What is/are the best cash back credit cards?
by Author on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 | 3 Comments
I was using this website http://www.creditcards.com/cash-back.php
I buy most of my stuff online, I will have a car somewhat soon, I also buy stuff from walmart (grocery products, maybe some pet products, etc.), etc.
It's hard for me to choose, please help.
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In my opinion, the American Express Blue Cash Credit Card is the best card for cash rewards. You earn 1% on "everyday" purchases and 0.5% on all other purchases. But, if you use your card a lot, like charge $6,500 per year, you get 5% on "everyday" purchases, and 1.5% on all other purchases. "Everyday" purchases include gas stations, supermarkets, and drug stores. There is no annual limit on how much cashback you can earn.
Of course to really earn the rewards, you have to use the card wisely and pay off the balance each month. If you end up charging more than you can afford, that cash back amount is worthless to you. But used wisely, you can earn a decent amount.
I like this card the best just because they do not use points, which usually "cheat" you as the cash value of the points are not comparable to what you spent. With this card, If you charge $20 at the gas station, you earn either $1 (assuming the 5% cashback) or $0.20 (assuming 1% cashback).
Again, just make sure you spend wisely so that this is actually worth it for you!
CASH BACK AND REWARDS PROGRAMS are designed to do one thing and one thing only: to get the CC holder to spend more money than they can afford. There is no correlation between the points earned and the $ value of those points. You may earn 1 point for each $1 charged, but the $ value of those points is closer to $0.01 for each point redeemed. So you charge $50,000 and get 50,000 points, but the $ value of those points is only $500 when you redeem them. The restrictions and requirements are so confusing that it may be near impossible to reap your rewards. An airline ticket may cost 100,000 points at first. But they can change the exchange rate and require 150,000 points for that same ticket. Violate any part of the agreement and you could lose your points and get hit with the default interest rate. To get the points back, you will have to pay an expensive reinstatement fee. The rewards cards, if they do not now, will carry an annual fee.
They might offer 5% cash back. 5% of what? 5% of the total amount you charged? Or 5% of the interest you paid on what you charged and failed to pay off at the end of the month. Someone has to pay that 5% – it’s YOU in the form of higher interest rates and higher prices and annual fees.
Save your money for your own rewards program.
You can use this credit card rewards calculator to see which cash back card (or other rewards card) will pay you the most in rewards for your entered spending profile:
http://www.creditcardtuneup.com/
So it takes into account the categories in which you spend money each month.
The calculator will also try to figure out the best combination of cards for your spending.
A couple of my favorite cash back cards are the American Express Blue Cash card and the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express.