Thread: My Favorite Cash Back Strategy for Currently Available CC's (09/18/2010)

The Penfed Visa Cashback Rewards is their card that gives the 5% on gas. It also gives 2% at grocery stores. Compared to current cards available this could be attractive for some but it doesn't come close to my old Chase Cash Plus that was grandfathered in with 5% on gas, grocery, and drugstores. Like jeffysdad, I don't drive enough for gas rebates to affect me much. But I certainly get my money's worth with the 5% on groceries.

You definitely can't be the Fidelity for non-category spending. There used to be a Charles Schwab card with comparable rewards but it has since been pulled from the market. I believe when the AmEx Plum for business first hit the market it gave 2% if the bill was paid within 10 days but now its only 1.5%. The Discover Escape also gives travel rewards worth 2% but there is a $60 annual fee.

As far as restaurants goes I am still waiting on a card that gives 5% year round. Discover used to have a card that did that several years ago but there have been no others since. I know the Costco AmEx gives 3% on restaurants so either that or the Citi Forward are your best bet for that category it seems.

As for Chase Freedom, I appear to be grandfathered into the 3% in top three categories cashback for the time being. They also told me I qualify for the 5% in the rotating cagegories. I've been using the card and will see in a month or so if this is true. Freedom is my No. 2 card for places that don't take Amex. I'm also paying for my phone, cable/internet and electricity with this card and getting 3% on those.

By the way jeffysdad you may want to check with Chase customer service to see if you qualify for the premium rewards version of your grandfathered card - it offered 3% on the top 6 categories for a very reasonable fee. Unsure if it would be possible for you to add that onto your account now but it's worth checking on if you haven't already. Of course it's certainly not avail on the current version of the Freedom.

I joined Pen Fed not for their cards, but their low interest rates on used car loans - 3.99% on my last car. I like this latest Amex they have out however to get the best benefits from what I recall you first need to be spending $15k annually and the high cash back promo expires after 12 months.

I only learned about the Citi Forward recently and it seems like a good deal. Any fine print I should know about????

Being that they ended your 3% for 3 categories, I guess that premium version of the 3/3 deal is definitely gone for good now unfortunately.

I already maxed out my Discover 5% for this quarter. I wish the limit wasn't so low during the 4th quarter. I think it was only for $300 on combined groceries, department stores, apparel stores. That is one benefit on the Freedom is the limit is $1,500 but that's dismal in comparison to their old program.