Best card for shared expenses?
 

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on the best card that my partner and I can use for shared expenses.

Background: we each have our own stable of personal cards we use to pay for our own stuff (and keep the points for ourselves ;)). Right now that's a Sapphire Preferred for each of us. But there are certain expenses we share -- I'd say 90 percent of it is meals/eating out and groceries. Right now we put all shared items on an Amex Costco card, but I'm not convinced a cash-back card is our best value.

Totally open to a points/miles earning card, on the theory that we could use the points for a vacation together, etc. (Would like to avoid co-mingling any "shared" points with the personal accounts we now have.) Any thoughts? I was contemplating the Amex SPG card perhaps..

I'm not sure I completely understand, but I can tell you that Amex is somewhat random when it comes to "shared" accounts.

I opened a Biz Gold card in his name (with his permission of course) and me as an authorized user, and Amex started putting the points in my account, and basically told me that's how it was going to be and there was nothing we could do about it. Which turned out to be fine! However, when we cancelled my Amex Plat, on which my wife was an AU, and got one in her name, and asked if they could put the points in my account, they told us no, and there was nothing we could do about it!

You might have better luck though with Amex, or another card, if you are clear when you sign up what you want/need to do.

It depends on how you normally spend.

I had no such trouble with AMEX - and we use a PRG Amex for Gas / Groceries since it gets 2x points on those categories.

If you already both use UR points, you could try using a Freedom card - which could then be transferred through one of your accounts when you want to redeem them. Check the rotating 5x categories to see if they work for you.