each year, the card ends up costing $250 for some pretty nice benefits just to have it. Edit: The CSP only has a $50 yearly credit and that's only on hotel rooms booked through their website, so basically useless, IMO. When you compare the two as a $95 card vs a $250 card, I think the choice is obvious if you are doing the kind of spend where a card like that even remotely makes sense. Double Edit: Let's be honest. The real reason to get the CSR (or the Amex Plat) is for when you go out to dinner with friends and everyone pulls out their most impressive card to pay with. Do you want to be paying with a blue piece of plastic when you're trying to flex? I didn't think so. KillHour fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Sep 24, 2022 |
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Sep 24, 2022 06:04
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I want to be paying with the card that gives the highest cash back on restaurant purchses
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Sep 24, 2022 06:15
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Shear Modulus posted:I want to be paying with the card that gives the highest cash back on restaurant purchses 4.5% (with pay yourself back) is pretty good. I don't know if there are any cards left that are 5% all the time on restaurants anymore. My main thing is I want to carry two cards - a credit card that is good all around and a bank/atm card that gives me free access to ATMs if I need cash or if there's an emergency where I can't use my credit card for some reason. I don't want to be digging through an overstuffed wallet full of cards trying to remember what each is for.
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Sep 24, 2022 06:20
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pseudanonymous posted:Yeah, it's like 3200 on groceries, I'm not sure I spend enough to justify that card, Amex keeps asking me (I am single, do things like freshly and costco a lot). For some people I'm sure it's great. Buy amazon gift cards at the grocery store to hit the max / year. Get them at the grocery stores that give you 4x fuel points on gift cards, and you pretty much always have a dollar off gas.
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Sep 24, 2022 07:38
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KillHour posted:Double Edit: Let's be honest. The real reason to get the CSR (or the Amex Plat) is for when you go out to dinner with friends and everyone pulls out their most impressive card to pay with. Do you want to be paying with a blue piece of plastic when you're trying to flex? I didn't think so. The hip thing now is having one person pay for the entire thing and everyone else venmo them. My group of friends are getting into the card game tho so I can't use the excuse of I need the points anymore.
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Sep 24, 2022 08:03
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runawayturtles posted:Considering opportunity cost, it's a lot more complicated to figure out if the card is really worth the money though. Even if you exclusively use PYB as you suggested, it needs to be compared to the 1.25x redemption option with the Preferred for a much lower fee. But that still ignores the potentially most lucrative use of points, transferring to travel partners, for which there's no difference between the Reserve and Preferred. And that's just the tip of the iceberg... The real rabbit hole is when you realize % back is usually peanuts compared a signup bonus over a 1-2 year period. A 150k platinum SUB is worth around $1k after the annual fee, and that’s valuing MR on the lower end. To get $1k on a 5% back category would require spending 20k on that category alone. I’ve made thousands in signup and bank bonuses this year. It does require excellent credit and is more effort than people usually want to spend managing credit cards, though.
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Sep 24, 2022 10:11
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CSR has always been effortless for me. We travel fairly often, and the points transfer to Hyatt, which has led to some pretty amazing free hotel stays in amazing places. I signed up for the 150k Amex bonus last year and I’m at a loss on what I should do with the points. The hotel transfer partners seem terrible for value, and our schedules don’t allow us to pick a random Wednesday in two months and take off on some good business class redemption to Asia or whatever. Am I missing some secret Amex redemption?
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Sep 24, 2022 12:06
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Residency Evil posted:CSR has always been effortless for me. We travel fairly often, and the points transfer to Hyatt, which has led to some pretty amazing free hotel stays in amazing places. Schwab plat allows for 1.1 cpp redemptions in cash. Used to be 1.25.
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Sep 24, 2022 14:59
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FWIW the best return on investment card IMO is still amex plat if you're using the return protection regularly
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Sep 24, 2022 20:44
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CubicalSucrose posted:Schwab plat allows for 1.1 cpp redemptions in cash. Used to be 1.25. Yeah I’ve considered just doing this. Upgrade posted:FWIW the best return on investment card IMO is still amex plat if you're using the return protection regularly What’s that?
