Amex is providing double rewards for some categories for the next year. USAA has a card that offers 5% back on groceries and gas. Any other good ones? I had a Citi card that offered 5% back on groceries, and they just killed the bonus, so I'm looking around for something better.

That card gets worse and worse every year. Plus, Chase cut their stock dividend too by like a gazillion percent! My love affair with Chase is seeming to come to an end.

It's not credit, but Chase's Leisure Rewards debit card is still pretty great. I've earned about $50 in rewards after 5 months of normal spending. Granted, it costs $25 /per card/ (not per account!) per year, but it does pay for itself.

My Citibank AA card still gives $1 = 1 Mile ($1 spent at AA = 1.5 miles). I know it's bound to AA, but it's still holding out under the rules from the old days. I haven't paid for an AA flight for years.

@humphrmi:

Too bad the value of the "mile" can be changed.

Rewards/points/miles cards are all crap. If you base your credit card decision on rewards rather than what matters with a credit card (limit, interest rate, fees, and most importantly how much the bank is known to screw people) you're begging to get screwed.

@William Brinkman: Any dividend cut more than 100% is mathematically not possible.

Haha I just got this letter too. The envelope said something stupid like "your Chase Freedom card just got better!" and I instantly knew that they were cutting back on the rewards program. I signed on to go write Consumerist but I guess someone beat me to the punch.

@humphrmi: I have that same card, but I'm growing weary of it now because the miles don't count towards elite status, which is lame considering that most flights are cheap enough to be bought with cash instead of miles. In fact, it's a lot cheaper to just buy a ticket with money. Also, I found myself looking at purchase prices not in dollar amounts, but in how many miles I'd get. Which is dangerous.

Haha I just got this letter too. The envelope said something stupid like "your Chase Freedom card just got better!" and I instantly knew that they were cutting back on the rewards program. Lame, but I can't say I didn't see this coming. Anyway I signed on to go write Consumerist but I guess someone beat me to the punch.

Sickening how they call lowering the value proposition of the card "benefits". Yeah were that dumb.

As I understand this letter, all they're doing is removing the "gas, grocery store, and fast food" Categories for inclusion in the 3% cash back. Not the actual cash back feature. So I'm pretty sure it will work on other categories like um... beauty salons, and cable/satellite lol pretty shitty categories. The three categories I used most are Gas/Grocery/ and Fast food so this will hit me hard! :( BOO It's time to get an American Express card!

Chase sometimes doesn't do these things uniformly.

They still haven't taken away my 5% at gas, grocery, and drugstores, for example.

The Amazon Rewards VISA. 3% back on Amazon.com purchases. 2% back on restaraunts, gas stations, and drug stores. 1% back on all others.

They occasionally have very beneficial promos as well. From February through March you got 10% back (!!) on all bills paid with your VISA.

I use it for every purchase I make, and have brought in $300 in rewards checks so far this year. Also of note, they seem to have a different customer service department than other Chase cards. They're very helpful, and all native English speakers.

The AMEX Blue Cash is still a great deal.

$1-$6500 in spending: .5% cashback on all purchaes, 1% on Gas, Grocery, and Pharmacy

$6500.01 and up: 1.25% cashback on all purchases, 5% on Gas, Grocery, and Pharmacy.

We averaged about 1.9% cashback last year on our Blue Cash.

I have a Fidelity-branded FIAA MasterCard, where I get 2% on everything back into my son's 529 college savings account with Fidelity. Since I'm putting into that account anyway, fuctionally, it's a 2% cash back card with no annual fee.

Since I'm in fear of that being cancelled, I just got myself a backup card from Upromise which is 1% into another 529 college savings account, but with 10% on some things and 5% on others and so on. Again with no annual fee.

Fidelity VISA Signature, straight 1.5% into your Fidelity brokerage/money market account.

Fidelity also has a 2% card for your retirement accounts. Doesn't help me though as I make $416.66 automatic monthly direct deposits into my IRA.

@jurijuri: $50/ puny.

