Best Rewards Value out of All Credit Cards?
 

I currently have an AMEX Business Gold Card and Chase Amazon Rewards Card.

I realized I should probably stop using the card which offers the least amount of rewards value. Has there been indepth analysis done before on which type of card offers the most valuable reward system? And if so, which type of reward you should card in on using your points (most bang for buck).

I have about 50,000 points with both credit cards and it would be a major hassle to see how much was spent on each credit card total in order to determine how many points I received per $$ spent per card.

Which rewards value matters to you of course depends on what you use rewards-wise. Back when I flew to PIT regularly, my US Airways card was more useful than it would be today when I hardly ever use US Airways any more.

My only interest is getting the most dollars per 1,000 points. Whether that is travel or electronics does not matter to me.

I happen to think the BA Visa from Chase is a great value card, though I suppose this depends partially on your location and your travel habits.

For a quick, real world example on something I might be looking to book right now, I looked up a flight on 19 January, LAX-JFK one way on American (economy).

To book onto AA 34 with cash would cost $149.70 as of right now.

The same flight with Avios is 12,500 points and a $2.50 security charge.

Which leaves you with $147.20 worth of value for 12,500 Avios. That works out to roughly 84.9 Avios per dollar. These values are even better when flights booked with cash are more expensive during the high season.

At 1.25 Avios per dollar earned on purchases, that's $67.92 spent on the card to earn $1 in rewards, not counting the sign-up bonus (up to 100k Avios, or $1,177 in rewards according to my formula above) or money spent on BA flights (2.5 Avios per dollar).

Also, there is a $95 annual fee. But if it interests you, there are no foreign transaction fees and the card now includes an EMV smart chip for greater ease of use whilst traveling abroad. You also get a 2-4-1 "Companion voucher" when you've reached $30,000 spend in a calendar year which is valid for two years and allows you to book any flight on BA metal and only spend the Avios equivalent for one person (you need to pay the taxes & fees for two, though).

This would be a mediocre redemption. Spending 12,500 points to save $147.50 is only $0.0118 per point, less than half of what you should be able to realize if redeeming for business or first class travel.

1.25 X $0.0118 = 1.475%. If you intend to redeem for inexpensive economy class tickets you would do much better with a Citi Premier card (2.66%, if you fly enough)) or a Capital One Venture card (2%).

"Value" is in the eye of the beholder.

A "major hassle"? Time to read a BUNCH of threads on this forum and MilesBuzz! forum. You'll have to do the analysis & make your own decision. What's "best" for you is not "best" for me. Some of use cherish hotel points & some cherish airline miles. Some only want to GC or cash. There is no "one most valuable" system.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. To me, value is the smile I got from my beloved when I told her our winter vacation flight would be in Biz instead of steerage. This cost me most of my Chase Sapphire sign-up bonus. Well worth it.

Miles are secondary to me. Mostly I go for rewards denoted in dollars. The time it takes to accumulate enough miles for a reward is usually larger than airlines' devalue-the-miles cycle. Next month I will get $400 from my Costco Amex. I will get $500 in Subaru bucks from my Chase Subaru MC. There are no blackout dates to redeem dollars. :p

I like have the Option to get cash back. I just got $1,100 cash back from my Chase Ink. I also have the Sapphire which offers that option as well.

It's not as simple as choosing the one card with the best redemption. You have to look at rewards in three separate ways:
1. Value of the Reward: this is how much you can get back per point or mile.
2. Earn Rate: this is how many points/miles you get per dollar spent. Many cards offer point multipliers for spending in certain categories.
3. Redemption Options: this is what you can get with your points. It could be cash back, gift cards, merchandise, direct purchase of travel, airline miles, hotel points, etc.

Choosing the best card is really a combination of all three, factoring in what you want with your rewards.

+1

There is no "best" card .... just lots of good to great ones.

