which credit card rewards?

[drcmk]

Can anyone recommend a card that lets you earn airline miles?

 

[DMRick]

But recently, I started using the Citibank card that gives 5% back in CASH for gas, groceries, and pharmacy purchases and 1% for everything else - up to $300 a year. Once I get to the $300 threshold, I will start using my Disney Card again.

Remember, you can get one for you, and a totally separate one for your hubby. That means $600 a year. I was told by someone it's a calendar year, Jan - Dec. I haven't had it long enough to know for sure, but if so, I'll get to start over again in January!!! I love getting the checks back, instead of reducing the payment. It feels more like money LOL!
At & T also gave me, from May until Sept, 5% off restaurants, hotels, and airfare. That's been a honey! In Disney, we get the 20% off with our dining card, and another 5% off the total restaurant bill, including the tax and tip!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I just recently got the American Express blue. I have had it a 2 months and I don't know why but they haven't given me any reward point?

 

[BethR]

Remember, you can get one for you, and a totally separate one for your hubby. That means $600 a year.

Ahhhh Doris. So tempting. But I think that we got ourselves into trouble a year or so ago for always getting new cards with great balance transfer rates (yes, we do have carry a balance on one account - but only 1.99% until we pay it off ) and then cancelling the old accounts. I am not sure that I really understood it, but it was really upsetting when we got an application DENIAL! I have been trying not to apply for new accounts (well, until I did the Citibank thing and then at Home Depot when we thought that we were going to buy AC from them and we could have gotten 6 months same as cash ). But this is soooo tempting. $300!!!

Well(I am thinking out loud here) if it is in a calendar year, then we can get the $300 on my account this year, then again for next year, and then when we are close to being done with that, apply THEN for one for DH.

We'll have to see...

 

[MKCP5]

Bump

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I just checked again today and within a week I now have reward points It looks like I get one reward point for every dollar spent.

 

[NancyIL]

Are you sure that you get 1% immediately on purchases? I just got my Discover bill today and on $78 in purchases, I only got $.20! I know that I don't use it much - primarily for purchases at Sam's Club, so I think that is why we don't get the full 1%.
I would rather use a card that gives me 1% from the get go!

You get only .25% for warehouse club purchases on Discover. Our Sam's Club accepts ONLY Discover Card. Also...there is a Sam's Discover Card that pays up to 1% at Sam's Club (based on tiered amounts of spending), and if you have a preferred Sam's membership, the Sam's Discover Card gives up to 2% back. http://pressroom.discovercard.com/data/articles/2005/03/15/200503161258210.shtml

 

[NancyIL]

Can anyone recommend a card that lets you earn airline miles?

Yes! We have the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card from American Express: http://www66.americanexpress.com/ca...8492/236140734700/20/n&from=0&mgmID=undefined

There is no annual fee the first year, and $30 after that. You earn 1 point per dollar, and 20,000 points = 25,000 airline miles on MOST airlines. (United is 2 points = 1 mile.) You can also use the points for free hotel nights at Starwood Hotels like Westin (WDW Swan), Sheraton (WDW Dolphin), W Hotels, and Four Points.

 

[MKCP5]

whoa baby! I guess I am clueless the swan and dolphin are owned by outside companies that you can use /collect points on?!!!!

 

[MKCP5]

anyone?

 

[disneysteve]

I think the best way to earn reward points is to combine an affinity credit card with a frequent guest program. We also travel a lot and we got a Marriott Visa. The points earned by staying at a Marriott get combined with the points earned by using the CC so points accumulate faster.

Someone mentioned Holiday Inn. We belong to that club but don't find it quite as useful because it takes longer to earn rewards. It is a minimum of 10,000 points for a free nite. With Marriott, free nites are as little as 5,000 points on a multi-nite stay so much easier to earn free travel.

With Marriott Rewards, you get ten points per dollar spent on Marriott charges. If you pay with a Marriott Visa, you get an additional 3 points per dollar spent for a total of 13 points per dollar spent. So if we spend 7 nites at a Marriott at $100/nite, we earn 9,100 points: enough for one free night and getting closer to 2 nites. They also do a lot of specials, double points promotions and tie-ins with other companies. We just rented a car in California for 2 weeks with Hertz. They gave a 20% rate discount and paid double Marriott points. You also earn 1% on all non-Marriott charges to the card.

ETA: I think you get 10,000 free points when you sign up, enough for at least one free nite.

 

[MKCP5]

Hi DisneySteve

So you are saying to combine a frequent stay program with the rewards you get from also carrying their credit card. Marriott is one the ones we are specifically wondering about because I have always been happy with my stays there. We just got back from Grande Vista in Orlando and it was wonderful!!! Do they often offer ways to get double points or anything? Like on groceries or gas or anything? We vacation 1-2 times a year, and do little or no business travel so it will take us a while to rack up rewards. The plan is to charge everything to that card an pay it off each month, so we can reap rewards faster. Thanks for your help!

