what "rewards" credit cards do you use?

[disneyberry]

thought it'd be interesting to see what kinds of rewards credit cards people here use.

Amex Membership Rewards

my bf has a Corp Amex, and he signed up for the Member Rewards Points program, which eventually we could convert those points to Disney rewards (Park Hoppers, Breakfast certificates, etc).
however, at the time he signed up they offered a promotion for free membership for the first year, and now the charge is $75 annual fee to get the points. not sure this is worth it anymore. we're thinking about cashing out on the points, maybe pouring them into airline miles, and then cancelling the program.

Fleet EDVANCE

i use this card, which gives me points towards savings bonds. no annual fee. 1 point per dollar of purchase, and 2500 points gets you a $50 savings bond, which i cash out as soon as i can (usually $25 value) and deposit to a higher interest Money Market savings acct.


so that's what we use. i really wanted to look into applying for some better rewards credit cards, if there are any out there.

please share! and tell us what you like/dislike about the cards you use.

 

[LI Debbie]

After years of having the Citibank American Airlines AADvaqntage Mastercard and paying an annual fee of $50, I've just switched DH and me to the Hilton Honors Platinum Visa. It has no annual fee, 0%APR for the first 6 months, 9.99% on transferred balances, and 10,000 points for your first use of the card. You earn 2 points for every dollar you charge-5 points when you spend them at a hilton. Here's the link www.hhonorscard.com

Hilton points can be redeemed for frequent flyer miles, free stays at hilton hotels, rental cars-you can even earn WDW park passes.

DH and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in two years. I already have enough frequent flyer miles for a trip and now I'm working on getting enough points for a 6 night stay at the Hilton Hawaaiian Village on Oahu. What a second honeymoon that would be!

 

[Coll0610]

We use the GM Mastercard, which earns us a rebate towards buying a GM card. We saved just over $2000 on our van in 1997. I'm not sure if we'll use the rebate we've accumulated since then or not. We may not buy another car for a while. The card has no annual fee.

We just got a State Farm Visa. No annual fee and they credit you 1% of your purchase in "State Farm dollars". When you get $50, you can redeem it towards an insurance premium or have it deposited in a State Farm Bank account. The State Farm Bank offers a free checking account so basically it's cash.

 

[wdwfanLisa]

I am about to change my primary credit card from a Hilton Honors Visa to a Southwest Airlines Platinum Visa. The Southwest Visa has a $59 annual fee, but comes with 4 SWcredits with your first purchase. I have not been happy with the time that it has taken to accrue HHpoints with the Visa. When I was finally ready to cash out and book a room this week, there were blackouts on the Hilton properties for the dates and city that I wanted. I had already ordered the SW Visa, but my experience trying to book a room sealed the deal. Lisa

 

[disneyberry]

question about Hilton card.
i saw on Epinions a review of a card called the Hilton Optima Card (Amex).
what's the difference between this and the HH Visa mentioned above?

i'm confused. (and stayed up too late... really gotta kick this DIS boards habit )

 

[JRoglitz]

Does anyone give points for signing up with the HH program or CC?

 

[LI Debbie]

disneyberry-here's the difference.

HH Visa gives you 10,000 pts after 1st purchase.
HH Optima gives you 7,500 pts on first purchase-2,500 additional points if you charge $2,500 in the first year.

HH Visa gives you 2 points for each dollar charged. HH Optima gives 3 points for each dollar charged. HH Visa gives 3 points per dollar spent at Hilton. HH Optima gives 5
Both are platinum cards, both have no annual fee.

The difference for me was that Visa is more universally accepted than Amex. You may find this not to be true where you shop. Just MHO.

JRoglitz-I've never seen any program that gives points for either the Hiton Honors Program or either one of these credit cards. I think I do remember seeing points given for the Amex blue card-think it was memolink-not sure.

 

[faithfull]

I use the American Airlines Advantage mastercard and I micro-manage all the programs. Everything I buy even insurance and utilities go on these cards. My family of 4 has flied completely free on 3 vacations. Every time they offer a program (like MCI) that offers points for a limited number of months I sign up. As soon as the big point pay offer period is over I quit. They then offer the points back to me in about a month to entice me to sign up again. It has definitely been worth the $50 annual fee for us. We get enough miles the entire family to fly in about a year and a half. (By the way, all our trips have been to WDW) You cannot carry a balance to make this work out for you. I have a second card set up that if a overdraw my checking it will automatically go onto this card. That way I never carry a balance on the American Card.

 

[Baileymouse]

I use American Express Membership Rewards. DH and I have flown free to San Antonio and Florida from EWR. I find that if I transfer in clickrewards and membership rewards to my Delta account it really adds up.

 

[Muffy]

I use sheraton am. exp. for free stays at the swan/dolphen. I also have a marriot visa that i use every week for just groceries. I get free hoppers with that card.

 

[Heidi]

I also use the GM Mastercard. 5% of my purchaces go towards a new GM car. I realy like this one. The points will expire after 7 years I belive. But of course it takes a while to build them up. There is a limit on how many 'points' you can use depending on what kind of car.

Heidi

 

[OhMickey]

Hi Coll0610,

I was surprised to hear the State Farm has a credit card. We are from Normal and although my husband does not work for SF, most of our friends/neighbors do.

Do you call your agent and ask for an application?

Thanks for the info!

 

[Wheelsie]

I have a Mypoints mastercard....and just about anytime we do anything that isnt within the constraints of our debit card...we use it....that way I can points everytime we spend!

 

[Beanie]

We use the GM Mastercard or Mypoints card...with either, you can't really lose!!

 

[WDWorBUST]

Have you had any trouble with Mypoints crediting you? I have only had the card for one billing cycle so far, but they didn't credit the sign-up points - I had to email them about that - finally got them. Then they said purchase points should appear 10 days after the close of my billing cycle and after over two weeks I finally emailed them about those. I finally got a response today that they had been credited and should show up in my account in 5 days. (It took them over a week after there "someone should be back to you within 24 hours auto email" to do that. My question is am I going to have to fight this battle every billiing cycle? It may very well be worth it in the end, but that is just ridiculous. Am I the only one who has had problems??

 

[Glory Days]

We use the continental airlines visa card for everything. So far we had two free family trips down to Disney, and another for all 5 of us to go to Hawaii. Also have Amex Membership Rewards which I hope will add up for rooms at S/D. That one does have a fee though.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Anyone have any input on the Mypoints mastercard?? Just curious about others experiences with them.

 

[Wheelsie]

As I posted (unless it got deleted LOL) I have the MyPoints Mastercard and JUST LOVE IT!! Whatever ya want to know Id be happy to answer just either post it here....email me.....or PM me (I don't get enuff PMs )

Just caught a question from you...I actually have had no probs getting my points to show...yes it may take a while...but I personally have never noticed that it does

 

[adrien32]

We have an Amex card that gives us Sheraton points. We love the program.

 

[JRoglitz]

We just sign up for the American Express Blue card with no annual fee and they have a program called Blue Loot. You get one point for every dollar spent and they have a reward for 3500 points of a free Disney Character Breakfast. Just thought I would let you know.