Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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US Bank looks like it's trying to tear off some of Citi and Bank of America's HNW customers.

New card that will give up to 4% cash back depending on your total balance with USB. Currently on wait list only. But for those of you who are willing to transfer IRAs to USB and don't want to think about category optimization on your cards, it could be a good fit once it releases.
 
fris

fris

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I saw that and it peaked my interest. I haven't looked at the fine print, I don't know what benefits having my IRA in Fidelity vs anywhere else. I have some vanguard etfs in my Fidelity, I could do the opposite if I was in vanguard.

What's the fee to move an account between institutions?
 
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Rangoth

Rangoth

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fris said:
I saw that and it peaked my interest. I haven't looked at the fine print, I don't know what benefits having my IRA in Fidelity vs anywhere else. I have some vanguard etfs in my Fidelity, I could do the opposite if I was in vanguard.

What's the fee to move an account between institutions?
Click to expand...

‘should be 0 if you do institution to institution. I just transferred 2 old 401k’s from previous companies to my fidelity Ira. They were very helpful on the phone walking me through the process. It technically did liquidate all my positions that were non-transferable. But not a huge deal for a retirement account.
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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fris said:
I saw that and it peaked my interest. I haven't looked at the fine print, I don't know what benefits having my IRA in Fidelity vs anywhere else. I have some vanguard etfs in my Fidelity, I could do the opposite if I was in vanguard.

What's the fee to move an account between institutions?
Click to expand...

Account transfer/closure fee varies institution to institution. Fidelity is 0. Merrill and Schwab are around $50.

Fidelity doesn't really offer any benefits for having high balances with them. They used to have a program called Rewards+ that would increase the cash back on the Fidelity Visa to a maximum of 3%, but it required a balance of at least 1 million managed with them, IIRC. The program is also currently paused for new enrollment.

Do note that:
  • USB is one of the few institutions that still charges annual fees for their IRAs, but the fee is waivable as long as your total account balance with them is above $50k, and
  • You only get 100 free trades with them per year, although this won't have much of an effect on you if you are a buy-and-hold type investor.
 
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Foler

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Probably going to retire my sapphire reserve this year. It was an awesome card when I traveled a lot 4+ years ago but I maybe take one flight a year now and don’t foresee that changing for another 2 years at least. Prob will downgrade to one of their free cards.

Plus I put pretty much everything on my fidelity card for cash back (thx again sleevedraw sleevedraw for rec). Customer service on that card isn’t the best but love the cash back.
 
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Foler

Asshat Foler

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After four years of pretty much doing no travel i decided to cancel my sapphire reserve card. Used to do a ton of travel prior and it was great. Was my longest held card by 3 year margin so that may hit me.

Decided to just run with my fidelity cash back card ole sleevedraw sleevedraw got me on. Apparently no foreign transaction fees on it. Chase has better customer service than fidelity’s elan managed card tho. Still rocking the chase amazon card since I’m a big Amazon spender.

I MAY get back into minor travel (international) next year. Maybe two trips a year. Wondering if chase sapphire preferred is even worth it. Out of 7 years of owning the reserve and a few years of owning the preferred before that, not once did I ever utilize the travel perks like lost baggage reimbursement etc. I accumulate something like 600k points with chase but the flights in their portal always sucked balls so I ended up just cashing those in for cash a few years ago.

I will miss priority pass lounge access but they’ve added more restrictions on that over the years (number of guests you can have, etc).

Fidelity card has no foreign transaction fees and has some travel reimbursement stuff.

Any reason to even consider getting a travel card at this point if I’m traveling <4-5 times per year?

edit - this Reddit thread kinda makes me think the preferred is worth it just for all the benefits regarding insurance/delay on flights, hotels, car rentals etc

 
sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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Foler said:
After four years of pretty much doing no travel i decided to cancel my sapphire reserve card. Used to do a ton of travel prior and it was great. Was my longest held card by 3 year margin so that may hit me.

