<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
Agreed on DC: the two biggest benefits are the primary car rental insurance (AFAIK, they are the only card that provides this) and the ability to funnel points/miles to many programs in small chunks. Last year, I pushed a few thousand into Marriott to redeem a 250,000 point award and a couple thousand into two airline programs to redeem basic award tickets.
The hotel cards are great if you actually stay at the chains. I have an HH Amex and an MR Visa - they aren't very good for general purchases, but they provide a nice boost for stays at the properties. I will add an SPG Amex as soon as a good sign-up bonus turns up. I will be using Starwoods a few times in '04, and I like the ability to move points out to airline miles at a good exchange rate if I need to.
But if I had to do it all over again from scratch, and I only wanted to carry a couple of cards, I'd do this:
- SPG Amex as my primary spending card
- Straight cashback card (e.g., Chase Cashbuilder or similar) as my backup MC/Visa
- Diner's Club for car rentals</font>
Couldn't disagree more with just about everything you state, other than SPG AMEX should be the primary spending card.
Diners Club is a real non-starter. I can't understand the draw to this card. They have a steep annual fee and then charge you to move points into miles. Who needs that? If you don't have car insurance (no personal auto) I can see that the car rental provisions of Diners Club make the card a good deal for anyone with even a few rentals a year. If you do have personal auto insurance, then there is no need for the card's insurance in the U.S. and Canada (and maybe Mexico). Why pay more money to Diner's for what you are already covered for? For international rentals, you could get a no-fee Platinum Mastercard (MyPoints Citibank MC for example) to cover insurance.
I also disagree with the statement that the HH AMEX is not good for general purchases. This card offers 3 points per dollar for all non-Hilton purchases. Even at my conservative valuation of $.0055 per HHonors point, that comes to $.0165 per dollar spent which is a better value in my view than airline credit cards. And it has no annual fee. Many people value HHonors points at $.01 each. I think these people are crazy, but if you do value them that way then this card effectively offers $.03 per dollar. That is even a better value than the Starwood AMEX.
Lastly, I can't understand a cash back card as your back-up MC/VISA. From what I've seen, these cards offer, at most, 1% back. Sure, some have a sliding scale, but the total end result seems to be 1%. No matter how you slice it, that's less value than a miles/points card (with the possible exception of the Marriott Rewards card or the Priority Club VISA). The Hilton VISA offers 2 points per dollar. Again, at my conservative valuation of $.0055 per point, you would be getting 1.1% "back".
Finally, why are you waiting for a bonus offer on the SPG AMEX card? ALL bonus promos associated with that card have been stay related. I think the current offer is 6000 bonus points. I don't think it's been higher than 10,000 bonus points. If you think it's the card to have, why wait?
I might also add that for all gasoline purchases I use the AAA VISA card. Offers 5% rebate, credited immediately, on ALL pay-at-pump purchases from almost all gas stations and no annual fee.
[This message has been edited by MileKing (edited Jan 08, 2004).]