Hello -

We are interested in exchanging our credit cards with hidden fees for one with low fees (ie an annual fee is OK, just want to avoid finance charges that start on the day of purchase). We pay off our bill monthly (@ $5K) and often fly United. Looks like Citibank Premier Select has gotten good reviews? Any other recommendations?

Thanks

How about a United Mileage Plus Visa card - with 20,000 free miles for signing up, and an $85 annual fee?

I don't know of any credit cards that, if you pay in full, start charging interest from the posting date.

Would you use your miles for upgrades or coach tickets?

Many people who want to get into the frequent flier game often automatically assume that they need to get an airline affinity card, when in fact they'd get a much better bang for their CC$ with hotel awards. Ignoring sign-up bonuses for a second, if you go for coach awards, $50K on a United Mileage Plus Visa card will get you two domestic coach tickets; $50K on a Starwood Amex will get you 5 nights at the Princeville (off-peak) or any other cat 5 property (or 6 nights at a cat 4); on a Hilton Amex it would get you at least six nights at any hotel up to a cat 5, and probably get you a 6-night award at a cat 6 (when you factor in the 5x spending) - you'd also get gold status with that much annual spending. A five-night award at the Princeville blows away two domestic coach tickets.

Get the United Mileage Plus Visa for the bonus miles, but take a look at hotel affinity cards.

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I agree. With Hilton AMEX, $50k in spending is close to 6 nights at a cat 6 property. Thats worth about $1800. Thats a much higher return than an airline card in most circumstances.

Only if you would actually pay $300 a night to sleep...

Each of you could also (in addition to the UAL card) get the two American Airlines cards, free for a year, with a total of 35,000 miles for each of you for first purchase. That's enough for cattle class tickets from the US to as far as the Carribean or Central America, last I looked. (I recommend Peru, Costa Rica, and, for the more adventurous, Guatemala.)

Details and links to these and the UAL card on the Annual Fee Card page of the Credit Card section of my website below.

I was going to suggest the SPG (Starwood) Amex as the best choice, as the airline transfer rates are much more favorable than from HHonors, but then I noticed that United is one of the few 2:1 transfers.

Still, that might be a good route for the OP to reap a choice of hotel and/or airline rewards since SPG does redeem at 1:1 with USAir as well as 1:1 or otherwise favorable rates with other Star Alliance partners that could be used for United award tickets. (And that's really 1:1.25 with the 25% bonus on transferring 20k points.) $30/yr for the SPG card, and you get SPG Preferred Plus status (Gold-level upgrades, 4pm late checkout) as well as a yearly SPG50 50% off cert. Definitely better than the Hilton Amex as far as rewards go if you're not certain you'll be using them for hotel stays or for airline awards. (And SPG does cash+points awards which is rather nice. Of course Hilton has a lot more properties, and more value-oriented brands, so that might need to be taken into account; but the airline transfers are much less favorable.)

If United miles are really preferred, though, then a United affinity card would be the best route. There don't seem to be any programs that transfer well to United; Amex MR, Diner's Club, and HHonors all don't support United, and as noted SPG is at 50% point value.