Decided to just run with my fidelity cash back card ole sleevedraw sleevedraw got me on. Apparently no foreign transaction fees on it. Chase has better customer service than fidelity’s elan managed card tho. Still rocking the chase amazon card since I’m a big Amazon spender.

I MAY get back into minor travel (international) next year. Maybe two trips a year. Wondering if chase sapphire preferred is even worth it. Out of 7 years of owning the reserve and a few years of owning the preferred before that, not once did I ever utilize the travel perks like lost baggage reimbursement etc. I accumulate something like 600k points with chase but the flights in their portal always sucked balls so I ended up just cashing those in for cash a few years ago.

I will miss priority pass lounge access but they’ve added more restrictions on that over the years (number of guests you can have, etc).

Fidelity card has no foreign transaction fees and has some travel reimbursement stuff.

Any reason to even consider getting a travel card at this point if I’m traveling <4-5 times per year?
Click to expand...

Getting, potentially yes, because with at least some travel cards, you can convert the points into cash or cash equivalents. Depends on the exact card, though. Keeping beyond the 1 year mark, generally no.

The Southwest Priority card basically pays for itself if you take 2 flights per year ($150 annual fee, but $75 travel credit, and 7500 in Rapid Rewards points per cardmember year), but obviously it's only useful if you fly Southwest. Points can't be directly cashed out.

Venture X pays for itself as long as you (a) use the $300 portal travel credit, and (b) use the 10,000 miles they give you annually.

Citi Strata has points which can be cashed out 1:1 for gift cards. I believe it's 1:1 for cash out now as well (like Chase points), but I'm less sure about this.

Sapphire Preferred is basically a churn-and-burn card. Pick up the sign-up bonus, hold for one year, then downgrade to either a no annual fee account or close once the annual fee hits. It does have one nice perk that most other travel cards (outside of the $450 annual fee ones) do not have: primary rental car collision insurance. With most cards, rental insurance is secondary to your own (i.e. it only pays the bill after you file a claim with your own policy). The Chase insurance preempts your own. Not a big deal if you don't drive rentals, but nice if you do.

Bear in mind that Chase has a 48 month rule on the Sapphire family - you can only pick up one sign-up bonus for a Sapphire every 48 months from the time the last sign up bonus posted. Both the Reserve and the Preferred are part of that family.
 
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Kithani

Kithani

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Just get a 2% cash back card and call it a day, unless you’re high net worth and can work one of those banks into getting a 3-4%… which I don’t think having a large amount of $ with Bank Of America would even be worth given their abysmal customer shenanigans
 
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fris

fris

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The upside if moving most my cc purchases to my Fidelity card, 2% back into my brokerage account, is that I log into Fidelity more often (I have OCD and check all my card balances daily).

The down side is that I'm logging into Fidelity daily checking balances of every account and holding...
 
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Onoes

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I have to say I have been abusing the fuck out of my Southwest card - its ended up being the most rewarding of any card I have ever had BY FAR.

Got it at the end of 2019 due to a promotion that included a companion pass until the end of 2020 as a perk (wife flies free anywhere I go).

In 2020 they announced that because of COVID stopping travel, all companion passes were being extended to the end of 2021, so free bonus year.

In 2021 they announced that they were cutting the points needed in half that year to earn the companion pass. I barely hit that goal in Dec - keeping the pass through 2022.

In 2022 I asked my employer if I could pay my travel with my card and get reimbursed (we just use a third party to book travel), CFO said yes, and I discovered that if I booked hotels through Southwest I could sort them by bonus points, earning 16,000+ points per travel (I usually go on 2ish travels per year) in addition to the $5,000-10,000 being reimbursed... Again, kept the companion pass through 2023 due to that.

In 2023 I found out that if I booked multiple rooms separately, all under my name, I would get a separate reward for each room. So now, when I go on travel, instead of just booking for myself I ask everyone going if they would like me to just book the rooms, check them into the hotels, and give them their room keys when they get there. Almost everyone I work with has been thrilled with this. So, I book 3-5 rooms separately and rake in up to 100,000 points per travel. I EASILY hit the 2024 companion pass.