Unless you spend big $$$$$$ then what you get for monthly/annual spending is insignificant to the bonuses for getting a new card. If you are looking to having/using only one or two cards then you probably aren't going to get anything worthwhile. If you take the time to check out the forums/posts here you will realize the big returns are for "churning" lots of cards .... recent bonuses have been in the range of your total balance of 50K points per card.

True value of travel rewards card versus cash back card
 

I recently received a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and plan on applying for some other travel rewards cards as I'd like to get into the churning game. I'm looking to do some traveling which would mostly be backpacking through Latin America, staying at small hotels and hostels. Occasionally a rental car may be needed, but I'll have very few expenses in the way of resort hotel rooms, baggage fees, etc. I'd also prefer to save money by flying coach and using whatever airline might be cheapest at the time, even Spirit Airlines (although I'm currently trying wanting points to stack with an existing AA credit I have). My typical spending on my current Discover More credit card seems to be around $2000 a month consisting primarily of bills and "general purpose" spending, with a fair amount of restaurant spending.

Once I've hit my minimum spending requirements to receive my miles from these various travel credit cards, does it make sense for me to continue using my Chase Sapphire for all my credit card purchases?

In general, how does the dollar value of the miles earned from using the Chase Sapphire compare with what could be earned with strategic use of cash-back cards? I know this is a difficult question to answer, but I'm looking for some perspective. Thanks.

Without going in-depth....The Chase UR points will always be better than discover's "cash back". The chase points can be transferred out to airlines/hotels, or if you prefer can be a straight 1point=1cent conversion applied directly to your statement. Discover makes you redeem for gift cards IIRC.

Basically, UR points have no downside and can do everything the Discover card can do (except 5% cash back, but that's what the freedom card is for :D )

Don't forget that you also get a 7% annual bonus on all the points earned from your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

I like the UR points a LOT. They are very flexible for both cash back as well as rewards points. If you also have a Chase Freedom card, you can combine the UR points earned from both cards. It's nice to use the Freedom card for the 5% rotating categories.

For me, the CSP card is a keeper.

The 2x points on Travel and Dining, as well as the 25% bonus on redeeming flights with UR points make it worth it for me to keep this card. Also if you read the fine print regarding travel insurance and protection, the CSP card offers a lot of benefits.

I can't speak for UR but I love my Discover card Cashback is great. You CAN redeem for gift cards yes... but I can also get $ to $ statement credit or direct deposit to my bank. A new thing that came up recently is if you link your card to Amazon you can use $ to $ on purchases at amazon.com. I have an Citi HH and and Citi AA, I would rather have the 5% cash back on purchases the 2X HH points or $/mile on spending. I have have my spending set for the rest of the year on discover and by taking advantage of all the 5% quarterly categories and doubling up ( buying fandango GC through Discover shopping portal during %5 cash back on movie tickets) I will come out with over $600.

My plan is to either deposit the money or buy an Ipad. Heck forget about the miles, I could purchase 2 rt tickets for that amount of money.


I'm new so my opinion may not matter. But what I do is buy on my discover card until I max out my limit on cash back bonus. Also making sure to double dip. If I can't make my max lets say for the gas promo, then I just buy a gas gift card for the remaining amount. Then use the card when the gas promotion is over. I'm earning %5 on my purchases on gas right now lol even though the promotion ended last month. I use HH at the Grocery store and I use AA to buy Gold on ebay.

To answer the OP question, I value cash back over mile/points there's no comparison. Strategic buying to get money back is best

Thanks for the replies guys.

From what I'm gathering, it seems that the Discover More card that I have does provide a better selection of higher grade "% cash back" offers in the 10-15% range than what I can find in the Chase UR store. Chase does offer plenty of good rewards though.

With the Chase Sapphire preferred however, the 25% bonus you get when buying airline tickets through their portal is simply devastating. I just noticed that their price aggregator includes Spirit airlines, which will be great (more like a necessary evil) for my low budget travel plans. Combining that with the rotating category bonuses of the Chase Freedom, really seems like the way to go. I will continue using my Discover More card however, when really good promotions come around like the 2% cash back for bills they are offering for the rest of the year.