My Chase Freedom card has earned $170 in the last 5 months. I just hope I can push it to $200 before the June 30th cutoff, or I won't be thinking about soft nerf bats.

@Mad Dog McCree: That $50 bonus was a pretty big drop too, and gas, grocery and fast food make up at least 2 out of 3 categories for me.

I got the letter too. Previously I've been getting 3% on my top 3 categories (and even better deal than the original). Now 1% across the board.

Thinking it's time to get a new card and just put the occasional $25 purchase on this card to keep the account open and in good standing.

Sigh.

I still have my Orchard Bank 2% on everything :)

I got almost the exact same letter from them. The difference is that they still offer the 3% on gas, grocery and fast food purchases but have added a $30 yearly rewards membership fee for this feature! The fee is waved for the first year.

I'm not about to ruin my fun by telling anyone what bank I got my rewards card from, but I get:

2% cashback for the first $5000 spent each year (year resets at anniversary date)
6% back on everything after the first $5000

I've gotten back about $1000 since I started using it in mid-December! I'm surprised they haven't killed it yet. This money is going into ING to pay for my car insurance, home insurance, and property taxes for the year!

Amex is nerfing their American Express Blush Cash card, used to be the best reward card around. Its going from 1.5% to 1.25 on every day purchases.

@AustinTXProgrammer: I have a Citi Professional that I use for gas and fast food, which gives me 3%; I use the Chase Freedom for everything else.

Just got a Citi Driver's Edge card, 2% bonus on all purchases towards a new or used car. I talked to them, you just present proof of purchase (required for used/new sales here by law) and proof of new insurance (obvious). Private or off the lot. $2,500 maximum, must be spent within 5 years.

Works for me.

@jurijuri:

It won't be for long if the credit card reform passes. The companies will need to make up the lost revenue and that'll mean slashing reward programs and reinstituting annual fees on all cards.

@Mad Dog McCree:

For some people, gas, groceries, and fast food might be almost all of the money they spend on their card. Now you only get 3% on food if you eat at a sit-down restaurant with a wait staff it seems. Sure, there are other things you pay for, but not other things you're constantly buying. I buy expensive electronics on a semi-regular basis (getting less regular lately, sadly) but I'd take only those three categories over all others because those are things (excepting fast food) that you NEED to get.

@AustinTXProgrammer: Nice! I use this account just to buy things as we have a separate bill paying account, but I'm tempted to change that just to reap the rewards.

@balilanai: Actually, as an investor, I think the dividend cut was a prudent move, especially since they want to pay back TARP $$ and maintain the health of the business

@Telekinesis123: "were that dumb" hmmmm, we're?

@Mad Dog McCree: Me too ... I have one card that automatically applies the 3% to the top 3 eligible categories I spend in, I use that card for only my phone, cellphone, and satellite bills. So 3% on that. I have a Discover card for 5% for up to the first $100 in gas per month, then after that gas goes on a different Chase Freedom card, along with groceries and everything else. (Except Amazon purchases, which go on the 3% Amazon card.) But now most of my system just went down the toilet.

And to make things worse, I always wait until the $200 mark to redeem to get the extra $50. It sucks they are cutting that too, but I should hit the $200 mark next statement ... which based on their vague timing may or may not be after the change. But for now, I'm putting everything on that card just to make sure I hit $200 in cashback ... and hope it's before they cut the $50 bonus. And if it ends up missing by a few days, I'll be calling exec customer service daily until they can fix it ... it would only be fair to offer a prorated bonus based on the amount earned by the date of the change. (So maybe instead of $50, it would be 44.37) But after that is dealt with, it will be time to switch who I use for everyday purchases. The scary part is the amount of Chase accounts I have ... most are never touched but got moved over from WaMu, CC, etc. And my mortgage.

But so much for $700-900 in cashback/gift certificate/credits per year. I guess I should find out how badly the Chase PerfectCard has gotten nerfed since I last used that a couple years ago ... it used to work well in combination with the Citi Dividend before that one got cut back.