This year has been crazy and I have needed to travel 6 times, earning me over 400,000 points this year alone. I hit my needed points by April and keep thinking "There's no real reason to keep earning miles on this card.. I should probably get another card at this point right?" but haven't had the energy to really look into that.

But yeah, its super nice to know I can just go anywhere (in the US at least) with my wife, for a few thousand points and $22 in taxes. If I want to bring the kids on a trip its like another 30-40,000 points generally. Even if I just canceled the card at this point I think I could fly Southwest for the next 10+ years easily. I know I've managed to milk this thing more than a lot of people would have been able to thanks to my work, but even the first few years without it were nice. I had never really been able to travel for leisure and now I find myself making multiple trips a year to places just to go. Hell, I flew to Colorado Springs a couple of weeks ago just to go to a friends birthday, spent the night, and flew back. It's all very cool.
 
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Foler

Asshat Foler

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sleevedraw said:
Foler Foler

As an FYI, they are rolling out a Precheck/Global Entry benefit on the Fidelity Visa. Pretty nice for a no-AF card.
Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks for letting me know. Now if they could roll priority pass in there then I’d miss absolutely nothing from the sapphire reserve I canceled.

wish I had known about that fidelity program you mentioned earlier that ups cash back but is currently on hold.. I have all my investments with fidelity and wondering if I’d have qualified. You think they’ll reopen the program?
 
sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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Foler said:
Awesome, thanks for letting me know. Now if they could roll priority pass in there then I’d miss absolutely nothing from the sapphire reserve I canceled.

wish I had known about that fidelity program you mentioned earlier that ups cash back but is currently on hold.. I have all my investments with fidelity and wondering if I’d have qualified. You think they’ll reopen the program?
Click to expand...

I think the official word was that Rewards Plus was on hold rather than totally eliminated, but the problem with it was that you not only needed to have a certain balance with Fidelity, you needed to be enrolled in their wealth management program (unlike Bank of America, Citi, etc. where you just need the minimum balance), and an additional 0.5% to 1% cash back on a CC isn't worth it if it means that they are going to take 1% of your investment portfolio annually.
 
Foler

Asshat Foler

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sleevedraw said:
I think the official word was that Rewards Plus was on hold rather than totally eliminated, but the problem with it was that you not only needed to have a certain balance with Fidelity, you needed to be enrolled in their wealth management program (unlike Bank of America, Citi, etc. where you just need the minimum balance), and an additional 0.5% to 1% cash back on a CC isn't worth it if it means that they are going to take 1% of your investment portfolio annually.
Click to expand...
I have a third party wealth management firm that uses fidelity. Wonder if that counts or if it has to be in house fidelity wealth management.
 
U

Unidin

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I doubt that your account being custodied at Fidelity would count as being managed by Fidelity.
 
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Foler

Asshat Foler

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Unidin said:
I doubt that your account being custodied at Fidelity would count as being managed by Fidelity.
Click to expand...
Yep, that’s what I was thinking as well. Rustling… I assume that means fidelitys private wealth division is managing your money (I assume they have one)
 
Tmac

Tmac

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I have like 1.5 million points on my AmEx Marriot Bonvoy card (business card) that I use for personal travel. But, I'd like points to use on flights as well, so I grabbed a AmEx Delta SkyMiles Gold card.
 
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Foler

Asshat Foler

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Tmac said:
I have like 1.5 million points on my AmEx Marriot Bonvoy card (business card) that I use for personal travel. But, I'd like points to use on flights as well, so I grabbed a AmEx Delta SkyMiles Gold card.
Click to expand...
Speaking of…

sleevedraw sleevedraw i did the delta Amex some 6-10 years ago for the sign on bonus and canceled in 2019 or 2020.

Can I do it again now and get the miles on my delta account?
 
Foler

Asshat Foler

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Foler said:
Speaking of…

sleevedraw sleevedraw i did the delta Amex some 6-10 years ago for the sign on bonus and canceled in 2019 or 2020.

Can I do it again now and get the miles on my delta account?
Click to expand...
Nvm. Quick search seems like you can only get this offer once in your life. LAME
 
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