Hi all,

Longtime lurker here decided to register to ask this pretty typical question. I just graduated from college and am working at a major consulting firm next year (yes, fresh meat). As such, I'm trying to decide on what credit card to apply for to use as my personal credit card pretty much asap (I'm planning on making a few semi-major purchases this summer). My main criteria is getting the largest benefits (whether that may be cash back or miles/points). I do plan on traveling semi-regularly to the best of my ability so miles are slightly preferred.

From what I understand my job will involve weekly domestic travel and hotel stays. My company uses a company card so the majority of business expenses will not take place on my new card (hence a truly personal card). The main caveat here is that I will have low expenses besides what I spend this summer (ie. I don't expect to be able to spend the starwood 15k in 6 months). As for what airline will be preferred, I also have no idea at this point (I will be flying out of the bay area and most likely not united).

Sorry if this post is confusing as I'm not completely sure what I'm saying. I will try my best to clarify if need be.

edit: the expenses are the typical right out of college things -- clothes, laptop, suitcase...

First, welcome as a poster to FlyerTalk. As did you, I lurked for a period of time and eventually my curiosity got the better of me so I started posting. I've learned a lot here--both by reviewing posts and by responding to posts.

My (unfortunately extensive) comments in response to your question are made on the assumption that your credit rating is good enough at this point that you can qualify for a card or two that may immediately or eventually require the payment of an annual fee. If that's not true, you're probably going to need to start with a card with no annual fee that will allow you to build your credit.

There are a couple of issues you need to analyze before you can make this choice. First, you need to determine your travel goals. Are you going to fly a lot on your personal trips so that you might be concerned about earning airline miles? Or are your personal trips within driving distance so that you might be more concerned about reducing your hotel costs?

Once you've figured that out, you then need to look at the airline and hotel programs that are available to you from where you fly or where you intend to travel. Don't worry about getting too locked in on the airlines or hotels yet because you're just trying to figure out the programs that either directly or indirectly will allow you to accumulate the miles or points you need (just a quick, single example: if AA is an option, BA miles then become an option because you can redeem BA miles for AA domestic flights). You'll need to do some research, and you'll find a lot of information on these issues in the various threads here at FT.

Second, you need to look at your budget. You're doing this not just because it's a good idea financially; you're doing it to identify all of the possible options for credit card spending. As a guiding principle and understanding that you may run a bit of deficit spending as you've just graduated, your goal should be to get to a point as soon as possible where you're paying off your credit card spending each month. If you don't, you'll soon be spending a ton of money on interest (and other) charges that will eat into your travel budget.

Once you've made the commitment to paying your credit charges each month, you then want to look at the expenses you can put on your card. For the most part, you will find that there are a lot of expenses, excluding paying rent/mortgage or buying a car/making car payments (there are ways to do this but way too complex/expensive for my taste), that you can place on a credit card. Gas, groceries, discretionary spending, and certain utility and tax payments as well as other expenses can go on your card--so long as you pay them off as they come due, as noted above. Most of these expenses can be charged without incurring a "convenience" fee--the fee that the business will charge you for using a credit card, instead of cash, check, or transfer, to pay your bill. Utility and tax payments can fall into this category: in my situation, I can pay my cellphone bill without incurring a fee while my electricity supplier adds a charge to my bill if I want to use a credit card. I generally don't use my credit card to pay bills that impose a "convenience" fee.

You might be surprised just how much you can charge on a credit card just to live your daily life. Some on this board will undoubtedly inform you of other, nonliving expense charges you can run through a credit card (search for the Mint or Amex gift cards). I don't do any of these myself, but you might find these strategies worthwhile.

I'd also check with your employer to confirm your understanding that you cannot charge your business expenses on your personal card and then apply for reimbursement. Some companies require that business expenses be run through a business card; some merely prefer this arrangement but will allow you to submit expense reports for charges made on your personal card. There is an obvious advantage to you if your company takes the latter approach, but don't ignore the likely disadvantage: most company accounting departments will require detailed documentation of your expenses and may possibly require an explanation for any expenses they deem "excessive" with the risk that you will remain responsible for any charges they deny or reduce. In addition, if your company is slow on reimbursement (more than thirty days), you may find yourself paying interest on the unreimbursed expenses, again cutting into your own discretionary spending.

After doing this analysis, you should have a monthly number that you can devote to credit card spending. It's important to know this number because a lot of credit cards require hitting a threshold spending amount to qualify for a full bonus. For instance, Chase just ran a promotion for a BA card that gave 50,000 miles for your first purchase and then 50,000 more for spending $2500 in three months. Not a bad promotion even if you can't spend the $2500 but much better if you can. Having this number in mind can also help you decide if you want to apply for multiple credit cards at a time with signup bonuses. AA has (unofficially) continued running a promotion that has yielded a lot of folks 225,000 miles (if interested, see this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-up-bonus.html). Again, if you know how much spending per month you can do on a credit card, you'll know whether it is worthwhile to apply for multiple cards. There's no reason to take a hit on your credit to apply for multiple cards if you can't do the spending required to get the bonuses.

