What are some good Reward Credit Cards?

Question

My husband and I are looking for a new credit card that offers good rewards. We currently have a Citibank Drivers Edge and they have dropped the rewards to only 1% on ALL purchases. The points can no longer be used on paying for vehicle services at the dealership, only if and when we buy a new or used Ford vehicle.

We use our credit card for all our prescription drugs and have a couple automatic payments set up to be charged on the card monthly. On occasion I use the card for groceries. Otherwise it is used for all online purchases.

Please - no lectures about credit cards. We only have one and pay it off monthly. There is no way I am paying that extra 20+%!

I don't care about the interest rate of the card as it we paid are credit card balance in full monthly.

Answer 1

The Citi Dividend Card is good. 5% back on gas, groceries and drugs, as someone else already mentioned.

I want to recommend another one, and a strategy for it. The Citi Platinum Select Mastercard is currently offering 0% on Balance Transfers for 12 months, with no transfer fee. Here's the best part, if you ask them, they'll just cut you a check for it and mail it to you. I just did this today, and they are sending me $20,000.

I'm going to take this money and put $15K in a 5.45% 11-month CD at my credit union. With the rest, I will open a high interest online savings account, with whatever bank is offering the best rate at that moment. Right now, they are at 5.05%, but Emigrant Direct is expected to raise it to 5.15% soon. I'll use this money to earn interest and to make the monthly minimum payments. The way I figure it, I'll make about $900 in interest in that year, using nothing but Citibank's money.

There are 3 big things to watch out for if you do this:
1. You cannot use that card for anything else until that balance transfer is paid off. Nothing. Otherwise your monthly payments go to pay off the 0% balance only, and not the balance on purchases with higher interest rates.
2. You absolutely must pay your minimum payment every month, on time! You can't give them any excuse to say you violated the agreement so they can raise the rate to 18% or whatever it will be.
3. You absolutely must pay back 100% of that balance transfer by that 12 month mark. Otherwise, they'll hit you for interest, possibly dating back to the beginning.
4. Your FICO score will take a hit, as you increase your ratio of debt to available credit. If you are planning a major credit purchase, like a house or car this year, you may not want to do this.

Below are links to that offer and also to a site which shows what banks are paying the best interest at the moment.

Answer 2

I wanted the citi dividend but was denied. It's a great card. I did however get approved for a Bank of America Power rewards card but it seems like you have to rack up alot of points to earn the cash back 1%

Answer 3

i have a citibank dividend card, 5% on grocery, gas, drug and 1% everything else. you can earn up to 300 dollars per year. if you make a lot of purchases, i guess you might want 2 cards

Answer 4

GM Card is a good one. You can use the credits/rewards earned on your next GM car purchase. I have over $2k in credits to put toward my next car right now.

Answer 5

reward cards have a higher interest rate. You're better off shopping for the lowest rate card you can find.

Answer 6

I would try to find one that has something to offer me that I have an interest in cashing in on. If you like to travel, you might want to check with Delta. They do have a Visa card with mileage. You might even want to do one with cash back.