credit cards

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Last Updated: Sunday, 16 June 2024 15:40
Published: Sunday, 30 August 2020 20:26
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Credit cards:

There is nothing like a perfect credit card, that you will give you the highest cashback for all your purchases. Best credit cards keep on changing, depending on what you are planning to purchase using your credit cards. Below website lists all current offers for credit cards:

https://www.creditcards.com/

NOTE: You will never get the best offers on above site. Some of the best offers are ones that you get via mail.However, it's always good to check above link, to see if they have anything better.

Before we get into the offers, let's get some basics.

Processor: Credit cards are issued by banks, but they are processed by separate companies. These companies take some cut for processing credit cards. There are 4 main credit card processors.

1. Master card (MC) and VISA => MC and VISA are biggest processors, and most of the cards that you get have either MC logo or VISA logo. They are accepted everywhere, where credit cards are accepted.

3. American Express (AMEX) => Company AMEX issues it's own credit cards and processes them without using Visa or MC network. AMEX cards are not accepted everywhere as they charge higher fees (more in the range of 3% - 4%) from merchants.

4. Discover => Company Discover issues it's own credit cards and processes them without using Visa or MC network. Discover cards are not accepted everywhere as they charge higher fees (more in the range of 3% - 4%) from merchants.

Issuer: These are the large Credit card companies that issue them. You can find a lot of smaller banks also issuing credit cards with good offers. However such banks are fewer in number. Best bet is to stick with these banks, and keep on getting different credit cards with these banks.

  1. Chase => Issues both MC and VISA cards (They are using VISA for most of their cards). chase has a 24/5 rule that says that your application for chase credit card will be declined if in the last 2 year period, you have opened 5 or more credit cards with any issuer. So, make sure you meet that criteria before applying for chase credit cards. Getting declined will still ding your credit score.
  2. Citi => Issues both MC and VISA cards. They also have good offers from time to time.
  3. Bank of America (BAC) => Issues both MC and VISA cards. They offer $300 or so for new card sign up, so you can potentially make $500. These are not that useful. They rank among the lowest along with Wells Fargo card when it comes to making money. Not sure about their card churning policy either?FIXME?. Their dispute resolution policy is also not straight forward. To file a dispute for any charge on your credit card, they make you run through a lot of hoops. Credit cards like "Discover" and "chase" are much better in dispute resolution. In my opinion, all BAC cards are junk. I would avoid these BAC cards altogether.
  4. Wells Fargo Company (WFC) => Issues both MC and VISA cards. Wells Fargo cards are always inferior in terms of bonus and cashback compared to other cards. WFC cards rank the same as BAC cards, when it comes to making money off them. So, don't even bother looking at WFC cards.
  5. Capital One => Issues both MC and VISA cards. I have seen some offers from them in past. But beware that their points are worth a lot less, if you convert to cash. so, if they advertise 2% cash back in point, it's more like 1% cash back. You sign up mostly for the sign on bonus.
  6. American Express (AMEX)  => Issues AMEX cards. All Amex cards are once per lifetime per card when it comes to sign on bonus. So, once you have gotten a sign on bonus for one kind of card, you cannot get sign on bonus for it ever again, no matter when you cancelled that card. So, be careful when biting on amex card offers. They have to be the best offer yet for that card. One good perk of any amex card is that have "offers" available from time to time, which offer you some discount for purchasing from certain stores. You can log onto your amex card website, and click on "offers" to see all available offers. These offers have an expiry date, and you have to add an offer to be eligible for that offer. Every month, I see there are 1-2 offers that are lucrative. Amex is pretty prompt at issuing you bonus credit, usually in a couple of days. You should log into your amex card website atleast once a month to mkae sure you sign up for any new offers. You can find these offers on slickdeals.net too. I'll post some of these offers in "deals" section. I'll have more details below for each individual card.
    • Offers: Many of the offers on Amex cards refer to buying from specific category of merchants, department stores, supermarkets, etc. Here's a link that categorizes this (directly from Amex): https://www.americanexpress.com/us/rewards-info/retail.html
    • Annual Fees: Many Amex cards charge an annual fee. This is charged every 12 months. With American Express you get option to use the card for next 30 days even after the annual fee charged. That means, if you cancel the card within 30 days from the annual fee charge date; American Express will still refund the full annual fee. (this comed directly from Amex Chat). Very imp to cancel within 30 days.
  7. Discover => Issues Discover cards. These are a must have card, since they offer generous sign on offers, cash back, and great customer service. They can be churned every few years, so it's easy $700 to $800 every few years for every card holder. However, their biggest drawback is that they don't offer any benefits discussed below.

Benefits offered by credit cards:

Different credit cards offer different benefits. Mostly cards issued by same processor offer similar benefits no matter who is the issuer of the card, as the benefits are provided by the processor and not the issuer. As an ex, VISA cards offered by BAC and Chase will have similar benefits as they are both issued by Visa, with some exceptions. However, more expensive cards offered by Chase may offer more benefits than cheaper cards offered by Chase even though both of them are Visa. Here, extra benefits may be provided by Chase in order to lure customers into buying more expensive credit cards, which require a annual fee. We'll talk about the benefits of each of these cards individually when talking about that card. Before 2018, almost all credit card companies used to provide a lot of benefits for purchase protection, extended warranty, etc, but they are mostly all gone now. Few of the protections offered by Credit Cards are:

1. Purchase protection: They protect against any accidental damage to your product for any reason for up to a certain number of months from your purchase date. Say you spill water on your laptop, and the laptop is dead now. If you paid for this item in it's entirety with a credit card that offers this protection, then you will get your laptop fixed or replaced by the credit card company. You have to call them and file a ticket within the allowed time frame. Really helpful if you have rough kids around. You will be surprised when you break something by accident, and you get a full efund on the purchase amount !!