Although there's a lot of research and thought you need to do to answer these questions, I can give you three specific cards that might meet your needs. From the least expensive to the most expensive, the SPG American Express (discussion of its benefits here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html), the Chase Sapphire Preferred (here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...00-points.html), and the Amex Platinum (not an extensive discussion but a good, brief summary that might make you decide whether a $450/year annual fee, not waived the first year, is worthwhile: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-para-5-a.html). This is not an exhaustive list, but the common theme shared by all three cards is the flexibility available in transferring their earned points and miles to multiple hotel and airline programs at a reasonable ratio.

That's a lot of information, and yet it barely scratches the surface. Others will help fill in the many gaps I've not covered. I think this form of analysis, however, will help steer you towards the best card for you.

Thanks for the input! A couple of insights into my next year I probably should have included

1. The credit assumption previously mentioned is accurate

2. travel goals: definitely more travel. I'm moving to the west coast but went to school on the east coast, and want to be able to go back and visit friends (that and a few trips abroad would be nice). But again flexibility is preferred because of general uncertainty.

3. I should have clarified spending habits. I will be paying in full every month. I anticipate a pretty hefty chunk of expenses over the next few months, but after that spending becomes up in the air. The reason for this is because I have the opportunity to live at home (at least until I go crazy), which removes the idea of paying for groceries/rent/utilities (I have nice parents). I will probably be chipping in here or there for some things but not the typical post grad list. My spending (that I expect, again just a projection) will be gas, food (when I'm not at home), plane tickets (when miles are not in the picture), and other random (non-regular) knick knacks (hence my doubt of whether I would be able to spend the 15k extra for the starwood 15k bonus).

4. I've spoken to a few friends at the firm and it seems like there is a strict corporate card policy.

Hopefully this will paint a more complete picture. I've read some good press on the PenFed card. Any particular input on this?

I don't have a PenFed card myself although I could apparently qualify because I am a member of a credit union. There's a discussion here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...20k-bonus.html that seems overall positive with some problems experienced that mostly seem to have been resolved favorably to the posters involved. Keep in mind that the PenFed card operates under an Amex license and is not directly administered by Amex so don't expect the general benefits of some Amex cards (purchase protection, Membership Rewards, etc.). Still, it sounds promising, especially now that PenFed has apparently removed the annual fee requirement.

Given the amount of flying you might be doing and your limited expenses over the next year, I'd definitely look for offers that come with a limited spending requirement. You just missed one, an offer for a Chase Continental card that offered 50,000 CO miles based on the first purchase and a waived annual fee for the first year. The Continental offer is unlikely to be repeated as United and Continental move forward in their merger plans, but another airline might make a similar offer at some point. One of the advantages of frequently reviewing FT is that if such an offer is made, you'll probably know about it within hours.

By the way, it should go without saying that you should become a member of each and every loyalty program for the airlines you will fly and the hotels at which you will stay. And from there, check elite status qualifications. Since you'll likely do weekly travel, flight segments and hotel stays will build up quickly.

Each is one of the criteria by which loyalty programs will determine elite status, which may offer many benefits beyond a room upgrade or a late checkout. For instance, if you're an elite member of the Starwood Preferred Group program, you earn three Starpoints for every dollar spent at a Starwood property; non-elite members only earn two points per dollar spent (BTW, hotel charges on an SPG Amex card would add another two points/dollar to the equation).

Airline programs offer similar extra benefits to those who have elite status. Even if you have little influence over your travel plans for your employer, a little research in the forums will give you more information about the benefits from each of the loyalty programs you will use.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

In the credit card business "benefits" typically refer to features which are offered to all cardholders, such as airline lounge access or insurance. The term "rewards" is used for the miles, points, or cashback which are directly tied to transaction volume.

Be careful not to collect too many incompatible rewards, otherwise you may find yourself with modest balances in several accounts, but not enough to redeem for any reward and certainly not enough for a memorable trip. For example, it's best to be able to combine miles earned by flying (or points earned by hotel stays) with miles or points earned by spending. Until you know which airlines you will fly for business it would be best to look at cards with multiple transfer partners (e.g. Starwood Preferred Guest) -or- to focus on the airline that you will fly for leisure trips.

This has worked with several employers with "strict" use-the-company-card policies. Uncheck the box on the on-line CC application form that says, "I agree to the terms and conditions set forth in the mouseprint herin."

Few employers have had webware clever enough to make that box manditory. Screen-print the form so you can prove at a later date that you applied for the company card. Then, when the accounting department calls you on using a personal card, you butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth opine that your app is lost in the bureauacracy.

Rewards aside, the T's & C's for a company card make it a crappy deal. You give up the CC protections you have in a personal card. You can't dispute a charge.

This has worked for me at several major firms. Dear God, I hope they make better fighter jets than they do web applications!