patrick.net

You sound like me. I use my United Air Visa Card for everything and it gets paid in full at the end of each month with a direct debit from my checking account. The only thing I ever write a check for is my rent here in the Bay Area.

Because of my frequent flyer status, I get double points on my Visa card. Add to that free upgrades to first class and it almost makes flying fun. Almost.....LOL.

I sometimes use my Star Card (military exchange) for on-line purchases. It's tax free no matter where I order and I get free shipping and deep discounts. I just placed an order for Office 2010. Just $79.

I used to do about 15-25K/month in purchases, when airmiles were semi-easily used. I never went with the hotel rewards programs because places like hotels.com (way back..) would make them cheaper anyways. I never stayed at the same hotel to gain any rewards benefits either. I stayed with whatever worked for the trip. Alaska was an amazing airline for the longest time for checking in, and using airmiles. It's downgraded significantly, and others have really improved to the point that they're all pretty crappy now. Alaska was great, others were useless, now they're all equally crappy. Now I just save them for emergencies.

So I've given up on the airmiles, and rewards in general. What I've switched to is an Amazon card, which gives me 3x on Amazon purchases, which I tend to make purchases from quite frequently. I either do $25 Amazon cards, or $50 checks.

I use American Express for Costco/Gas because it's 1x for Costco and 3x for gas. Straight cash, no messing around with minimums, increasing rewards or anything else.

I sign up for random airmiles cards every few years. Platinum 1 year, cancel. Gold 1 year cancel. Bronze 1 year cancel. Repeat. Gaining 20-25K rewards each time :)

I also keep a fair number of cards around for multiple purposes. It's best to have a lot of credit, because the more credit you have, the less % you're using of that credit in any one given month. For example, using $1000 of a $2000 credit line is using up 50% of your credit. Charging up $5000 per month but having $100,000 in lines means I'm only using up 5%.

Second reason is that they often try and entice me to switch to them with promotions, so I'll switch to whoever is offering the most. Since I used to do quite a bit, I was hitting the rewards within 1-3 months anyways, before the promotions were up.

Third reason, with all these great 0% apr transfers (not anymore... sigh) I could pull 50-100K and put it in the bank for a year, at 6% (HSBC) and pay it back at years end. Then wait for my next 0% apr program to start up. Also, due to high spending, if they only offered up 0% on spending, I could rack up the maximum within 45 days, and then take the money used to pay it and put that in the bank. Generally it cost me about $50 in transfer fees to gain about $3000-6000.

Oh yes, if you buy gas at Costco, you'll end up saving about 10 cents per gallon over places like Arco, plus another 10 cents a gallon cash back. Not all Costco's have gas stations though.

In addition to SPG, I have accounts for frequent flier miles to United and AA. They also are part of a larger program linked to non domestic carriers. Currently, I fly just a tad under 75K miles to be considered a frequent flier. At the same time, I can't expect to fly from SFO to Dallas on United per say when AA makes the most sense. The AXP card points are linked to AA frequent flier without penalty. ( 1 to 1 transfer)

I understand the strategy of opening and closing cards to maximixe promos, but I have stayed away from that.

I also understand that a Bloomingdale card or any specific retail card is has the best rebates, but we generally do not go that route.

I too never use cash. There's always about $100 bucks in my wallet for situations where places do not take credit card. But other than that, they all get rolled onto my Chase Perfectcard (which is now the Chase Freedom now for many people). But my card was grandfathered some how and will never lose the reward structure I was told. It's so easy to keep track of spending at the end of the month. The balances always get paid in full. My Chase Perfectcard gives me 3% back on gas, and 1% on everything else. Beer runs to 7-11 also count as Gas :) I do not need to wait until I accumulate $20 to get a rebate. My entitled rebate for this month automatically gets deducted from my bill the next month. This however sounds very similar to your existing card already (benefit structure wise, and not pay out). All at $0 annual fee.

Your AAA card appeals to me and I was trying to search for it. But it is not on the Chase website so it's probably not available anymore.

Vain, the AAA card is offered through AAA. In NorCal, they are csaa.com

SPG used to have great conversion rates, I think 20,000 points for 25,000 miles, which was 1.25 vs the standard 1.00 for airline cards. I'm not sure if they do this anymore. I have some friends who get promotion offers from BA for 2:1 trades, usually once a year. They transfer their miles over there enmass.

In general, I only close/open up the airline cards, as they offer roughly $250 incentives to do so (in terms of airmiles). Other than that, I just leave them open.

I keep United and AA as well, although they're starting to annoy me with regulations for obtaining miles from their partner airlines. It's become insane it seems to get them. In general, they're becoming more worthless as time goes by. Flights within the US can vary between like $250 to $2000 for last minute. As long as I'm planning things, $250 is doable. Europe I plan well in advance for, so they price is always about the same, just a different airline each time, so wasting 60-90K on Europe for a $500-800 ticket doesn't seem worth it. And Brazil, well that's the most expensive flight, but also yields about 15000 airmiles when it's all said and done. I'm finding it more difficult to justify collecting any airmiles now. Amex cash back seems to be the easiest to use, although the least accepted.

