Originally Posted by
scubadiver
I prefer cards rewarded in dollars rather than points. It's harder to devalue dollars.
In my wallet:
Costco AMEX 3% gas, resturants 2% travel, 1% everything else. The annual fee is also the Costco annual fee, which I'd spend anyway.
Discover for their 5% promos, plus they have some discount gift cards. I usually spend these at Crutchfield. The gift cards used to be a better deal than they are now.
Capital One MC - No FOREX fee. Otherwise a boring 1%.
In my Lock box against a day of need:
Citi AADvantage MC - Got for the promo. Will drop when the fee comes 'round.
Citi AT&T VISA - Lousy rewards. It is my oldest CC, so I keep it barely alive to maintain my credit score.
Chase Subaru MC - 3% in Subaru bucks. Mrs Scubadiver loves her new Outback.
AMEX Blue - I got this to try out the smart-card chip. Don't use it now. No fee so I don't cancel it.
"I prefer cards rewarded in dollars rather than points. It's harder to devalue dollars."
This belief is false and incorrect.
Chase Freedom was 3% cashback on top 3 purchases and was reduced to a 1% Cashback card on all purchases.
HSBC had a 5% cashback for $5000 charged card which was reduced to a 1% straight cashback.
The banks will find a way to devalue both miles and cashback programs equally and in fact they have but on the other side of the coin some banks have increased the value of their mileage programs.
So I wouldn't hesitate to use miles over dollars if the current percentages were in line.
Capital One actually lowered the points needed to obtain points rather than increasing it since I had the Rewards Checking account and that lowering allowed me to cash in a reward on the account.
Chase allows on ultimate rewards to switch between cashback and points, but I don't know what effect this has. My rewards are shown in dollars and points.