Originally Posted by jaynyc
I have the CostCo Amex card which gives a 3% rebate on restaurants and 2% on travel. Those make up the majority of my foreign travel purchases. So on hotels, car rental, etc. I break even (Amex has a 2% vig). On meals I come out ahead by 1%.
Beware, the 3% restaurant and 2% travel rebates on this card don't apply to foreign transactions. All foreign transactions earn a 1% rebate. I learned this the hard way after racking up lots of hotel and restaurant charges in Hong Kong. I could find nothing in their written materials or website about this. I spent over a half hour with an Amex CSR and her supervisor to get it properly credited, to no avail. I was told that Amex can't usually verify the type of transaction on foreign charges, so all foreign charges earn a blanket 1%. YMMV.