Wow that is awesome information. Thanks so much for sharing.
You're welcome. I am always happy to share. The OP and several other PP here seem to have a love for our credit cards and how they can save us money.
Thanks for all of this info. I am currently looking at opening a few cards. I have spg which has been amazing. I got in on the 35k deal and have put good use to my star points. I am now looking at the Marriott which has the 80k bonus but can't decide if I should also do the Hyatt card. Any feedback?
You are welcome. That 35K was a nice deal fro SPG. I already had the personal SPG but went ahead and picked up the Business card for 35K too. If you do not already have a Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink, combined with a Chase Freedom I would suggest get those right away before applying for any more cards. Chase has tightened their application rules for their Ultimate Reward earning cards and some of the co-branded cards too. If you have opened up 5 credit cards of any brand in the last 24 months it is often an automatic denial. So the current MO is get the Chase UR cards first, then co-branded cards. The Hyatt will give you 2 free nights at any property your first year as part of the sign up bonus. That alone is worth more than 80K Marriott points. I would pick up the Hyatt card if I had any plans for those two nights. Both the Marriott and Hyatt cards will give you a free night for a category 1-5, 1-4 hotel respectively. I wouldn't put spending on with one the cards though since I don't value hotel points as much as I value airline miles. I will be looking to see what aspiration type destination we may want with the Hyatt properties and then DH and I each get the card and earn 4 nights at any of their properties. Odd are, I will go for the Hyatt card on my next round of credit card applications.
What card is giving you 5% on paying cell phone, cable & internet?
The Chase Ink Plus business card will earn 5 Ultimate Reward points per dollar for cell phone, internet, cable and office supply stores.
I assumed you meant %, because when you're talking across multiple credit cards, a "point" is just not usable as a standard unit of measurement.
There does end up being a point of diminishing returns though, because to wrangle multiple credit cards takes discipline, good record keeping, etc. In other words, there's a tipping point where yes, it's possible to squeeze more out of an existing card, or just add more, but is it really worth the cost in brain-bandwidth to do so? The answer to that will be different for everyone.
Me, I used to play this game a lot, going for the 3x, 4x whatever points in this category and that. I've found solace personally in the Citi Double Cash card. It's annual fee-free, doesn't commingle business and personal stuff, and has 2% flat earnings on everything. And, those earnings are not gift cards, not travel vouchers, not discounts, but cash. Simply being content that it's really easy to deal with would be super valuable as is. But, as it stands, I have yet to find another card that gives me more overall returns on a day-to-day usage basis.
That being said, initial offers are a different beast. if Sapphire is going to give me $500 to try and woo me to them, I'll probably jump on it, then test drive for a year. If I don't see any reason to continue using it, I'll drop it before they ding me for the annual fee. In the meantime, maybe I would get more mileage by using the travel service and get $650 worth of value, but chances are I'll just take the $500 in something like Amazon gift cards and call it a day, content in the "perceived $150" I may have lost.
For us the answer is yes, because the hobby has allowed us to travel in a manner we never would have been able to before-hand. There's a certain sense of freedom in our vacation choices because we don't worry about adding airfare into the vacation budget. Now, that said, we only focus on miles and points for airline and hotels. Only once did we make cash back a priority and that was to be able to get $3000 worth of excursions and on-board credit when
DCL went to Norway, Iceland and Scotland last year. DH and I each picked up a Barclay Arrival Plus, Capital One Venture and Wells Fargo Propel between the sign up bonuses and spending requirement we had $3000 in points to erase travel related expenses. DCL was happy to split his bill and my bill across the 6 credit cards and we used the points to pay the bill. Then, I cancelled both Wells Fargo Propel cards and downgraded the Cap One and Barclay Arrival cards. BTW we had a blast on that cruise and it was nice knowing that just about everything we did on board was going to be free LOL
You are correct. Perceived value of points and effort in obtaining those points is always going to be different for each person. In 2014 we used 125K miles to fly on an international flight in first class. Those 125K points could have been redeemed for $1,250 in cash (fixed value .01 per point) instead of transferred to an airline as miles. The cost of the RT air fare for that flight in economy was about $1800! So those 125K points as cash could not be used to purchase the flight as their cash value was not high enough. However, the same points transferred directly to the airline and used as 125K miles was able to get me into first class seats. The cash cost of those first class seat on that particular flight back then was $18,000!!!
Now am I going to claim that the points I converted to airline miles has a value 0.14 cents per point. Of course not because there is no circumstance where I would actually pay $18,000 in real money for a flight in first class
So the question becomes, what would I actually pay in real money for that first class flight. That is how DH and I value our points. There is no cash back card that comes close to that perceived value for us.
Based on the posts here, it seems MC and Visa cards are best for rewards. I am wondering if anyone can advise me about using my AmEx points. For some reason that I can't recall now, I signed up for an AmEx Premier Rewards Gold Card and now have a little more than 27,000 rewards points. Anyone know the best use for them?
Well my answer is always going to be transfer to an airline for a flight but I'm rather biased when it comes to points and miles. Keep in mind if you ever decide to cancel your card you will forfeit the Amex MR points. I would suggest applying for another Amex MR earning card like the Amex Everyday card which has no annual fee so that you don't lose your points should you decide to cancel the Premier Rewards card. I did that after picking up an Amex Platinum card for the 100K reward points. The fee on that card is $450 and I wasn't going to keep it but didn't want to lose the 100k points. I applied for the Everyday card and after getting approved and getting the bonus on that one, I cancelled the Platinum card.
Chase visa is definitely the gold standard for points gathering, but don't underestimate Amex. If I had 27K membership rewards burning a hole in my pocket my first question would be what I want. Do I want to travel for free? Do I want to make an existing trip cheaper? Do I just want the cash? Personally, I choose travel every single time. It's why I play the game. So, if it were me I'd transfer them to either a hotel or airline partner. I'm in a Delta hub so Delta miles will always be valuable to me, even if they're basically worthless to a lot of other people. Second choice would be to transfer them to a hotel chain with my preference being starwood. You've got enough for a fancy pants hotel for a night in New York or multiple nights at fancy pants properties. Last choice would be the giftcard route. If nothing else, it's $250 back in your pocket which is better than nothing.
I do really love the chase trifecta, though. It's going to get me to Norway to swim with some whales next year and it's going to do it in first class.
Me too, travel is the right choice for me every time. Swimming with whales sounds awesome! Where are you going in Norway to be able to do that?
Man I WISH 50K would get me so far... It took 60K just to get us over there in economy...! Maybe I'd have better luck from a different airport. I've watched miles to all sorts of places out of PDX and it always is an insane amount. Recently we also looked into using points on Delta to Japan... A nonstop 10 hour flight for us. It would have been 190,000 points for economy! 
Ouch! I complain if I have to blow 190K for first class! I am always on the lookout for saver awards. Even though DH and I keep a bank of over 2 million miles and points between us, I do try to stretch those points as far as they will go. So, I will check as far out in advance as possible and check several times per day looking for that saver award flight. I will also check flights to and from nearby airports.