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Sep 24, 2022 20:46
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah I’ve considered just doing this. if you buy something that isn't returnable you can return it to amex (and in reality they just refund you)
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Sep 24, 2022 20:55
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CubicalSucrose posted:Schwab plat allows for 1.1 cpp redemptions in cash. Used to be 1.25. Can you transfer points to this from other Amex cards?
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Sep 24, 2022 21:53
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pseudanonymous posted:Can you transfer points to this from other Amex cards? Yeah it’s just MR points. If you pair it with a gold card you used to be able to get pretty decent redemptions when it was at 1.25. I feel there has to be a good mr transfer partner though right?
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Sep 24, 2022 22:38
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah it’s just MR points. If you pair it with a gold card you used to be able to get pretty decent redemptions when it was at 1.25. There's a bunch of good partners, ANA, Air Canada, Flying Blue just to name a few.
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Sep 24, 2022 23:35
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Shear Modulus posted:Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I personally stuck with the no fee version of that card that gives 3% on groceries because the last time I looked at how much I spent on groceries it wasn't enough for the extra 1%-3% to cover the 95 bucks. After the first year you downgrade the BCP to a BCE and wait two months and they start throwing offers at you to upgrade again. I downgraded in July and they're already offering me $75 to go back. Probably going to wait for a better offer since I use my Gold for groceries anyway.
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Sep 27, 2022 08:19
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i barely travel whatsoever, so i'm mainly interested in a card(s?) that offers the best cash back and/or non-travel benefits
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Sep 27, 2022 12:14
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As of a few weeks ago Citi premier gives $800 straight cash for $4000 spend with a $95 fee.
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Sep 27, 2022 13:01
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laxbro posted:As of a few weeks ago Citi premier gives $800 straight cash for $4000 spend with a $95 fee. how long do i have to spend that $4k?
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Sep 27, 2022 18:42
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Mr Interweb posted:how long do i have to spend that $4k? 3 months. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-premier-80000-points-signup-bonus-95-annual-fee/
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Sep 27, 2022 18:56
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laxbro posted:As of a few weeks ago Citi premier gives $800 straight cash for $4000 spend with a $95 fee. It's also a decent card on groceries, restaurants and most travel @3%, not a 5% but if you don't want to get that granular. Also you can get it, then when the second AF posts, you ask for a product change to a custom cash, this is a way to get a 2nd custom cash.
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Sep 27, 2022 18:58
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pseudanonymous posted:It's also a decent card on groceries, restaurants and most travel @3%, not a 5% but if you don't want to get that granular. why do i have CSR if this thing gonna give me 3% on travel/restaurants too.. :|
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Sep 28, 2022 09:39
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Strong Sauce posted:why do i have CSR if this thing gonna give me 3% on travel/restaurants too.. :| CSR gives you a 50% redemption bonus if you redeem for travel (cash price) or use "pay yourself back". Citi Premier does not do this. If you transfer to partners, then the CSP or Premier can be just as good, provided you like the partners. (Although be aware the travel protections on the Premier were gutted, whereas the CSP/CSR ones are pretty good.)
