Thread: Picking a new cashback card

Here a couple questions that might help you narrow things down.

1) Some reward programs are tiered. How much per year do you expect to put on the card?
2) What type of travel expenses are we talking about here- airfare? Hotels? Are there any companies you will be giving business to more than others?

I would get the Fidelity Amex with 2% straight cash back and no annual fee. They also offer a Visa, but it pays 1.5% for the first $15k and then 2% thereafter. I have both and use the Visa as a backup to the Amex for the few instances when it's not accepted. The rewards are paid into the same cash management/checking account at Fidelity. I can manage both accounts from the same FIA Card Services web site and monitor them from the Fidelity site so it cuts down on the hassle of two cards. [Right now, though, I'm using Freedom for groceries (5% this quarter) and Discover for restaurants (5% this quarter).] Note that Fidelity Amex is not a true Amex card, so you don't get Amex travel services with it.

I also have Sapphire. I think you only get the 2% on travel if you book through Chase/Sapphire, if I'm not mistaken. That's probably not a deal if their prices are higher than what you'd pay at hotels.com, etc.

Since your company is reimbursing travel expenses, I would expect that they would reimburse the foreign transaction fee, so CapOne's no-fee policy wouldn't benefit you except for your personal international spending.

As jeffysdad said a 2% straight cash back would be a smart choice. I suppose the only reason in your case to get a different card would be for the extra travel benefits but those often have an annual fee with them. Let's see, off the top of my head I can think of a few travel cards that give 3x on airfare but maybe there's one that gives a straight 3x points on all travel expenses. If there is one, then that could be better from what you describe but no cards that give that are coming to my mind at the moment.