2. Extended Warranty: This provided extended warranty o top of standard warranty provided by the manufacturer. Since manufacturer warranty covers manufacturing related defects only, and not accidental or wear and tear damage, the same warranty with same terms is extened by the credit card. Most of the times it's an extra 1 year of warranty on top of manufacturer's warranty.

3. Auto rental collision damage coverage: Most of the credit card companies provide rental car collision insurance which covers your rental car's damage up to the value of the car (or some have a maximum limit as $50K etc). This is a really good perk to have, as then you don't need Auto car rental "collision insurance". The insurance provided by Auto rental companies is really expensive, and there is no need to pay for it. You will be covered under your credit card "rental coverage", in case of an accident. Decline the rental company's collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. Coverage is secondary to your personal insurance, meaning whatever your personal auto insurance doesn't cover is covered by your credit card. NOTE: this insurance doesn't provide liability insurance, meaning damage to other car or medical bills of people injured will still need to be covered by your regular Auto insurance (you will still need to keep liability insurance thru your regular auto insurance as that's the law in most states).

4. Trip cancellation/Interruption Insurance: This benefit from credit card covers you if your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations. It wil reimburse you up to the value of the ticket, for any losses in incurred. So, if you were planning to take "trip cancellation" insurance directly thru your carrier, just decline that. Pay with your eligible credit card and you will atomatically be covered. Read the fine print though (you will need some form of Doctor's certification for illness stating that travel is not safe for you)

5. Foreign transaction fee: Most credit card companies in USA charge a foreign transaction fee, if you make a purchase in any currency other than US dollar. It's usually 3% of the transaction price (i.e price of the item you are buying). The conversion rate is usually good, as it's based on the market rate found in some financial journal (varies from card to card). In the past, the cards would make up their own conversion rates, but now the rates being tied to some "published" rates, they are no longer able to do that. So, the only money you lose is 3%, which isn't that bad, since you'll lose 1%-2% anyway if you make currency conversion yourself at a bank or some other institution. Common examples of where you see this foreign transaction fees is few ebay purchases within USA (as some of them are canadian companies and charge in canadian dollars), some groupon purchases for services in other countries, international trip to other countries, few airline tickets, etc. So, wherever possible, pay in USD to avoid this fees. There are a few cards which don't charge "foreign transaction fees", so if you do a lot of international transactions, so get these cards.

6. Liability/Dispute for charges: This is where you can dispute any charge if you aren't satisfied with the product or the service that you purchased. Depending on the card, they may offer you anywhere from 2 months to 6 months after a charge is posted to your account to dispute it. There are 2 types of disputes allowed:

  1. Unauthorized Purchases: This is where you say that never made a purchase, and somebody got your credit card number and used it to purchase something on your card. The card company will immediately cancel the card, refund you the money while they investigate the case. This usually goes much quicker in getting resolved.
  2. Unsatisfactory purchase/service: This is where you dispute the charge stating that the merchant didn't provide the product or service that was acceptable to you. With some cards you have to provide detailed notes on what happened.

With both of these disputes, credit cards give the merchant 30-60 days to respond about the charge. If they don't respond within that time frame or their response is unacceptable, then you get to keep the credit for the reversed charge. Chase is the best card to have  when disputing charges, as they put the onus of proving that the charge is legitimate on the merchant. On the contrary some cards like Disocover, Citi and Amex give customers a hard time. I had a really bad experience with Discover, where they wanted me to provide all the proof for reversing a $10 charge that was disputed. Discover rep spent hours with me trying to justify that the charge is legitimate. Eventually I ended up cancelling the card. At these times, having a good card can save your mental and financial well being. Keep a card like Chase when you are making big item purchases as airline tickets, car rental, furniture, appliances, Gift cards, etc. Small expenses for groceries, drugs, etc can go on any credit card.

6. Other benefits: There are myriad of other benefits provided by credit cards, which are  provided by almost all credit cards. Some of these benefits are: Fraud Protection. 24/7 customer service, zero liability protection, free credit scores, roadside help (for a fee, not free), travel/emergency help (for a fee, not free), etc. These benefits are so standard, that I don't even consider them benefits anymore.

Here are the general benefits from different card processors as of Dec, 2020.

1. Visa/MC: Depending on the card issuer and the type of card, extended warranty may be offered. Purchase protection also varies depending on the issuer. Chase is most lenient in this as most of their "no fees" card offer both of these benefits. In fact, Chase is the only issuer which offers all the benefits listed above on almost all of it's no fees cards on top of their excellent service for "disputed" charges. So, you should definitely make any travel or shopping related large purchase on a Chase card if you have one. Visa/MC usually charge "foreign transaction fees" on most cards, but few travel cards, don't have this fees. It varies from issuer and card type.

UPDATE: Feb 1st, 2021: Visa no longer offers these benefits. So, most of the Visa cards won't offer them either. With these protections gone, Visa cards are basically useless for any large purchase or for booking your next rental car.

  • Extended Warranty => No extra warranty.
  • Purchase Protection => No accidental protection
  • Auto Rental Insurance => No collision insurance. Do NOT book any rental car with Visa card assuming Visa is covering that.

EXCEPTION: Chase Visa cards are an exception, as they still offer all 3 protections above. Look in Chase card section.

2. Amex: Amex cards provide extended warranty for 1 extra year, provided the warranty doesn't exceed 5 years when combined with the original warranty that came with the product. However, this extended warranty is only offered on cards which have a annual fees. Most of the cards that have no annual fee don't offer this benefit. When it comes to purchase protection, all Amex cards offer at least 90 days of purchase protection, so it's little worse than Chase cards. It would be wise to make large appliance/electronic purchases on Chase cards instead of Amex cards. AMEX usually charge "foreign transaction fees" on most cards, but few travel cards, don't have this fees. It varies from card to card.