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Sep 28, 2022 09:53
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are there any decent "catch-all" 1.5% or 2% on everything cards that don't have foreign transaction fees? I used to use "online purchases" as my category for BoA Customized Cash rewards but that's become a minefield with places moving to foreign payment processors, there's a ton of EU ones in cypress and poo poo like gog. of the things I don't have a decent card for, a ton of it has those foreign processors, and afaik you have no way of knowing before the txn goes through. it's so random sometimes. Is 1% really as good as you can do without ftx fees? this is probably an awful idea but what about a paypal mastercard? 3% unlimited on paypal purchases, no fees on purchases made outside the us via paypal (I think, if I'm interpreting this right?), you can pretty easily use that as a catchall "anything online" category. on the other hand, you have to deal with synchrony and paypal. I'm becoming more and more displeased with the BoA customized rewards card... it seems like the only way to realize the full bonus for me anymore is home improvement category, if there's gonna be a big project, and it's still capped at basically $50 bonus per quarter (for $2500 spend, vs standard 1% rewards) if you use it optimally (off-category stuff with bonus - like gas/dining/etc - still counts against your $2.5k total). They've been massive loving shitters to deal with some fraud on a year ago and I really just want to not do business with them anymore. If I want to get rid of it, should I just pay it off and let it lay fallow or actually hard cancel? it's a fairly old account but I have probably too many "task-specific" cards in use (paid off) and it might be better to close it, it's listed as a small factor in credit karma and all of my cards have been expanding their limits a ton over the years. I have a couple older anchor accounts still, hopefully wouldn't be a problem, or should I just not risk it? Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Sep 29, 2022 |
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Sep 29, 2022 01:54
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CapitalOne Quicksilver 1.5% No Annual/Foreign Transaction Fees. Took it on vacation last week, outside of that it pays for a Minecraft realm and doesn't otherwise get used. Discover and PenFed offer better cards if you just want the 1% Cashback on off category foreign transactions and have them be feeless.
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Sep 29, 2022 02:21
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The Alliant Visa Signature has no foreign transaction fees either and is 2.5% if you maintain a checking account with them, keep $1000 in it, and make at least one deposit each month. Doesn't have to be direct deposit either, ACH transfers count.
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Sep 29, 2022 02:23
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YMMV - 10% back on gas with Chase Amazon Visa in Q4. Promo applied for me. https://slickdeals.net/f/16066078-s...ntpage_recombee
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Sep 29, 2022 05:20
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Small White Dragon posted:CSR gives you a 50% redemption bonus if you redeem for travel (cash price) or use "pay yourself back". Citi Premier does not do this. SamDabbers posted:The Alliant Visa Signature has no foreign transaction fees either and is 2.5% if you maintain a checking account with them, keep $1000 in it, and make at least one deposit each month. Doesn't have to be direct deposit either, ACH transfers count. Do you know if this applies to their HYSA as well? or it has to be a checking account? Also dang it I didn't know about this card either. Been using the Fidelity card at 2% :|
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Sep 29, 2022 05:29
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Strong Sauce posted:I've only really traveled once since the beginning of the pandemic so this is nice to know if I ever actually get to travel again (for vacation) in the future You have to keep 1k in checking. You could keep excess funds in the HYSA. The 2.5% card is a bit rare, and I don't think they pay advertisers for referrals so it's hard to find out about on credit card sites and the like, looking for it on say Nerdwallet you have to know it exists and search for it specifically. They do keep tweaking the card, so the 2.5% may not last forever, but I really like Alliant, they did an Avocado Toast and Latte Debit card promotion and I got a free gift card with a latte and avocado toast on it, which, I really just loved.
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Sep 29, 2022 05:57
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pseudanonymous posted:You have to keep 1k in checking. You could keep excess funds in the HYSA. The 2.5% card is a bit rare, and I don't think they pay advertisers for referrals so it's hard to find out about on credit card sites and the like, looking for it on say Nerdwallet you have to know it exists and search for it specifically. Thanks. It looks like its 2.5% up to 10K and starting Oct 1st they'll be checking that you have >$1000 every month vs every quarter. Still seems pretty good. https://ww2.alliantcreditunion.org/visa-signature-rewards
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Sep 29, 2022 06:44
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Strong Sauce posted:Thanks. I agree, I am aiming to get one. Though I think I'm going to get an Amex platinum first. Ive actually switched my banking to Alliant to make it easier to just keep the 1k in checking there, and their HYSA rate tends t obe significantly better than the CU I've been using for some time.
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Sep 29, 2022 07:22
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Loan Dusty Road posted:YMMV - 10% back on gas with Chase Amazon Visa in Q4. Promo applied for me.
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Sep 30, 2022 15:38
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