Thread: Best rewards credit card if you pay off every month?

Hey All,

I'm new here and signed up because I am totally inundated with my search for a new credit card and would love to hear some fresh opinions. I currently have a Bank of America WorldPoints credit card that I signed up for as a senior in high school seven years ago. At the time, I had zero credit history, which is well-reflected in my very small limit and very high interest rate. Despite rarely carrying a high balance relative to the limit and always making payments well in excess of the minimum, Bank of America has never raised my limit or lowered my interest rate.

Until now, I never really cared, using the card simply to fill up the gas tank or purchase groceries and paying it down at month's end. Now, however, I feel I should have a better card with a higher limit and a lower APR for a rainy day. I also feel the need to get away from Bank of America and their (in my experience) less-than-stellar customer service.

For me, the most important factor in a new card is rewards (especially reward points that can be redeemed for travel if possible) and/or cash back incentives. Introductory 0% APR's on balance transfers really aren't important (as I mentioned above), and I intend to pay bills with the card and pay it off monthly, so while an introductory APR period on purchases would be nice, that's not a necessity, either. At the end of the day, I'd just like a really solid card with the best rewards/cash back program possible. For information, my credit score is in the 720 range (at last check a few months ago).

My friends (including those in the finance industry) have all warned me to avoid Capital One like the plague. In addition, I've always been of the opinion that American Express and Discover are not accepted everywhere, which is an obvious drawback. Admittedly, perhaps this perception is just due to my ignorance of credit cards in general.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, guys!

Originally Posted by El Guapo

My friends (including those in the finance industry) have all warned me to avoid Capital One like the plague. In addition, I've always been of the opinion that American Express and Discover are not accepted everywhere, which is an obvious drawback. Admittedly, perhaps this perception is just due to my ignorance of credit cards in general.

Questions about CapOne:
Did they give you reasons to avoid Capital One? I am not a fan of their traditional banking (checking, savings, etc). They seem to have more cards for "entry level" or "rebuild credit" than most larger banks. I would not consider these "predatory" but I would not call them "angelic" either. Their higher end cards seem to be competitive. I cannot comment about their customer service because I have not had to deal with them. I am more willing to give them my credit card business, because of certain laws also I find it easier to change credit cards than change checking accounts.

Amex and Discover:
You are correct they are not as accepted as Visa or Mastercard. However in the US over the past last few years they have expanded their networks considerably (I do not travel outside the US anymore often enough to comment on any credit card acceptance). For the year that I used Discover as my primary card I had very little problem with shops not accepting it. Amex is even less of a problem. Most of the shops that did not accept these cards were small businesses with only 1 or 2 shops.

Advice on a new card:
All depends on you. When it comes to rewards that is a personal choice. Are you an international traveler? Do you spend a large amount of money on Gas and Groceries? What do you value more Miles or Cash? All will impact your credit card choice. What makes a card good is that it works for your spending/life habits. I have said this before but a work friend of mine and I make roughly the same amount of money and even have almost the same cards in our wallets. We both like cash back cards. However, we use different primary cards because we have different spending habits.

Discover cards have awesome cash back cards. You don't have to wait for it to accumulate alot of money and it is easy to redeem.

Penfed has an awesome cash back card that gives cash back on your statement every month. Also, you get 5% cash back on all gas stations, which is outstanding.

I have other cards that get cash back and I don't like them nearly as much.

Discover has lousy rewards for the most part.

I like Chase Freedom, PenFed, and the BofA card.

What do you like about the BofA card? I have the American Express and Visa Signature cash back. I find them to be just ok. PenFed is awesome!

This is what I want to have in my wallet eventually.

Citi foward(have). 5% on restaurants, movies, bookstores(amazon)(not CB, have to do gift cards)

Amex blue cash preferred(apping): 6% on groceries, 3% on gas and dept stores, something else and some 1%? I really just want it for the groceries.

penfed card(apping next year): 5% on gas

fidelity amex(have): 2% on everything


other cards I want but aren't nearly as awesome as the above 4:
discover more(have): only good for the categories, but it has low limits, so not stellar.
chase freedom(apping next year): same as discover more, but with higher limits.

Great minds think alike. I have the citi forward and the amex blue cash preferred on my list.. I already have the discover more and the penfed. Amex blue cash is the best card for groceries by far that I have seen.