mikesyr18

Have you actually tried or do you just rely on the stickers advertised on the front door. I tend to find many don't advertise it on the door, like my PCP doctor's office or my eye doctor.

Need

For Aramark I am 100% sure they don't take Amex at my work. As for small stores, I usually don't look at the stickers. Asian stores don't like Amex because of their fee and not many people use it anyway. I just did my tax for my own store. My Amex 1099K is about 3% of total credit card 1099K. Since I don't take Discover, 97% of them are Visa/Mastercard.

Oh and one time I went to an Asian restaurant and when I asked for the check, they gave it to me inside an Amex black folder. So I thought.. cool they take Amex. I put my card in, they took it.. came back.. told me they don't take Amex. LOL.

Tizzette

I use Citi Hilton Reserve for 5x on groceries and I forget the x on gas. Those purchases help me meet the $10,000 spend requirement for an annual free weekend night. Last year I used mine at the Waldorf Boca Beach Club, where it saved me around $400. Nobody's mentioned the CHR, do you think this is bad strategy?

mikesyr18

Typical of an an American merchant to have a payment culture in their store that doesn't make sense.

1. Advertise American Express on your store's receipt and card folders.
2. Take the card to the back (if the place doesn't take AMEX, why?)
3. Come back and say they don't take AMEX despite advertising it.
4. The fact that they take your card away in the first place.

sdsearch

In case anyone wants a big list of cards with higher-than-average earnings on grocery spend, Doctor of Credit did an article on it earlier this week:
HH Surpass was indeed on that list.

HawkeyeFlyer

Excellent point

Tizzette

Why is Amex Hilton Surpass with 6x better than Citi Hilton Reserve 5x + Annual Free Weekend Night, assuming you meet the $10,000 spend? I have been able to use mine on $300-400 hotel rooms. I suppose because there is a no annual fee version of Surpass.

eajusa

This thread is discussing cards in relationship to their value with grocery spend. Your question is about comparing two different HH cards with a whole host of different spending categories and benefits.

isle-hawg

For the OP it sounds like Surpass makes most sense year-round to you. The Chase Freedom at 5% is a good alternative for your first $1500 is grocery spend this upcoming quarter starting April 1.

Tizzette

My comparison is on the grocery category. Surpass has 6x on groceries, and Reserve has 5x on groceries plus the added benefit of an annual free night certificate if you spend $10,000 on the card.

eajusa

The Citi Hilton Reserve has 5 times on airline tickets and car rentals and offers a one weekend night cert after spending $10K each year. It has no bonus on groceries. American Express does have another HH Card with no annual fee that give 5 times on groceries.

yugi

Actually CSR is only $55 more than PRG in the first year, and for all consecutive years after all the airline/travel reimbursements. Prestige gives the best roadside assistance out of all cards, I think, which also includes some towing.
From premium cards I have 2x CSR (gonna downgrade 1), Prestige, 2x CNB Crystal, and now I'm getting an upgrade from BGR to Biz Plat.

sdsearch

I'm used to getting 50000 miles or such for $3000 spend in 3 months or whatever. Yes, sometimes it requires $5000 spend but sometimes it only requires $1000 or $2000 spend, which is why I think $3000 spend makes a decent average. $10000 of spend is thus about 3 signup bonuses' worth of spend on average. Just one free night certificate thus doesn't seem to me to be worth diverting $10000 of spend from signup bonuses to Reserve.

Of course, if you don't do any credit card signups most years, you may have totally different view of things. But I travel enough that just one free night certificate a year doesn't get me very far, no matter how little or how much work it took to get it.

And it's easy to get free night certificates from other hotel programs for way less. With IHG it requires having a $49/year credit card, no actual spend. WIth Mariott it requires having a $85/year credit card, no actual spend, but in Marriott's case it's capped at category 5, which may not suit some people.

Compared to those, having to spend $10000 on one card (on which I'd never spend that much "naturally") just to earn one more free night certificate doesn't seem a good return on money to me. But again that's just me.

It may be quite different, for example, for someone who uses the card at Hiltons and who spends a lot of money at Hilton properties each year. For them, $10000 spend on that one Hilton card may be very "natural". Also, someone who has tons of business spend each year will look at spend amounts way differently than someone who only has modest amounts of personal expenses each year.

mikesyr18

You are a great man. I had no idea Citi covered all roadside services with that card. They should advertise it on their main page for the card.

bigbuy

You may want to take a look at the Citi thread on flyertalk
"Anyone used Citi Prestige roadside assistance"
Look at the last 3 posts- 41,42,43.