Good and bad credit cards

[bczoom]

Thought we had a thread on this awhile back but I can't find it.

What credit cards do you like/use? Others you have or had that you don't like.

Myself, my "go to" card an Amazon card through Chase bank. There's no annual fee and it offers great perks. So far this year, I've gotten back nearly $300 in rewards. Not bad for a card with no annual fee.

Mrs. Zoom pretty much uses cards offered through hotel or airlines. She does a lot of traveling for vacations and gets some really nice perks for airline and hotel deals. She's bounced around a few cards but her current "go to" cards are with IHG (hotels) and Allegiant (airlines). She seems to get a lot of free hotel nights as well as constant upgrades for hotels. For the airline card, she gets a LOT cheap flights. I've seen her get one-way airline tickets for $5.00. I "think" she pays annual fees for these cards but more than makes out in the perks.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

3% on PayPal purchases - 2% on everything else: https://www.paypal.com/us/digital-wallet/manage-money/paypal-cashback-mastercard
I pump just about everything through this card and easily get $1000-2000 back every year.

 

[tiredretired]

I use cash mostly. The old fashioned money. About the only time I use a card is at gas pumps as it is a pain in the ass to prepay. I have the card on Apple Wallet, so the iphone does the work.

Which credit cards do I like? None of them. I realize I could get one of them with cash back but I just don't spend enough anymore to fuck with that shit.

 

[chowderman]

all "non-fee" . . .

- a AAA card that does a 5% discount on gas - any station, any brand....
- a Discover card that does 1.5% cash back - used mostly for Amazon - makes checking the bill easy...
. . . the occasional 'discount' for using Discover Bonus funds....
- a USAA Visa that also does 1.5% cash back on everything - the daily charger - couple hundred cash back now and thither....

- a USAA Amex card for when you want to leave home . . . if you're going to somewhere it's accepted.....
- another USAA Visa that does not do 'foreign exchange fees' . . . those get outrageous....

doing European travel I always had USAA MasterCard aka EuroCard, USAA VISA, and (usually corporate paid) AMEX on hand.
not many owner-operated hotels/restos/etc would accept Amex - too costly for them.

- a no-fee airline card - thirty years I did a lot of international/domestic travel. being the 'top tier club(s)' I'd get free upgrades to Business Class, double flight miles, plus double dollar miles for tix bought with the card. gave miles to two of the kids - 1st Class - one to Bali for a designation wedding (not hers...) and one for an African safari trip - and still have a bundle of miles.... I use the card every quarter just to keep the miles account active. yes, I did ponder about Dear Daughter heading off on an African Safari . . . bit more moxy than I'dda thought.... good on 'er!

I prefer to use cash to support local shops/businesses - surprisingly many of them have gone cashless since covid.
only the fish monger has maintained a sign "Cash Preferred"

no nuttin's about interest rates and such - living within our means = all bills are paid in full every month....

the PayPal card I threw out years back. PayPal - "the biggest name in electronic payments" - their card was issued by some podunk bank in a teensy town - and they _did not accept electronic CheckFree payments_ !! HOLY KRAPOLA!
the second time I got hit for "late payment" I refused their charges and told them they could erase the fees or deal with a lawyer, when they explained my March payment check must have been delayed by the Christmas mail....
apparently they'd get the USPS mail, put it in a box to "age" - so they could claim late payment fees....

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

I don't have any of those issues with the PayPal card and I have been using it for over five years. The only issue(s) I have had with it are that I can't load it into my Apple Wallet and their fraud detection algorithm is really aggressive. Buying stuff internationally often triggers the fraud alert process which can be kind of a hassle. I have to call ahead when I travel to make sure they don't trigger the fraud system.

 

[power1]

I threw my credit cards away many years ago. Credit card companies are not in the business of giving money away. I hear about these people who get money back from them but for ever one that does there is a million that pay high interest on theirs.