Benefits link: www.americanexpress.com/benefitsguide

3. Discover: Discover cards are lowest in rank when it comes to benefits. They don't provide any purchase protection nor any extended warranty on any product that you purchase using their card. They used to provide purchase protection and extended warranty but closed it in 2018. Their claim process for "disputed charges" is not customer friendly either. This is a big bummer for Discover cards, especially when you are buying expensive items. So, my advice would be to not put any of those expensive appliances, electronics or airline tickets on discover, there are better cards for those. The only advantage that discover cards provide over most other cards, is that they have "NO foreign transaction fee". But again, Discover cards aren't accepted at all internationally, so the whole point becomes moot. I've traveled to couple of countries outside USA, and Discover card wasn't accepted at any merchant over there.

 

Risks of credit cards:

Credit cards carry risks, the biggest being missing the due date. These are some of the risks:

  • Late fees: They will not only charge a late fees of $40 on missing minimum payment by due date, but also impose very high interest rate. Your credit score will also take a hit, as it gets reported as late pament. Always setup an ACH for auto payment of full amount to avoid this.
  • Cash Advance: Cash advances are not only charged 5% fees, but also a > 20% interest. Cash Advances occurs not only when you take out cash from a credit card, but also happen in lot of upexpected places, most common being using credit cards for bank account funding. You should always set cash advance limit as $0 to avoid such fees.
  • Annual Fees: Cards with an annual fees should be closed before your card renews for next year. Most credit cards will refund you the annual fees, if you cancel the card within 30 days of renewal.
  • Foreign Transaction fees: See above. Avoid these by using a card which doesn't charge this fees.

 

How many Credit cards should you open in a year:

Credit cards do a hard pull of your credit, which results in some points getting knocked off your credit score. Also, this account opening activity remains on your credit report for 2 years. So, you have to be mindful of how many credit cards you open in a year. I've seen that 2-3 credit cards a year is the sweet spot. Your credit score remains unaffected or may even go up if you open just 2 or at most 3 credit cards a year. Remember to close your older credit cards as you open new ones. this may cause your credit score to go down a little. That's OK as it will come back up, after the new credit card has been open for a while.

Remember that some of the credit cards allow you to have that card once in a lifetime, while some others allow you to have the same credit card every couple of years. This is called credit card churning where people open a credit card, use it for all the sign on bonus and other offers. then they close the credit card, and apply for the same credit card again after a couple of years to get the sign on bonus again. However, be careful when you apply for "once per lifetime" credit card, as you have only one chance to bite on them. Most Amex and Chase credit cards offer bonus only once in a lifetime (though different versions of same card under different names [when they re-brand the card, they give a new name to the card, and get rid of the old name) still qualify for bonus). Get these only when you think they have offered their best offer.

How much can you make from Credit cards:

Credit cards give you both sign up bonus as well as introductory low interest rate or high cash back on your purchases. Best cards are the ones that offer you the highest sign up bonus, because that is where you make most money. The worst credit cards are the ones that you give you 0% APR as 0% APR for a year would save you may be at most $100 or so. There are also Balance Transfer cards that allow you to transfer balance from one card to another. These are useless cards, as you will never make more than $100 on these cards after accounting for all the interest that you save. No card will offer you very large cash back on all your purchases, so choose a card based on which one you think you can maximize the most. 

My target is to make at least $500 from each credit card every year on spending $5K or less on the card. This translates to 10% cashback on  all purchases . This may seem like a very high target to shoot for, but it's possible to do that. This can usually happen with credit cards that offer you sign on bonus for signing up. Only spend the minimum amount on that card that is needed to earn bonus, and then move on to other credit card. Cards which have a large sign on bonus usually have an annual fees, but from time to time they waive these fees. You can safely apply for 2-3 credit cards per year. If married, your spouse can apply for 2-3 credit cards too, resulting in 4-5 credit cards per year. I would restrict to 4 credit cards a year in total if 2 of you are in this business together. Assuming you don't spend more than $25K/year on credit cards, you can easily expect to make about $2K-$3K per year in credit card bonuses among 4 credit cards. Your major purchases using credit card should be all your medical bills ($5K/year), property tax bills ($5K - $10K/year, they may charge fees), utility bills ($3K/ year), insurance bills ($2K/year), grocery bills ($5K/year), auto/gas bills ($2K/year), misc bills ($2K/year).

No matter, what credit card you get with whatever sign on bonus and with whatever % cashback, the total cashback that you can get from a credit card does not exceed $600 in a year. This is based on my personal experience over the last 10 years. So, we'll try to get at least $500 from each credit card sign up, so that with 4 credit cards in a year (for 2 of you if you are married or living together), we can make at least $2K/year per household. Also, I never sign up for any credit card, that doesn't waive the annual fees for the first year (assuming it charges you annual fees). It's just not worth trying to make money off it. Some people are able to do it, but at that point the measly returns don't justify the labor involved. Let's keep it simple.

 

Redemption of credit card reward points:

Most of the credit cards allow you to redeem points as cash, gift cards or travel purchase thru their portal.

