Best Cards for Non-Bonused Spend?

Old Oct 27, 2017, 2:48 pm
  #1  
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Best Cards for Non-Bonused Spend?

Trying to find the top earning cards for non-bonused spend.

2.625% "Cash Back" - BofA Travel Rewards with platinum honors status. Must be redeemed for travel which somewhat reduces value as it's bonused spend on other cards, but still easily beats the slew of straight 2% cash back cards.

2 MR - Amex Business Plus on first $50k spend
1.5 MR - Amex Every Day Preferred. Drawbacks are the $95 annual fee and 30 transactions per cycle.

1.5 UR - Chase Freedom Unlimited

Anything better out there?
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Old Oct 27, 2017, 3:28 pm
  #2  
mia
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Last year's discussion here, for reference:

2016 "best" credit card for general spending (non bonus category expenses)
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Old Oct 27, 2017, 7:36 pm
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JCB Mitsuwa/Marukai "3%" are options too, but limited states/markets
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Old Oct 27, 2017, 11:09 pm
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Originally Posted by mia
Thanks for the link. Doesn't seem much has changed besides the addition of the Business Plus as a good option.


Originally Posted by paperwastage
JCB Mitsuwa/Marukai "3%" are options too, but limited states/markets
Ah...forgot about this card. If I recall correctly, limits were low and it was a pita to use. Will take another look at it. Thanks!

Last edited by philemer; Oct 27, 2017 at 11:23 pm
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 8:10 am
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There is also the Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature - 3% cash back the first year, then 2.5% cashback after that. $59 annual fee waived the first year.
http://www.alliantcreditunion.org/ba...signature-card
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 11:08 am
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Originally Posted by FlyingChuck
Trying to find the top earning cards for non-bonused spend.

2.625% "Cash Back" - BofA Travel Rewards with platinum honors status. Must be redeemed for travel which somewhat reduces value as it's bonused spend on other cards, but still easily beats the slew of straight 2% cash back cards.

2 MR - Amex Business Plus on first $50k spend
1.5 MR - Amex Every Day Preferred. Drawbacks are the $95 annual fee and 30 transactions per cycle.

1.5 UR - Chase Freedom Unlimited

Anything better out there?
The BofA Premium card but has 95 annual fee. You can earn the same as BofA travel card but you can redeem at 1% cash back.
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 11:36 am
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Originally Posted by DrForce
There is also the Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature - 3% cash back the first year, then 2.5% cashback after that. $59 annual fee waived the first year.
http://www.alliantcreditunion.org/ba...signature-card
Great card! Would definitely get if I didn't already have the BofA Card. Not too much of a pickup (year 1) and the lack of a signup bonus...


Originally Posted by trikotret
The BofA Premium card but has 95 annual fee. You can earn the same as BofA travel card but you can redeem at 1% cash back.
Ooooh. Didn't know this could be redeemed for cash. Straight 2.625% back along with the 50k bonus... count me in!
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 11:43 am
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Well, for 1st year Discover It miles matches. So 1.5% becomes 3%. This is the highest cashback card on everything with no limits on spending I know of.
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 8:46 pm
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There is also USAA Limitless at 2.5% on everything with no annual fee. You have to be able to get a USAA account though, and have USAA checking with direct deposit every month. Also, you cannot live in a state that they do not like.
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 11:56 pm
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Thanks for all the suggestions! Glad to see that I haven't been leaving that much on the table.

This thread made me do a deeper dive... realized I've been undervaluing MR points. I exclusively use them to transfer to airlines for premium awards with the bulk of my transfers to partners during bonus windows. Uncertainties of the bonus aside, this definitely makes (in my mind) 1 MR > 1 UR and will correspondingly cause a shift in spend.
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 9:09 am
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Originally Posted by FlyingChuck
Trying to find the top earning cards for non-bonused spend.

2.625% "Cash Back" - BofA Travel Rewards with platinum honors status. Must be redeemed for travel which somewhat reduces value as it's bonused spend on other cards, but still easily beats the slew of straight 2% cash back cards.

2 MR - Amex Business Plus on first $50k spend
1.5 MR - Amex Every Day Preferred. Drawbacks are the $95 annual fee and 30 transactions per cycle.

1.5 UR - Chase Freedom Unlimited

Anything better out there?
There is another thread on this:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cred...purchases.html
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 11:18 am
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Originally Posted by yugi
Thanks!!

Gah! Always assumed earnings was the same on both Personal and Business Platinum cards. The 1.5 for trans > $5k on the Business is nice! Will likely forego the Everyday Preferred now.
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 4:00 pm
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Originally Posted by FlyingChuck
Ooooh. Didn't know this could be redeemed for cash. Straight 2.625% back along with the 50k bonus... count me in!
The regular travel rewards can be redeemed for straight cash if you happen to have Another certAin no fee cArd with them.
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 5:24 pm
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Originally Posted by FlyingChuck
Thanks!!

Gah! Always assumed earnings was the same on both Personal and Business Platinum cards. The 1.5 for trans > $5k on the Business is nice! Will likely forego the Everyday Preferred now.
it depends on much you spend per month in those non-categories. If you're high spender, I'd go with USBank Altitude Reserve + Samsung Pay.
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Old Nov 2, 2017, 10:56 pm
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You can also us the US Bank Altitude Reserve with Android Pay to turn lots of non-bonused spend opportunities into bonused spend. It gets 3x on mobile wallet transactions, and an increasing number of both online and brick-and-mortar places accept it.
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