Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards

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Fedor

<Banned>
17,346
47,327
This is one of the best no-fee cards around and you'll never see it advertised on the usual "bestcreditcard" sites.

CreditCards - Sallie Mae Mastercard - Sallie Mae

5% cash back on the first $250 per month on gas purchases
5% cash back on the first $250 per month on grocery purchases
5% cash back on the first $750 per month on book purchases
Regular Amazon.com purchases and Amazon gift cards count as book purchases. These are excluded: Amazon Payments, Amazon Prime membership fee, and Amazon digital purchases.

I have excellentcreditatm and zero debt. I wonder if I started signing up tocreditcards with sign-up bonuses how long I'd be able to get before I started getting denied everywhere. Or I wonder if the pool of saidcreditcards is so small I'd only get a grand or so before I ran out of first-time bonuses to get. Either way I hate doing that shit and would never try it.
I've gotten ~$1700 in signup bonuses (add another ~$500 for bank account signup bonuses andcreditcard referrals) within the span of a year and my fico score is still 755.

My main card is the Fidelity American Express. It's 2% on every purchase and gets directly deposited into your Fidelity account(as cash).
I use this with Amazon Payments and basically get $20 in cashback for free every month. I send a friend $1k through AP using my Fidelity card and he sends it back to me through Google Wallet after having withdrawn it to his bank account. $1k per month is the limit for no fees for using acreditcard on AP.

It's also incredibly easy to meet minimum spending requirements for signup bonuses this way.
 

Fedor

<Banned>
17,346
47,327
That is on the Fatwallet list. I have it, great card.
Yeah I probably should have been more specific. You won't see it on a "top 10creditcards" commercial blog post but forums and other places dedicated to these kinds of things definitely know about it.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
I'm going to check that Sallie Mae card out.. those cash back bonuses are ideal for me

Edit: Got the Sallie Mae card, pretty painless.
 

Vinen

God is dead
2,782
486
I'm going to check that Sallie Mae card out.. those cash back bonuses are ideal for me

Edit: Got the Sallie Mae card, pretty painless.
Nice card, limits are too low for me
frown.png


Trying to figure out if I should replace my Chase Sapphire. Wife and I abuse the crap out of the 2 points / dollar spent from restaurants.

Our points regularly purchase us a flight each a year.
 

Unidin

Molten Core Raider
788
425
Nothing says you cant have 2 or 3 or 8 cards. If you get the Freedom and Discover card, it will give you 5% on gas and groceries 3/4 quarters each year depending on how they overlap in promos. Plus the Freedom points can be moved over to your Sapphire card.
 

Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,311
3,165
I doubt it. I've had three cards that are going on 3+ years unused, one as long as like 10, and mycreditscore was 799 last year when I applied for my mortgage.

i was once told that actually canceling yourcreditcards is what will potentially hurt yourcreditscore, but it's all a mystery to me.
 

The Master

Bronze Squire
2,084
2
Why would a sane human need 6,8, or 10creditcards?

I have one and I feel dangerous.
I have a card that gives 2% on everything, one that gives 5% on restaurants, one that is 5% on gas/groceries/drug stores, a Costco AmEx which offers me some great benefits and I end up getting 3% back at Costco between the card and my Executive membership. I have the Amazon Visa, which is 3% on Amazon. I also have a Discover card for the rotating categories (the 12k I sunk into home improvement the last three months was intentionally lined up with the 5% back at home improvement stores they had for three months).

I never pay cash for anything and I average 4% back on everything I spend throughout the year.
 

Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,311
3,165
I have 6 I think. Amex for everyday, amazon for amazon, lowes for lowes, target for target, one to some furniture store that I don't use, and my bank debit card for when I go somewhere that doesn't take Amex.

I have an old capital one visa that I haven't used for like 10 years. And maybe one othercreditcard that I am not remembering.
 

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
15,698
34,169
I have 3 that I use. Amazon card for 3% back on amazon, 2% back on gas. Discover for rotating categories and ShopDiscover. A US Bank Cash+ card for 5% back on cellphone bill and restaurants.
 

Vinen

God is dead
2,782
486
I have 6 I think. Amex for everyday, amazon for amazon, lowes for lowes, target for target, one to some furniture store that I don't use, and my bank debit card for when I go somewhere that doesn't take Amex.

I have an old capital one visa that I haven't used for like 10 years. And maybe one othercreditcard that I am not remembering.
Why would you use your Bank Debit Card?
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
<Nazi Janitors>
28,311
43,092
I have 3 cards that I use, but I have well over 10 open accounts and my score is in the upper 700s. Having a lot of availablecreditis good for your score, but a lot of young accounts will be a negative, though not by much.
 

Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,311
3,165
Why would you use your Bank Debit Card?
Because I can't use my Amex because they don't take it? I don't carry a lot of those cards everywhere. Amazon stays in my desk drawer, lowes and target only come out when I actually go to that specific store.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,690
3,201
Just sold our house and paid off all CC debt. I get quarterlycreditupdates, so I'm anxious to see if it does anything with my score. I was using over 50% of the balance, so I hope my score goes up a little. That'd be pretty sweet.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,372
10,986
Because I can't use my Amex because they don't take it? I don't carry a lot of those cards everywhere. Amazon stays in my desk drawer, lowes and target only come out when I actually go to that specific store.
I think his point was more along the lines of, why aren't you using an actualcreditcard instead of the debit card? Now, I use my debit card too because I currently don't have a good rewards card, and it helps me budget better knowing it is coming directly out of my account, but if it is stolen (physically or otherwise) or mis-charged or even just used for something you end up returning, you're dealing with actual cash out of your account, not "imaginary" money so to speak. If a debit card gets stolen your bank account can often get seriously fucked up, making it difficult to pay bills while things are frozen and sorted out, so *most* people recommend not using a debitcreditcard if at all possible.

Again, that's not what I do, but I hope to change that soon, and having read this board long enough, I'm fairly certain that is the overwhelming viewpoint of the "smart spenders" here.