  • Travel tickets: Redeeming points via their travel portal usually gives you higher redemption rate, but the prices are all jacked up on their travel portal. So, check for prices before you get lured into getting a deal on flights. "Chase travel" usually have same fares as other travel websites,  so if you have a card that pays 25% or 50% more in redemption, then it's worth it.
  • Cash: Getting outright cash for your points looks to be the easiest way to convert points to dollars, but this conversion is usually at a low rate. Some credit cards allow you to redeem at 1 cent per point (i.e Chase, Discover), so in that case it's OK, but some others penalize you heavily when converting to cash (i.e American Express).
  • Statement Credit: This option is not allowed by all cards, but more and more credit cards are doing this (Capital One, Chase do it for sure). Under this option, they allow points to be used as statement credit. You usually get conversion similar to cash, so if "Cash" is an option, then then just go with cash.
    • Pay yourself back: This is another option that is offered by Chase card on some of it's cards (i.e Freedom, etc). It's particularly beneficial as they will offer you like 10%-20% more when using it for statement credit for certain categories as grocery, department stores, etc. You just buy Visa MC at grocery store normally using your card, and then online you will see the option of applying points to that purchase. You effectively get 10%-20% more cash for your points. This is lot better than redeeming for cash, with no downside. The only downside is that you are limited to $500 of purchase or something every time the offer comes up. Most of the time they offer very lame categories as Charities, etc for which none of your transactions qualify.
  • Gift cards: Sometimes you will get much better redemption rate when converting your points to giftcards, We'll see in next section if it's worth converting points to GC.

Gift Card redemption:

You will see the option of redeeming credit card points with gift cards. I would say a big "NO". Why? Because the discount is not worth it, most of the times. They will offer a maximum of 20% discount on these gift cards. These are usually crap GC like dining places, overpriced apparel stores, etc. You can always buy these gift cards at 20% off anywhere else also. So, why lock up your money in these gift cards, when you don't know when are you going to use it? Also, see my section on "gift cards" to be aware of all the troubles that gift cards bring with them. On top of that, if these gift cards ever get hacked or have incorrect amount, the credit card company will hold no liability. They are off the hook as soon as they give you the gift card. There are people who have gotten $0 gift cards, and they fight for months with the credit card company with no resolution. Just take cash , and use it whatever way you want. You don't lose anything since you can often buy those gift cards at 20% discount at places like grocery stores, amazon, payapl, walgreens, etc.

However there are some exceptions, where these credit card companies will give you 20% off of some good GC as Lowes, CVS, Home Depot, etc. That's the time to bite on these GC. Also, some credit cards give you a lower rate when you convert rewards to cash (i.e american express). Amex gives you lot lower cash back rate on redemption, so GC are the only option. Amex usually have offers around Thanksgiving and then again around memorial day (I think, they have it no more than 2 times per year). In such cases, wait for 20% off offer on good GC, and convert all your points to GC. Home Depot GC usually come at 20% discount, so use your points on that, Always get physical GC if possible. I think they have a lower chance of being hacked (just my hunch). All my GC that have ever gotten hacked have been electronic GC (mostly ones bought from Paypal and letting them sit.

 

Best Credit Cards: Below are some of the best credit cards. These offers are usually available, but in separate section below, I'll list current credit card offers going on.

 