I wonder what Visa and MC think of this? It seems like there's a lot more incentive to pay local merchants with cash/checks instead of credit cards now. Obviously online sales and fast CC acceptance just about anywhere has been most of the recent Visa/MC revenue boosters, but I wonder how much is due to people that change their payment methods based on rewards? I know for me that the cashback rewards have generated a lot of transaction fee revenue for Visa/MC over the years ... I guess it's time to just cut down their piece of the pie, plus it can save local business a little bit each time I shop if I use cash. It's how I used to do it when the only credit card "rewards" were things like airline miles or points redeemable for useless junk, which I have no use or care for.

@bostonguy: Oh, please ruin your fun, that sounds like the perfect card! Much better terms than the other programs I have seen that adjust rewards based on cumulative spent.

And, it still does the job of keeping you using the same card for everything, whether it is to pay for a $700 dryer or a $6 fast food meal. So for most customers that never carry a balance, they can still be profitable.

Chase BP still offers 5% back on BP purchases, but now it's only up to a max of 25$ per month. The other benefits (1% on everything, 2% on dining and such) still have unlimited cash back.

When are we going to start a "credit boycott" and just sink these bad banks into the bottomless cesspool of insolvency where they belong?

@jurijuri: Except it has been nerfed!

I got the same letter. Tells me of improvements to my card but the only thing that stood out was a drop of 3% to 1%. I knew it would be coming.

I believe my Citibank had already done this but it has a max payout each year. My Citibank Shell is 1% but at least it still gives 5% on Shell purchases.

Gone are the days of 3% and 5% rebates.

pentagon federal credit union has a rewards visa w/ 5% cashback on gas, 2% groceries, and 1.25% on everything else, and charles schwab has a flat 2% cashback visa

@johnva: That's the one I have too, it's a pretty great card. Wonder how long it will last...

@yourbffjill: They issued me a replacement when my old one expired recently, so apparently it's still going...

Damn... that's the card I have... have not received that letter yet though

@Skaperen: Some of us already have.

@Crazytree: My Fidelity accounts are worth less than the money I've put into them. And that was true before the crunch--I don't even look at them now.

@Squeezer99: More details on the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Card:

•Earn 2% cash back on supermarket purchases*
•Earn 5.00% cash back from gas purchases paid at the pump*
•Earn 1.25% cash back from all purchases** you make with the card during each billing cycle
•Up to $50,000 limit
•No Annual Fee
•Cash Rewards credited each month
•No special restrictions to earn your cash rewards
•Limited Time- Balance Trasfer of 2.99% APR for the life of the
transferred balance †
•Limited Time- 5.00% cash back on your first $4000 of airfare purchases per month.***

With no available consumer credit, expect your life to become very inconvenient. Even if you personally never use a credit card.@Skaperen:

@Coach Cal Is My Dream Weaver: problem is that Amex isn't taken everywhere.

Charles Schwab has a Visa that's 2% cash back on all purchases. The only catch is that you need to have a Schwab One brokerage account and the 2% back gets put into that account. If you invest with Schwab you can then put the money into your investments, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't just have them cut you a check or wire you every few months to get whatever reward you've accumulated.

GM Card MasterCard (assuming GM is still around when you want to buy a car)
Hilton Honors AMEX
UPromise MasterCard (Great if you have young kids...start saving for college by spending

These cards are all free

I have saved about $7500 on cars in my lifetime, I have earned enough points in the past 6 months (including some bonus points I have earned for recent stays at Hilton) for 3 free nights, and I have about $3000 in my UPromise account for the kids.

I have many different rewards cards that I use for everyday purchases, and when I hit the max allowance of bonus rewards for the year (usually after 3-4 months), I switch to the next card.

@Howie411: All of the card companies are nerfing the programs - Citi's Thank You Network did this exact reduction last October (no more 3% back, etc).

got the same letter. I would keep the card but not with a $30 fee attached. I need to figure out what card to go with now since the Freedom card has been my daily card for a while now.