<p>Costco Amex works the best for us. the next best is our Discover.
We use it for absolutely everything. We have about $600 check every year from Costco Amex, do not know about Discover, I guess, something. We do not have enough income to spend the amount that would result in $3000 check at the end of the year. That must be huge spending. Our biggest is tuition - about $50k / year, everything else is pretty small in comparison.</p>
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Yes and no. Groceries for our teens and their friends runs unimaginably high, gasoline at 5% adds up, my wife frequently travels on business to expensive places on expensive flights, and I buy almost everything at Amazon. We do spend a lot, but the rewards add up quickly living here in a suburb of NYC.</p>
<p>PS I gave up on Discover after they started the business of having to register periodically for extra discounts on certain categories. Too much like a job.</p>
<p>We go with only two cards: a Costco Amex (3% on gas, 2% travel and restaurants, 1% all else; end up with about $400 in cash each year) and a credit union visa no-fee card which pays 1% cash back. I frequently turn down offers for other cards, even if they offer a $400 signing bonus, because I just can’t be bothered to have more than two cards. </p>
<p>I am also a 2 card person with the Costco Amex and a credit union Visa.
My Visa is a signature and I get 2 for 1 mile points. I use it for everything that isn’t Costco and get free flights to visit DD on opposite coast :-)</p>
<p>Airline mile cards all the way. In these years of kids overseas and various coasts, as well as living far from family, the miles have built up quickly, and in applying for new cards the 30,000 miles or so equals a free flight. However, Delta and United are no longer giving miles for miles flown, so I’m not sure how much longer these cards will work for me. However, my flight to Europe last year was with miles, as is my upcoming flight to Asia with a free stopover, so historically these cards has been great for someone who does not spend a great deal of money. </p>
<p>I also have two cards, Costco Amex and Mastercard. Amex is my primary card, and Mastercard is for those times when Amex is not accepted. I used Mastercard a lot during a European vacation because that card had the credit card chip.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll keep my Costco card. With a shrinking household, trips to Costco are less frequent. I’m debating if the membership is worth it.</p>
<p>Another with a Southwest card. The points are so easy to use on Southwest (none of those silly blackout dates), and they fly where my kids live. Also no extra fee for foreign currency/international transactions. I put everything on it that I can and pay off in full each month. </p>
<p>I also have a no-fee ChoiceHotels card I used to use for everything before I got the SW card. I still use it for hotel reservations at their hotel chain (triple points), and also keep it at home as an extra card in case the SW number gets stolen and I have to cancel the card. I have all my “automated” charges that can go against a credit card on the ChoiceHotels card, too (tollway charges, insurance payments, Netflix, etc.). That way if the primary SW card I use all the time has to be cancelled due to fraud/theft/etc, I don’t have to call and switch all those things to a new card.</p>
<p>I have a Discover Card that I use for most purchases. We don’t travel enough to use airplane miles or hotel stays. The cash back works for us, and I usually treat myself to a gift card with bonus value after we’ve done our Christmas shopping. I also have a MasterCard debit card. I try and use that for smaller purchases to avoid running up a big credit bill. We pay off the Discover Card every month.</p>
<p>Most of our charges are on a United Visa card. DH gets a lot of United frequent flier miles when he travels to Asia for business, so it seemed sensible to get more points from our charges. </p>
<p>We also have a JetBlue Amex, but we mostly use that for DS’s college flights and a few misc parent-pay expenses. </p>
<p>I forgot to mention that we used a second credit card to borrow some cash when our business was so slow last year. They had a deal with 0% interest if the loan was paid off within a year. It helped us through a bind. But people need to be aware that taking cash this way means you DON’T have a 30-day grace period, so any other charges start accruing interest immediately. I made sure not to use that second card for anything else.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I’m looking to build a portfolio of cards, looking at the strategy that IxnayBob says is too much work. There’s something satisfying about taking money on the table/disgusting about leaving it on the table though, and I’ve only known any better since 2 Thursdays ago. So I went an applied for several cards. Got 4 of them. Chase Freedom, Discover It, Amex Blue Cash Preferred, and Fidelity Investment Rewards Amex.</p>
<p>I am looking to build a portfolio of cards to get as much cash back as possible. The others I’m looking at are: </p>
<ol>
<li>Citi Dividend</li>
<li>US Bank Cash+ (eventually wanting 2 of them which is apparently possible by having 2 US bank credit cards, and product changing one of them to a Cash+ card - one for Fast Food/Restaurants, one for Cellphone/Electronics)</li>
<li>Sallie Mae Mastercard (which I also want 2 of, which will be all that I need for groceries)</li>
<li>Club Carlson Premier Rewards ($75 annual fee but it gets you 40,000 points a year for that, a 3rd night free when you redeem for 2 nights, and with the normal rewards program 37 points/$ spent, equivalent to about 15% value back)</li>
<li>ChoicePrivlileges card (which has no annual fee and gets you to 26 points/$ spent, equivalent to about 18% value back)</li>
<li>Barclaycard Arrival (for airlines and hotels that aren’t Choice or Carlson, good rewards and points convertible practically everywhere). </li>
<li>BoA Better Balance Rewards (gives $25/quarter back for paying it off on time, will just try to get as many as I can, probably spend $50 a month or so on each). </li>
</ol>
<p>Probably will drop the Blue Cash Preferred to Blue Cash Everyday (with no annual fee) once I get one Sallie Mae Mastercard. But until I can get that it’s still worthwhile to have the annual fee version.</p>
<p>Figure it’s a fun game to play. Looks like it could be a substantial amount of cash back. </p>
<p>Thought I should add, the plan is to always pay in full, as money isn’t a problem. So credit limits and APRs aren’t really an issue for me or anything I care about. Even on a card with 0% APR, I just don’t have the precision on moving money to/from investments down enough that holding onto the money for an extra month will do me any good. Maybe one day I’ll find a better system for that, but I don’t have it yet.</p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte , I understand being willing to do the work to get all the money on the table. I just figure that I get 80% of the benefit for 20% of the work, so that’s my preference. I understand your choice and my choice, but not the choice some people make to have no rewards cards at all. </p>
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<p>Oh yeah I fully get it. I’m spending several hours extra to grab a few dollars extra. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do which I fully realize. More just a compulsion to do it anyway.</p>
<p>I know some people who take the no rewards or very inefficient rewards (just use the same card for everything) and I guess it’s either that they don’t know better (I didn’t know any better until very recently myself) or that they just don’t like dealing with anything with banks more than they have to, so even having to deal with just a few cards is “painful” to them.</p>