Upon first look, the Citi Forward card appears to be a good deal. 5x points on all restaurants, and I spend about $400 a month eating out. For that, I'd get 2000 points a month, or 24,000 points per year. The problem is, each point is not equal to 1 cent. The card requires 8,000 points to get $50, so those 24,000 points are only worth $150 in cash, which is .625 cents per dollar. Now let's say you spend $10,000 on all other purchases for the year, for which you'd get 1 point per dollar (10,000 points). At the end of the year, you'd have 34,000 points, which could be redeemed $212.50 in cash.

Now, the Fidelity American Express card gives 2% CB on all purchases. So if I were to spend the same $400/mo at restaurants, I'd get $4800*.02 per year, or $96. Now if I spend the same $10,000 on all other purchases, I'd get $200 in addition. That's $296 CB/yr for the same spending.

In other words, the 5x points for Citi Forward is completely flawed. Even though it rewards eating out at restaurants, the heavily discounted cash back rate basically makes the card a complete scam.

Thoughts?