Does your credit card give great rewards? (long)

[mom2boys]

I have been less than impressed with the "rewards" cards that DH & I have. Granted the only card we have specifically obtained for the rewards is the Disney Visa - we used it for the Kids Stay & Play Free package with an extra $100 in Disney dollars. The 1% reward is not worth using the card for.

For example, we are going to be purchasing a new vehicle in the next 6 months. I got excited thinking we could put it on our Disney Visa and earn huge rewards - well a $30,000 pickup truck will yield a whooping $300 in rewards. Not worth the hassle. (We would pay the balance in full upon receipt of the bill - DH was not planning to finance the truck.)

Anyone have a credit card with meaningful rewards?

 

[spn]

We have a toys R us Visa. I think we get about 1.5%. I like it because of cash it gives us gift certificates fot the store. It makes it fun to go buy something for our daughter would would note likely get.

 

[DawnCt]

I have to say, that for us, the Delta Sky Miles Platinum card is the best deal around. We use Delta and try to keep our miles on one airline. That said, I find I can build miles faster with this card than with any other card. Its an Amex card and you can get Amex rewards that you can afix to any airline. Currently I get double miles at the pharmacy, home improvement stores, groceries, gas, phone bill, wireless bill and at certain times a year they offer double miles on all purchases. Those are promotions so you never know when they will happen. They also give double miles for Delta ticket purchases. I have gotton 1000 miles for using the check in kiosk as well. We also signed our card up for IDine and we get 10 miles for every dollar we spend at certain restaurants. There is a fee for this card. I think I pay $125 per year. Is it worth it? I think so. Five of us are going on our third free trip to Hawaii, 3 coach and two first class tickets. The first two times, 6 of us went. Its a trip we couldn't have made without the miles. Earning miles is easy. It is harder to get the seats you want but if you know that you can plan 330 days ahead, set your alarm and call the Delta. Also, if I go over a certain amount I get an additional 10,000 miles and a free companion ticket which reminds me, I should go somewhere!

 

[jel0511]

I have the Fidelity 529 Mastercard and it's great. We earn 2% cash back and it's deposited every quarter into DD's 529 college account. Now, it's not earth shattering money, I think we got around $120 last month, but it does add up. We used to use our American Express card and get Membership Rewards and use it for Frequent Flier Miles. Well, after saving up over 300,000 this way we bought 4 tickets to the Caribbean for 240,000 miles. Well, this saved us approx $2,000. I spent $240k to save $2k, that doesn't sound too great to me! So, we switched cards. At least we're getting more than our monthly contribution deposited into DD's account and it goes towards her college. Any other reward doesn't make sense in my book.

 

[FreshTressa]

We like the toysrus. Over the past 3 years we have gotten about $5000 dollars from it.

We charge everything, groceries, doctor bill, clothes etc.

And then pay it off.

It is not the big purchases, but the little ones that add up over time.

We have gotten so much video game stuff at Toysrus.

 

[Kermit]

I love my Hilton Honors AmEx. I tried the cash back cards for a while, but the money they give back is so little that we never did anything "fun" with it. At least with hotel stays, we can always use it for vacations. The rewards are pretty good. We've only had it for about 2 years, and we've done several little trips with it.

I have a Disney Visa, too, but I rarely use it because it isn't worth it.

 

[DawnCt]

Originally posted by jel0511
I . Well, after saving up over 300,000 this way we bought 4 tickets to the Caribbean for 240,000 miles. Well, this saved us approx $2,000. I spent $240k to save $2k, that doesn't sound too great to me! So, we switched cards. At least we're getting more than our monthly contribution deposited into DD's account and it goes towards her college. Any other reward doesn't make sense in my book.

If that was the cost of your tickets, I agree, you didn't get a good return. Usually when we go to Hawaii, the ticket value is somewhere between $900 and $1100 a piece. This year with our two first class tickets, the total value is closer to $7000. I think that's a good return for 210,000 miles. Some of those flown and some cc.

 

[nativetxn]

I use American Express and we've been pleased with the rewards points. Easy redemption so far.

I'm planning on redeeming some of my rewards points for air fare to England, hopefully next spring

 

[zurgswife]

I use the AE Starwood card....I use it specifically for the purpose of getting a 2bdrm suite at the Swan/Dolphin for up coming trips...

The rooms are 20,000 points but the cash value of the rooms is $1265....so for $20,000 I get a $1265 value...which is a return of about 6% not bad in my book....for that same 20000 I could get airline tickets but that is only a $200 value so I prefer to use them for rooms...

 

[DawnCt]

Originally posted by zurgswife
I use the AE Starwood card....I use it specifically for the purpose of getting a 2bdrm suite at the Swan/Dolphin for up coming trips...

The rooms are 20,000 points but the cash value of the rooms is $1265....so for $20,000 I get a $1265 value...which is a return of about 6% not bad in my book....for that same 20000 I could get airline tickets but that is only a $200 value so I prefer to use them for rooms...

Absolutely. Put your miles where the biggest value is. I would never use my FF miles to travel to Fla. when the airfare is affordable. We have used our miles to do what we couldn't or wouldn't do "out of pocket".

 

[kadaten]

My regular credit card and DH's has a 1% cash back reward. The 1% is credited monthly, so it just lessens the amount of my bill. Not bad, I'm not locked in to any one store, and since we don't fly anywhere hardly ever, I have no interest in miles. Also, it so easy...I don't have to do anything. It's automatic as long as my account is current.

I do have one store card at Old Navy. For every $100 I spend I get a $5 off coupon. I buy lots of DD and DS and DH's clothes there since they're so affordable....so I use the card to get the coupon and pay it off every month. We also get a special sale once or twice a year that saves bunches!

 

[mom2boys]

Thanks for the replies.

Any one else?