Originally Posted by
LIH Prem
So in one quarter, you can eat, but you can't buy any gas, and the next quarter, you can buy gas, but you can't eat?
If you happen to be interested in accumulating Hilton miles -- which I currently am, having piled up enough SPG points to feel secure for the moment -- you can, as I noted above, earn 6 HHonors points/dollar for gas/grocery/pharmacy and a few lesser categories year-round. (With no fee, ever, I hasten to point out.) And that same Amex entitles you to
excellent discounts on certain award stay combinations.
So for the time being, I use the Chase Freedom card for rotating categories to earn 5 pts/dollar (with those points transferable to CO miles 1:1, making this much better than a 5% cash rebate). And the Amex Hilton picks up the other categories not on the current Freedom bonus list.
I still think we need an app that will tell us which credit card to use at which merchant.
Go low-tech and stick labels on your cards. My DW can't keep track of the latest category/spend threshhold/deadline, so I keep track on a spreadsheet & periodically give her a) a short summary of which 3 cards to use currently and b) said cards with labels. She used to think I was nuts until I started taking the family (or her alone) on trips to foreign destinations of her choosing for next to no money.