  • Discover credit card: This is one of the best cards to have. They have no annual fees. You can easily make $800+ from this card on $8K in purchases yielding you cash back of 10% or more. Their offer is the same all year round, so you can apply anytime of the year, instead of waiting for any offer. You can apply for discover card every couple of years after you close your last Discover credit card, so this is a churn able card. $800/year is the highest amount of money that you can make on any credit card in a year, so this is definitely a card you would want to have. More details here: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards
    • It used to give you $150 to $200 sign on bonus, but I haven't seen any sign on bonus in the last couple of years. Most likely because they have started matching cashback for 1st year, which more than makes up for the sign on bonus.
    • They also have 0% APR for 15 billing cycles, which assuming $6K balance on credit card for a year, which may amount to about $25-$50 in extra interest income.
    • This card gives you 1% cashback on all purchases, as well as 5% cashback each quarter on rotating categories. They will match cashback 100% for the first year. 5% rotating categories for each year are the ones where you could spend $1500 each quarter for maximum $75 cashback each quarter. So, you will net $300*2=$600 for 1st year. You can actually get match for 1st 5 quarters, so you can make $375*2=$750 on $7.5K for 1st years. This happens because they match cashback for 1 year from the date you are approved. So, unless you applied at the end of quarter or start of quarter, you can actually get 5 quarters in a year. I generally apply for discover card in middle of a quarter so that I'm guaranteed cash back match for 5 quarters. Their 5% rotating category calendar is announced every year in October for the next year. So, you can check that calendar to see if you can maximize it. I have been always been able to maximize all 4 quarters every year for maximum cashback. Below are the 5% calendars for each year:
    • 2024 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Restaurants, Drug stores): Drug stores are back. Useful to buy GC. See 2020 1st qtr for details
      • 2nd quarter (Gas Stations/EV charging, home improvement stores, public transit): Gas is an OK category to use.
      • 3rd quarter (Walmart (both store/online) and Grocery stores) => Walmart included for first time ever. May buy Amex serve GC from Walmart instore, since these are still accepted online at few places. Vanilla GC (Visa/MC) are mostly declined on online purchases.
      • 4th quarter: (): xxx.
    • 2023 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery Stores, Drug stores, Streaming services): Similar to 2022 1st qtr, except Drug stores are back. See 2020 1st qtr for details
      • 2nd quarter (Wholesale Clubs, Restaurants): Useful for Wholesale Club as Sam's Club. See 2020 2nd qtr for details.
      • 3rd quarter (Gas Stations/EV charging, digital wallet purchase as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay): Useless for me as I don't use digital wallets. Gas is useful category to use. NOTE: purchases inside gas stations also count as gas purchases, so buy Gas GC inside the gas stations to use later (Circle K sells gas cards, check others on your area).
      • 4th quarter: (amazon.com and target stores/online): Useful as target $500 GC can be bought (during 10% target GC sale on Thanksgiving).
    • 2022 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery Stores, Fitness club, gym memberships): Inferior to 2020 offer for 1st quarter (Drug stores not there any more). See 2020 1st qtr for details
      • 2nd quarter (Gas stations and Target): Inferior to 2020 offer for 2nd quarter. No, warehouse clubs to make 5% money in prepaid cards. Useless for this qtr. See 2020 2nd qtr for details.
      • 3rd quarter (Restaurants and Paypal): Same as 2020 offer for 3rd quarter. See 2020 3rd qtr for details
      • 4th quarter (amazon.com and digital wallets): Inferior to 2020 offer for 4th quarter as walmart and target are excluded. See 2020 4th qtr for details
    • 2021 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS): Same as 2020 offer for 1st quarter. See 2020 1st qtr for details
      • 2nd quarter (Gas stations, Wholesale Clubs, Streaming services): Same as 2020 offer for 2nd quarter. See 2020 2nd qtr for details
      • 3rd quarter (Restaurants and Paypal): Same as 2020 offer for 3rd quarter. See 2020 3rd qtr for details
      • 4th quarter (amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com): Same as 2020 offer for 4th quarter. See 2020 4th qtr for details
    • 2020 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS): Use at grocery or pharmacy stores to buy Visa or Amex GC. You will lose $15 for buying 3 of these @$500 each, but you still make $60. Don't buy MC gift cards, as they are regularly hacked. Visa and AMEX are relatively safer. However, the downside with Amex cards is that they aren't accepted everywhere, so just go with Visa cards.
      • 2nd quarter (Gas stations, Wholesale Clubs, Uber and Lyft): Use at Sam's Wholesale club to buy 3 Amex GC for $1500. You will lose $15 for buying 3 of these, but you still make $60. You won't be able to use discover at Costco instore since they don't accept discover card there. But you can still use the card online at costco.com. For both Sams club and Costco, you will need have membership with them. You can get membership for free almost all the times for Sam's club (It costs $45/year for membership, and a lot of coupons or portals give you $45 GC back. Some of the times, you can actually make money by signing up for a membership, usually on swagbucks.com or groupon.com. See in shopping and deals section). For Costco, I have seen membership as low as $20 after accounting for GC, but not since August 2022.
      • 3rd quarter (Restaurants and Paypal): Use paypal checkout at walmart.com, to buy $1500 worth of physical walmart GC and get it shipped to your address. This is little risky but I haven't seen walmart GC getting hacked. Use these GC for groceries or things that you don't need warranty on. If you are buying expensive electronics at walmart, I would suggest using actual credit card, since you are better protected in terms of warranty and returns)
      • 4th quarter (amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com): Buy $300 Target GC from target.com (when it goes for 10% discount on Black Friday, you are limited to $300, attempting to buy more will get your card invalidated), buy $1230 worth of target + amazon + walmart GC depending on where you are more likely to spend.
    • You don't want to buy GC with discover cash back rewards, since you can always buy GC at 20% discount during sale. Best thing is to take cash or apply it as account credit except when they have special offers. I never cash out my rewards for cash or account credit until I close my account. That way I always have rewards in my account. I wait for good offers to pop up to use my rewards. If nothing pops up by the time of closing, I then cash them out. Never happened, as they have 20% offers at least once a year.
    • If you can find an existing discover card member, he/she can refer you, and both of you will get $50 ($100 as of June 2022, see below) extra. If you don't know anyone who can refer you, you can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with your email addr, and I can refer you. You have to use the link on that same email addr that was sent to you by discover, else you won't get the bonus (and the referrer won't get the bonus either).
      • UPDATE: June 2022: Since the offers from Discover are getting worse each year, they are upping the referral bonus. Now they are giving $100 each to the referrer and the referred person until the end of 2023 (Initially it was until end of 2022, but looks like they extended it). So, contact me if you want to get the $100.   
    • No benefits for any purchase on this card. so, as mentioned above, do not use this card for expensive appliance or electronics purchases. Just for regular service payments, groceries, clothes, etc.

 

  • Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express: Amex regularly has pretty good offers on their credit cards. You just have to wait for the right time to bite. You can make about $1K or more on $12K in purchases in your first year. These are the highlights of this card:
    • They have $95 annual fees, which is generally waived for the 1st year. So, after the first year, you have to call them and ask them to waive the annual fees for next year. If they don't, just cancel the card, as it's not worth the $95 annual fee.
    • They also have $250 or more sign on bonus. I recently got a $300 sign on bonus (as of Aug, 2022)
    • The best part is high cash back of 6% in US super markets on up to $6K in purchases per calendar year. That amounts to $360 in rewards for that calendar year (NOT the first 12 months, but for whatever months are left in that calendar year ending on 31st Dec). So, let's say you get the card in August 2020, then you will get 6% on $6K spent from Aug 2020 to Dec 31, 2020. The 6% gets reset on 1st Jan, 2021, and now you get 6% again on your super market purchases for the rest of the year. If you cancel the card in August 2021, then you get 6% on total of $12K, and you didn't have to pay any annual fees (as you cancelled it right before renewal). Combining this $360*2 + $300 sign on bonus, you are looking at making $1K on $12K purchase. NOTE: Some online portals (thepointsguy.com, etc) claim that end and start of calendar year is your "monthly statement end date" for the month of January. That wasn't true for me. Calendar year resets on 1st Jan, so plan accordingly. 
    • They have a 0% APR for 1st 12 months. This itself can make you ~$100's in interest.
    • Benefits: As noted earlier, Amex cards are inferior to Chase in terms of benefits. Their benefits are more or less useless, except for Auto rental coverage.
      • Auto Rental collision coverage: Can provide coverage for Damage to or Theft of a Rental Vehicle in a Covered Territory when You use Your Eligible Card to reserve and pay for an Entire Rental.
      • Shoprunner: Get free 2-day shipping on eligible items at a growing network of 100+ online stores with ShopRunner. Enroll in complimentary membership as a benefit of your eligible Card. This is not really that great of a perk, as very few retailers offer Shoprunner as an option.
      • Return Protection: Your Covered Purchases can be returned to Amex if the merchant refuses to take it back, for up to 90 days from the Covered Purchase date. This is not the same as Purchase Protection provided by other Amex cards.
      • Purchase Protection: Your Covered Purchases can be covered when they're accidentally damaged or stolen for up to 90 days from the Covered Purchase date. Looks like this is still active on this card (in addition to return protection).
      • Extended Warranty: It offers 1 yr extended warranty for items having original maufacturer warranty of 5 yrs or less. It has the sameterms as original Manufacturer warranty.
      • Amex Offers: This is one the best perks of Amex cards. They will usually have $100 or more in offers every year. You have to activate the offer and then use it, in order to get credit. Since this is a card with fees, you may get better offers on this card.