 

[disneysteve]

Hi DisneySteve

So you are saying to combine a frequent stay program with the rewards you get from also carrying their credit card. Marriott is one the ones we are specifically wondering about because I have always been happy with my stays there.

Do they often offer ways to get double points or anything? Like on groceries or gas or anything? We vacation 1-2 times a year, and do little or no business travel so it will take us a while to rack up rewards. The plan is to charge everything to that card an pay it off each month, so we can reap rewards faster. Thanks for your help!

I don't recall them offering double points on everyday stuff like gas or groceries. But they will have double points promotions on hotel stays and other travel-related things like the car rental deal I mentioned. We've been known to do a 1-nite stay at a local hotel just to take advantage of doubling our points on an upcoming longer stay.

I don't know what your spending habits are like but we charge upwards of $2,000/month on our Marriott Visa. That alone earns us at least 25,000 reward points a year, good for up to 4 free nites (category 1 hotel). We charge everything we can: food, gas, utility and insurance bills, school fees, charitable donations, magazines, online purchases, travel of course, etc. Silly to pay cash for anything when you can charge it and get the reward points.

 

[MKCP5]

sorry to keep picking your brain here, but what does category one mean? I am assuming there are varying categories of resort. Category one being high or low?

 

[NancyIL]

whoa baby! I guess I am clueless the swan and dolphin are owned by outside companies that you can use /collect points on?!!!!

Yes, The Swan and Dolphin are NOT WDW-owned hotels: www.swandolphin.com They are in the Starwood family - www.spg.com When you're a Starwood member, you earn 2 Starpoints per dollar spent at a Starwood hotel - unless you are a Gold or higher level, and then you earn 3 points per dollar. It takes 10,000 Starwood points for 1 free night at the Swan or Dolphin. If you have enough points for 4 free nights (40,000 points), you get the 5th night free.

 

[disneysteve]

sorry to keep picking your brain here, but what does category one mean? I am assuming there are varying categories of resort. Category one being high or low?

Marriott Rewards goes from category 1 (starts at 7,500 points/nite) to category 7 (starts at 35,000 points/nite). Go to Marriott.com and click on the Marriott Rewards link and you can get all the info for how you earn points and how they can be redeemed. Points are also good for things other than hotel stays (like Disney park tickets, cruises, merchandise, etc.).

One nice thing about Marriott is that the number of points needed for a hotel stay decreases with each additional nite. For example, with Holiday Inn, one nite is 10,000, 2 nites are 20,000, 3 nites are 30,000, etc. With Marriott, one nite at a category one is 7,500, 2 nites are 14,000, 3 nites are 20,000, 4 nites are 25,000. That helps your points go farther. So you need 7,500 for nite one but only 5,000 each for nites 4 through 7. A 7-nite stay at Marriott is 40,000 points. The same 7-nites at Holiday Inn would be 70,000.

 

[MKCP5]

Okay, does anyone have the starwood amex? I can't seem to find out on their site whether there is a limit on how many points you can earn in a year.
TIA!

 

[NancyIL]

Okay, does anyone have the starwood amex? I can't seem to find out on their site whether there is a limit on how many points you can earn in a year.
TIA!

We do, and as far as I know, there's no limit to how many Starpoints you can earn.

We also have the Marriott Rewards Visa, and we have used the points for free hotel stays several times...most recently in London this summer. But you're going to rack up the same number of points on credit card purchases whether you use the Marriott Visa or the Starwood Amex. So, $20,000 charged to Starwood Amex gives you 20,000 points, which converts to 20,000 + 5,000 bonus airline miles, which equals one free domestic plane ticket on many major airlines. Those 20,000 Starwood points could also be used for 2 nights at the Swan or Dolphin, or as many as 10 nights in the lowest category Starwood property. $20,000 charged to the Marriott Visa gives you 20,000 points, which converts to 5,000 airline miles. It's not enough points for even 1 night at a property comparable to the Swan or Dolphin.

 

[MKCP5]

okay, just one more question! Do you have any trouble using AMEX vs. a m/c or visa? I've never had an amex, but I know it used to be many many places did not take it. I will be using it for groceries, gas, ordinary things to work for rewards, not hotels etc, much.

 

[NancyIL]

Hi DisneySteve

So you are saying to combine a frequent stay program with the rewards you get from also carrying their credit card. Marriott is one the ones we are specifically wondering about because I have always been happy with my stays there. We just got back from Grande Vista in Orlando and it was wonderful!!! Do they often offer ways to get double points or anything? Like on groceries or gas or anything? We vacation 1-2 times a year, and do little or no business travel so it will take us a while to rack up rewards. The plan is to charge everything to that card an pay it off each month, so we can reap rewards faster. Thanks for your help!

Both the Marriott Visa and the Starwood AMEX have from time to time awarded double points for purchases over a certain amount per billing cycle, but it's usually a high dollar amount. It also varies from customer to customer. You would earn 1 point per dollar for the first $1000 (for example) charged in a billing cycle, then double points for everything over that amount.