May stop being accepted by (some?) merchants/retailers. Visa/MC agreed with a group large retailers that that wouldn't be necessary going forward. Retailers have been POed for a long time that if they accepted one card of a brand, say Visa, that Visa said you had to accept all with their brand. The higher the rewards of a card, the more the retailers had to pay Visa. We'll see what happens. The three cards we mainly use have no annual fees, but pay back 2% or more. Recently have had some large payments that the retailer wanted +3% if we used a card. We declined to use one.
Rewards Credit Cards
- Thread starter vhcat1970
- Start date
I use Visa exclusively and get cash back every month, much prefer that to "free" air tickets and the like. However, lots of monthly bills will not take Visa unless you add 3%, so we just pay with auto draft for those.
It's literally the only reason I have credit cards, other than an emergency one.
Yeah without rewards I would also solely use debit and keep a couple cards for emergencies. If you’re paying them off every month, like I assume we are, there is no point of CCs without rewards.
There's a good subreddit for maximizing your credit card rewards, and you can get over $1,000 back per year and with mostly routine spending (groceries, gas, etc).
The jist of it is that you want TWO 5% category cards, as their categories almost never lineup on the same quarter. Then a 2% cash back card for other purchases, and lastly the US Bank card which gives you 5% back on uncommon categories like Utilities, Streaming, etc. Cycle the cards as needed. None of them have a annual fee.
Edit: you can get even crazier with a THIRD 5% category card where you pick the categories each quarter, like the Citi Custom Cash. This way you could get 5% cash back on groceries for all four quarters: card 1 for Q1, card 2 for Q2, and then the custom card for Q3 and Q4.
The jist of it is that you want TWO 5% category cards, as their categories almost never lineup on the same quarter. Then a 2% cash back card for other purchases, and lastly the US Bank card which gives you 5% back on uncommon categories like Utilities, Streaming, etc. Cycle the cards as needed. None of them have a annual fee.
Edit: you can get even crazier with a THIRD 5% category card where you pick the categories each quarter, like the Citi Custom Cash. This way you could get 5% cash back on groceries for all four quarters: card 1 for Q1, card 2 for Q2, and then the custom card for Q3 and Q4.
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"Your favorite latte at the local coffee shop could soon cost $5, $5.10 or $5.25—depending on how you pay.
A settlement between Visa, Mastercard and U.S. merchants announced this week could usher in a new era of tiered pricing at the register, giving businesses more power to charge fees depending on the credit card you use. The agreement comes after a two-decade antitrust battle over interchange fees, the charges banks collect from merchants every time a customer pays with plastic."
A settlement between Visa, Mastercard and U.S. merchants announced this week could usher in a new era of tiered pricing at the register, giving businesses more power to charge fees depending on the credit card you use. The agreement comes after a two-decade antitrust battle over interchange fees, the charges banks collect from merchants every time a customer pays with plastic."
I don't like a number for the place where I keep real money out all over the world. I'd stick to credit cards that limit my exposure even w/o rewards.
Here’s a secret, you don’t have to put all your money in your BOA checking account… viola!
It's not about having your account hacked and drained. If someone fraudulently uses your debit card, they have spent your money and you have to wait for the bank for return it. If someone fraudulently uses your credit card they've spent the banks money. While you don't have to keep all your money in your BOA checking account, if you're using a debit card you do have to have enough in there to cover every transaction though because they're instantly processed. Credit is still the smarter play over debit even if these programs are gutted.
But I'd be surprised if this actually happens. Most of the people with these high end rewards cards are the more affluent high spenders. It would really hurt Chase/Capital One/Citi in addition to Visa/Master Card if people started canceling their rewards cards if they couldn't use them.
I use AMEX exclusively except Costco so this wouldn't really change much for me though.
But I'd be surprised if this actually happens. Most of the people with these high end rewards cards are the more affluent high spenders. It would really hurt Chase/Capital One/Citi in addition to Visa/Master Card if people started canceling their rewards cards if they couldn't use them.
I use AMEX exclusively except Costco so this wouldn't really change much for me though.
I have the chase sapphire reserve for travel - lots of nice perks and then other random perks like free Apple TV. Then we have our local banks credit cards. I have maybe paid for one flight in the last five years, otherwise I always buy flights with CC points. My wife had a business credit card for the last ten years that she didn’t realize she was doing anything with the points. She has 3 million 
so we’re flying to Paris next year for free as well as the family on a Disney cruise.
so we’re flying to Paris next year for free as well as the family on a Disney cruise.