       
  • Blue Cash Everyday card from American Express: This card is a mutated version of the Preferred card. It has lower benefits, but has no annual fees. You can make about $600 or more on $12K in purchases in your first year. These are the highlights of this card:
    • They have no annual fees.
    • They also have $250 or more sign on bonus. You will usually see $100 or $200 sign on offer, so don't bite on it yet until you get at least $250.
    • They have lower cash back of 3% in US super markets on up to $6K in purchases. That amounts to $180 in rewards for current year and $180 rewards for next year. As I explained in "Blue Cash Preferred Amex" card above, their cycle runs on calendar year, so you can get 3% for current year, and then 3% again next year. Max out for both years. There's no reason to cancel this card, as it has no annual fees. However, no reason to hold it either :) So, just cancel it after a year and look for churning more cards.
    • They have a 0% APR for 1st 12 or 15 months.
    • Benefits: As noted earlier, Amex cards are inferior to Chase in terms of benefits. Their benefits are more or less useless, except for Auto rental coverage.
      • Auto Rental collision coverage: Can provide coverage for Damage to or Theft of a Rental Vehicle in a Covered Territory when You use Your Eligible Card to reserve and pay for an Entire Rental.
      • Shoprunner: Get free 2-day shipping on eligible items at a growing network of 100+ online stores with ShopRunner. Enroll in complimentary membership as a benefit of your eligible Card. This is not really that great of a perk, as very few retailers offer Shoprunner as an option.
      • Purchase Protection: Your Covered Purchases can be covered when they're accidentally damaged or stolen for up to 90 days from the Covered Purchase date.
      • Amex Offers: This is one the best perks of Amex cards. They will usually have $100 or more in offers every year. You have to activate the offer and then use it, in order to get credit. Since this is a no fees card, don't expect to get too many offers on this card.

 