I also avoid the store cards, once in awhile if my purchase is large enough I'll sign up, use it, then cancel it. But only if it's going to save me a decent amount, and even then it's time vs savings.

Check out the cards at Pentagon Federal Credit Union as well.

www.penfed.org

I believe they offer 1% back for all "general" purchases, though my card from them doesn't have that specific reward (kicking myself a little now, as I went for the 7.5% APR instead).

Paying bills to me is a terrible waste of time...
Call me paranoid, but I don't autopay anything with a credit card unless I have to. I don't mind handling the bills as it allows me to check for fraud, overcharges, etc... I then pay using Bill Pay online from Wells Fargo (they'll cut and mail a check for free, or electonically credit the account). I use an REI Visa Card for everyday purchases (1% back = REI shopping spree) and Wells Fargo Visa for online transactions (1% back as well).

I use to do it your way but the volume of bills are too overwhelming. I decided it was best just to see the statements to see what was charged to see if it makes sense instead of looking into every bill that cuts my bill paying duty from 4 hours a month to 5-10 minutes.

That's the key difference between credit card and debit/checking. with credit transaction, everything is reviewable and the merchant has the burden of proof and provide good protection. With debit, no such protection is avail.

You can always call up a credit card and have a charge back processed. Auto pay, then view your statements for anything unusual.

Btw, do you ever use bing.com for cashback on purchases? and/or Amazon subscribe services for normal deliverers?

Although bing cashback is going away shortly! It was by far the best, it was just a copy of fatwallet.com, but by microsoft so it actually seemed more reliable and higher pay outs.

SF ace says

with credit transaction, everything is reviewable and the merchant has the burden of proof and provide good protection. With debit, no such protection is avail.

I've always hated how my bank ATM card has a Visa function on it. I frequently bug the branches that I want an old fashion ATM card. No PIN, no money, and I'd explain why I want it. Their defense is that they will protect you blah blah blah. I don't buy it. If it's about $30, they'll help you. Try losing $10k out of a checking account. See if they will hold their word then. I've also had to fight hard before to remove that overdraft coverage. If I lose my card, I don't want to lose more than what is in there.

Most of those gas cards have limits and/or tiered levels. First $1000 you get .25% then 1001-2000 is 1%, etc. Discover was the worst at that. At first I thought wow! 5% and then it turned out to be like .40%.

My gas card was used to purchase aircraft fuel for a commercial airliner at my last job. After 3 uses of use fueling a Boeing 747 in a 1 month span, I got an amendment to the card benefits by Chase, limiting it to gasoline for automotive use only. I was racking up way too much rebates, enough to not work anymore =D. Too bad my card didn't have enough limits to fill up the whole plane.

Thanks for the feedback and perspective. I got into credit card points accumulation business, like everyone else, through travel from work. I’m actually opposite from Jvostad where I travel to Dallas and Houston once a quarter to meet with clients. I always book Westin or Sheraton due to points even though a Hilton may be cheaper and/or closer. Who cares, the client pays for it anyway. In any case, for those who does this regularly, it’s the per diem and fringe benefit perks like this that makes the traveling bearable. I can tell my wife in six months, we will have free tickets to Hawaii, free hotels, and some play money in Maui. To a lesser extent, the gas card and restaurant are kind of side fringes.

One of the reason why you do want an affiliation with SPG or Hilton Honor is the perks. I’m a platinum SPG member and there is absolutely a difference in service. You get access to the club level floor, free breakfast, guaranteed rooms, room upgrades, and other small perks. I don’t know why a bunch of CFA nerds get so hyped up about SPG platinum and Hilton Diamond, but it just does and is one of those often discussed casual topics.

Ah yes. If you're hitting platinum levels, awesome. If you're just spending a lot of money, it's not really worth while. I do agree those perks are what makes it worth while. I don't travel at all anymore, other than vacations, so my miles are slow to accumulate on airlines. Before, I would only do random spurts. Like 25K in a quarter, and then nothing for 6 quarters. So I would hit bottom levels, and it gave me zippo, other than the free flights.

Booking Westin/Sheraton, over Hilton is generally not worth it. Time would be the big factor for me here, not that the client was paying. There are some "rewards" networks out there, like fatwallet.com, for hotels. So you could book your hotels through them, and get a kickback to use on your personal travels. Those do add up fast, because they're like 5% kick backs. vs 1000 points, or about $10 per stay.

is there a card that gives accelerator for general purchase like groceries and utility bills?
I just found this Visa card (2% supermarket, 5% gas) through a NYTimes article on credit unions. You'll have to join National Military Family Association for $20.

"You’ll have to join National Military Family Association for $20." Actually that's the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which you can join through a number of activities, including being a Red Cross Volunteer. If you donate blood/plasma regularly and have a donar card, you can join the CU directly.