  • Chase Freedom Flex Card: This is a very good credit card from Chase bank. Almost everyone has it, as getting approved for this is pretty easy. There used to be the "Chase Freedom card" earlier, but Chase discontinued it, and instead started offering this new credit card, which is very similar to the older "Chase Freedom Card". This card is one of those "once in a lifetime card". So, once you apply for this card and are approved, you can never get the bonus again by churning (re applying) it. So, it's better to just keep this card forever, and never cancel it. This is one of those rare cards, that you want to keep forever, since they offer all the benefits that you usually want in a credit card. So, when you don't know which card to use when making an expensive purchase, use this card, as it will have you covered, in case something goes wrong with the purchase.These are the highlights of this card:
    • They offer $200 sign on bonus
    • 0% APR for 15 months (about $50 in interest income assuming you can put that money in bank at 1%)
    • You get 5% cashback on grocery store purchases (stores like Kroger, HEB, Randalls, etc, but NOT walmart, target, etc) on upto $12K for your first year only. This can net about $600 assuming you spend all of $12K the first year. You can buy Visa or Amex prepaid cards to meet $12K in purchases.
    • You get 5% cashback in rotating categories for each quarter, just like Discover's rotating quarterly categories. they release quarterly categories just 2 weeks before the start of the quarter, so it's little harder to plan. discover releases their quarterly categories for next year by Oct of current year, which is nice. This 5% stacks with the 5% cashback on grocery store bonus, if grocery stores are the rotating category for that quarter, for a total of 9% in cash back (as 4% extra cash back is offered, so total is 9% and NOT 10%). You can make about $300 per year here. Below are the 5% calendars for each.
    • 2024 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery stores, Fitness, gym, spa memberships): Grocery stores useful. See 2020 2nd qtr for details.
      • 2nd quarter (Select hotel bookings, restaurants, amazon.com) :
      • 3rd quarter: (Gas stations/EV charging, Live Entertainment and movie theatres): same as Q3 from last year.
      • 4th quarter: (): xxx
    • 2023 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery stores, Target, gym memberships): Grocery stores useful. See 2020 2nd qtr for details.
      • 2nd quarter (Amazon and Lowes): Amazon is offered by so many cards and so many times throughout the year, that is isn't that useful anymore. You may use Lowes to buy Visa/MC/Amex GC, or other 3rd party GC
      • 3rd quarter: (Gas stations/EV charging, Live Entertainment): Useless category. Gas may be useful to some.
      • 4th quarter: (Paypal, wholsesale clubs, select charities): Good to stock up on GCfrom wholesale clubs, or buy Walmart Gc using paypal on walmart.com.
    • 2022 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Grocery stores and ebay): Similar to other credit cards, use your card to buy prepaid Visa cards inside grocery stores.  ebay is useless.
      • 2nd quarter (Amazon and streaming services): Amazon is offered by so many cards and so many times throughout the year, that is isn't that useful anymore.
      • 3rd quarter: (gas stations, rental car companies, movie theatres and select live entertainment). This qtr mostly geared towards travel. Useless for people who don't plan to travel
      • 4th quarter (walmart and paypal): Same as 2020 offer for 4th quarter. See 2020 4th qtr for details
    • 2021 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Wholesale Clubs, Internet, Cable and phone services, streaming services): New category of wholesale clubs added as compared to 2020. Use it to pay bill for your AT&T, spectrum, Tmobile, Verizon, etc. I pay the maximum amount allowed. AT&T internet service only allows you to opay a max of $300 in advance but T-mobile allows you to pay any amount in advance. So, use up all of $1500 dollars to pay in advance. There's no risk involved. If you cancel the service any time for any of these providers, you will get a check for the unused portion of your money. So, you still get the cashback. Chase card can be used inside Sam's club or online at Costco. You can use it to buy physical Amex cards at Sam's club stores or to buy costco GC online.
      • 2nd quarter (Home improvement stores and Gas stations): There's a Lowes offer for getting free $15 Lowes GC with $200 of Visa prepaid card. Use all of $1500 on that.
      • 3rd quarter: (Paypal and streaming services). Use paypal to buy walmart gift card or other shopping items at walmart.com. I don't know of any other safe place where you can use paypal to buy GC of any store.
      • 4th quarter (walmart and paypal): Same as 2020 offer for 4th quarter. See 2020 4th qtr for details
    • 2020 calendar:
      • 1st quarter (Gas stations, Internet, Cable and phone services, streaming services): Use it to pay bill for your AT&T, spectrum, Tmobile, Verizon, etc. I pay the maximum amount allowed. AT&T internet service only allows you to opay a max of $300 in advance but T-mobile allows you to pay any amount in advance. So, use up all of $1500 dollars to pay in advance. There's no risk involved. If you cancel the service any time for any of these providers, you will get a check for the unused portion of your money. So, you still get the cashback.
      • 2nd quarter (Grocery stores, Fitness club and gym memberships, Streaming services): Use it at grocery stores to buy Visa or Amex GC. You will lose $15 for buying 3 of these @$500 each, but you still make $60. Don't buy MC gift cards, as they are regularly hacked. Visa and AMEX are relatively safer. However, the downside with AMEX cards is that they aren't accepted everywhere, so just go with Visa cards.
      • 3rd quarter (amazon.com, whole foods market): Use it to buy $1500 worth of amazon GC or Whole foods GC if you can't use the full amount on buying stuff. You can load the amazon GC to your account immediately on purchasing, so that there's no risk of hacking.
      • 4th quarter (walmart and paypal): Use it at walmart stores to buy Visa or Amex GC. You will lose $15 for buying 3 of these @$500 each, but you still make $60. Don't buy MC gift cards, as they are regularly hacked. Visa and AMEX are relatively safer. However, the downside with AMEX cards is that they aren't accepted everywhere, so just go with Visa cards.
    • If you can find an existing chase card member, he/she can refer you, and the person referring you will get $100 (on upto $500 a year). You may ask your referrer to split $100 with you since you don't get any extra bonus for referral. You still get all your regular bonus and cashback offer that you would get without using a referral. If you don't know anyone who can refer you, you can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with your email addr, and I can refer you. You have to use the link on that same email addr that was sent to you by chase, else I won't get the bonus (I can split $50 with you if I do get the bonus). See in deals section below for more details.
    • Benefits: These are the benefits provided by Chase Freedom card. There are 24 benefits listed for my card, I'm assuming they would to all Chase Freedom cards, but check in your account online under "benefits" to be sure.  Guidebook is here: https://static.chasecdn.com/content/services/structured-document/document.en.pdf/card/benefits-center/product-benefits-guide-pdf/BGC10936_Freedom_VisaPlatSig.pdf. I'm copying and pasting the benefits below from chase website:
      • Auto Rental collision coverage: Decline the rental company's collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. Coverage is provided for theft and collision damage for most cars in the U.S. and abroad. In the U.S., coverage is secondary to your personal insurance.
      • Trip Cancellation/Interruption coverage: You can be reimbursed up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable passenger fares, if your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations.
      • Purchase Protection: Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
      • Extended Warranty protection: Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer's warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of 3 years or less.
    • UPDATE: Feb, 2021: Even though Visa discontinued many benefits (see section above), Chase hasn't announced any cuts in benefits. I've seem even latest cards come with all these benefits. If you aren't sure, verify benefits by calling Chase benefits directly.
    • When it's time to file claims, the process is easy. I've a claim on a laptop. Will update on how it got resolved. Their site to file claims is: https://www.cardbenefitservices.com. Their phone is 1-800-882-8057 (USA).

 

  • Chase Freedom Unlimited Card: This is a another "Freedom" credit card from Chase bank. I'm mentioning it here since it's confusing with 2 "Freedom" cards going on. This is the less desired version of the Freedom card. It also has $200 offer (on spending $500), 0% APR for 15 months, no annual fees and other perks similar to "chase Freedom Flex card". One place where it differs from "Freedom Flex" is that it doesn't have 5% quarterly rotating categories, just a flat 1.5% on all purchases. There are various offers floating around, with some where you get 5% cash back on $12K of grocery store purchase in 1st year and some where you get 5% cash back on $12K of gas purchase. They do have regular offer of 5% cash back for chase travel purchased thru chase travel portal, and 3% on dining and drugstores. If you do take this card, cancel it after a year, since there's not much the card will offer you after the 1st year. Also, go for the offer which gives you "5% on grocery store purchase", as that makes you an extra $600 in the first year.
    • They offer $200 sign on bonus
    • 0% APR for 15 months (about $50 in interest income assuming you can put that money in bank at 1%)
    • Use someone to refer you. The referrer makes $100 per referral. See in deals section below for more details.
    • You get 5% cashback on grocery store purchases (stores like Kroger, HEB, Randalls, etc, but NOT walmart, target, etc) on upto $12K for your first year only. This can net about $600 assuming you spend all of $12K the first year. You can buy Visa or Amex prepaid cards to meet $12K in purchases.
    • There is NO 5% cashback in rotating categories, just flat 1.5% on all purchases.
    • There is 5% on chase travel, 3% on dining and drugstores, etc. Please check the details when applying for this card, as not all links give you all these offers.
    • Referral works for this card too (same as Freedom Flex card above). See in deals section below for more details.
    • Benefits: All benefits same as "Freedom Flex" card. See above for details.
    • Offers for this:

 

  • Bank of America Cash rewards bonus card: They have no annual fees. You can make about $300-$500 from this card on $5K in purchases, yielding you cash back of 10%. This card is among the lowest in terms of rewards, as it's hard to hit $500 in rewards with this card. So I wouldn't recommend this card at all. I've put this on the list of "Best Credit card" as a last resort (in case you run out of cards to sign up). Their More details here: https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/cash-back-credit-card/
    • $200 sign on bonus when you spend $1K or more within 90 days. They sometimes send you targeted $250 or $300 sign on bonus offer too, especially if you have a bank account with them. So, you might want to wait after opening a new bank account with them, before you jump on the credit card. Typically $300 is what I wait for, since anything less than $300 is not worth it.
    • They also have 0% APR for 15 billing cycles, which assuming $5K avg balance on credit card for a year, may amount to about $25-$50 in extra interest income.
    • It gives you 3% cashback on rotating categories (most useful one is online shopping category where you can get 3% cashback on any online purchase).  However paying for utility bills online, property taxes/insurance, doctor's fees, etc doesn't count as online shopping (most of the times, though sometimes you may get lucky). Here's a link that shows categories that count as online shopping: https://www.managerewardsonline.bankofamerica.com/cms/published/root/duo/sharedContent/pdf/cash/CashEng048139Nov2019-0121K_v002_ADA.pdf. Note that gift cards bought from merchant's websites also doesn't count as online shopping. Reason might be that the link for giftcard buying is usually different than merchant link. As an example, "kroger" and "kroger gift card" websites have different links, so buying anything from kroger gift card website doesn't qualify as online shopping). In the end, on $5K in spending, you can make an extra $150 in rewards.
    • The benefits of this card is not listed anywhere on their website, even after logging into the account. They ask you to call the customer service to get a copy of benefits. I doubt they have any worthwhile benefits. So, just don't bother with this card. Find benefits for this card: ?FIXME?

 

  • Wells Fargo cards: There are many wells fargo credit cards out there. All of them are inferior in terms of bonus and cashback. One in particular that I get a lot is the "Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa Platinum Card". It gives you $150 signup bonus on spending $500 or more and then 1.5% cashback on all your purchases. Even if you spend $10K on this card every year, you make a measly $150 in cashback. So, in total you will make $300 on this card in your first year. You can do much much better than that with a lot of other credit cards. I would advise to stay away from all Wells Fargo Credit cards, as in my last 20 years, I've never seen any Wells Fargo Credit card worth biting.

 

 

Deals:

You can find all offers for credit card on the deals section or on creditcards.com website. Doctor of credit website also lists best offers over here:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/

 

 

2022:

 

 

 

10/31/2022: E*trade Customers only: $400 signup offer on Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express => Expired on 01/16/2023

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/etrade-customers-american-express-blue-cash-preferred-400-signup-bonus-waived-annual-fee/

 $400 on spending $6K in first 6 months. Annual Fee waived for the first year, so not worth after the first year. Also, extra $100 statement credit after spending $15K+ in a calendar year. 0% APR for first 12 months.

 

 

 

2021:

 

 

 

11/22/2021: American Express 20% discount on redeeming points for Gift cards: (valid until Dec 22, 2021)

Just got an email that you can get select GC for 20% fewer reward points. All 9 cards listed are useless, as the $1 in GC costs you more than 1 point even after the 20% discount. The only card worth buying is Home depot card going for 15% off. Last year it was 20% off, but I guess inflation has eaten into the discount. Get a physical HD GC, and liquidate all your points. You will get $50 HD GC for $42.50.

 

 

11/22/2021: Platinum Elite Visa Credit Card from Skyone: Currently they have $600-$65=$535 sign on offer (valid until Dec 31, 2021)

$300 statement credit on account opening, and $300 in points on spending $3K+ in first 3 months of account opening. You have to pay $65 annual fee (AF) though (NOT waived). So,  net will be $535. They have 3X on groceries, so, assuming all $3K is spent in grocery stores, you make extra $90, which more than compensates for the AF. I never apply for cards with AF, but ~$600 for $3K spend is as good as it can get. Close it after a year, as it's not worth paying $65 every year.

 

 

Ongoing: chase referrer bonus of $100: The person applying for any "chase freedom credit card" can get a referral from anyone who is an existing Chase Freedom card holder. The person applying for any chase card doesn't lose any benefit. So, it benefits the referrer. If you refer me, I may split $50 with you. Pls email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I will provide you a refrral link. Use this link to apply for the card. More details here:

 

 

 

2020:

 

 

 

11/10/2020: Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express: Currently they have $300 sign on offer. (valid as of Feb, 2021)

 

 

EXPIRED: 12/10/2020: BBVA select credit card: For month of December, 2020, they have $1000 sign on bonus on spending $4K in 3 months. However, qualifying for this card is tough. This is the highest cashback (25%), so definitely get this even if it doesn't have any benefits