Unless I am missing something, the TrueEarnings Costco Amex card appears to be a good one.

3% on restaurants
2% on travel
1% on everything else

I see no reference to "up to", and I don't see any convoluted calculations or tiers.

It appears to be a flat % on each type of purchase, with no annual fee if you are a costco member.

The card is a bit lean on other benefits (although it does include the collision damage waiver insurance for rental cars).

The card is also not platinum or anything, and completely lacks flash (in fact, it's kind of ugly IMO if you care about that), but it seems to be better than many of the other rewards cards just by the numbers.

I'm thinking of getting one just to use for dining out.

Added to the list. Good deal for people who area already Costco members or want to join, not as good for other people. I don't see any reference to how you get your cash back (yearly statement credit?), or anything about tiers or limits. I recall the previous Costco card gave you a Costco GC as a reward, but you could cash it if you wanted.

For dining, why is Discover restaurant card with 5% cash back not a better/(best) choice? I have been thinking of getting it.

The Costco-Amex rebate is paid as a Costco store credit check inserted with the Ferbruary billing statement. It CAN be redeemed for cash at the service kiosk in Costco, but since you're there already, you'll probably spend it anyway Is that Discover 5% offer a year-round deal or just for a promotional period?

It's 5% year round for the RESTAURANT card. It's a specific Discover card. I did a Google for some info and it looks like Discover has removed it from the site....maybe they're not offering it anymore?

It's a period offer. Expired in the end of last year.

Hijacked from elsewhere:

Bump for updated cards - added Emigrant Direct's new card (thanks ebytes)

bump for minor updates

The advanta platinum business link points to the old terms and conditions.

Here's the new link:
https://www.advanta.com/index.cfm?fuseactio...y.card_features

I'm curious what people think about this card. It appears to be posted since June '05 and was wondering if you've hit any problems or if the rebate check comes as easily as Chase and Citi.

//krunk (^_^x)

looks like someone else also got an app in the mail today



That sounds like a great deal to me. Forget 2% DPA discount.

Chase Business Rebate Card

Receive 3% cash back on purchases made at any restaurants, office supply stores, gas stations, building supply stores, and hardware and home improvement centers. A 1% rebate will be earned on all other purchases.

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/web...X9&msc=Z0047194

bump for updates

I got an invitation from Advanta business card. I would apply for it for the 5% cash back program they provide. However, I do not own a business. What should I do to get this card. Do they care if you really own a business?

Amex seems not to. If you got an invite, I think it's OK to apply for the card. If they press you just say you're in the planning stages of starting a new business.

Thanks for the advise. I will give it a try.

A little complaint on the AMEX blue cash. They have this annual report, listing all your purchase in different catagories and showing you how the cash rebate were generated. You can download your own copy on your online account info page.

I just downloaded mine.

They listed 70% of my past year's gas purchase as "car service", thus giving me only 1% instead of 5%. And there is no telephone number to call and complain.

Thanks for the heads-up. I just now checked mine, and they've done the same thing.

Sorry to hear that.

Call the number on the back of your card, that's where you would complain. One question though - are you buying lots of gas at Costco/Sam's Club or something like that? I wonder if those get categorized differently than standalone gas stations.

Yeah, I was planning to call & complain until I saw the fine print:Since half of my Costco gas purchases show up as gas purchases, maybe I should leave well enough alone.

I just read the fine print on this card, and it limits you to $25 worth of rewards (or $500 in purchases at 5%) per billing cycle. Not bad if you just plan to use it for gas, but if you really wanted to use it for a business card and get 5% back on your purchases for computers, office equipment, etc., you only get rewards on the first $500/month.

Still much better than the discover gas card which effectively limits you to $60/YEAR in full 5% gas rewards though. Hmmm, maybe I should pick one up just to use for gas. I would always get the 5% on my gas because I spend significantly less than $500/month in gas.

That is true. I plan to use the card on one Dell purchase every month.

Nope. I had a few road trips last year, up and down I-95 between Delaware and Massachusetts (Yay I got it spelled right!). Most of the purchase were made on those gas stations by the highway. Actually, I've never seen a Costco in Del. or Mass. that has a gas station attached.

Update: Just called. They are opening an inquiry to "investigate" why gas station purchases are listed as "auto service". It will take 6 to 8 weeks. Shocking!

Discover Business Card
The fine print

• 5% cashback bonus on (first $2000 of) office supply purchases.
• 2% cashback bonus on (first $2000 of) gas purchases.
• 0.25% cashback bonus at select warehouse clubs & discount stores.
• 0.25% cashback bonus on first $5000 of other purchases.
• 1% cashback bonus on all other purchases.
• Unlimited rewards that never expire.

This would have been a no-brainer if they hadn't capped the office supply purchase cashback bonus. What do others think of this? I suppose it could be worthwhile if you only plan to use it for $2000 worth of office supply purchases every year.

Updated OP with Discover Business Card.

I agree garsh, it seems the main value of this is for office supply purchases. All the other cashback percentages can be beaten with other cards.

Starting August 1st the following changes will be made to the below American Express Products.
...
Blue Cash® from American Express
• Spend limit removed, so no limit to the cash rebate you can earn

Wow, that's nice for people who use their Blue Cash for everything. Now even more incentive to get through the first tier and then use it all the time.

But that first tier thing still sux big time. I hope they can just simply remove that.

Starting October 13, 2006 Citi will lower the 5% cash rebates to 2% on gas, supermarkets and drugstores, but raise utilities to 2%. Looks like Chase is no longer showing their 5% card, so they're probably going to follow suit.

Darn, that's too bad. For ANOTHER 5% cash-back card, try to apply for a new HSBC 5% back card.

Anyone have a cash bonus offer code for the HSBC card

too bad about the citi card, I was going to try and convert my citi AA card to a dividends card

Another option is Amex Blue Cash, but really it's only a good choice if you spend enough yearly and devote most of your purchases to that card.

Just got a letter from Citi saying this. Time to take off the card from my wallet.

Is it true for all citi cards? Mine is a diamond preferred rewards card. It does not give cash rewards, but 5 points for each dollar spent in gas and grocery. I can always convert them into Amazon gift cards.

Are they going to kill this too?

I just heard that Citi is officially ending the Dividend Card.
Did Anyone else hear this? I was going to apply to get one.

Bump for a really old thread, but a useful one.

I need to fix my statement just 3 posts above too. The Citi's thankyou network no longer have any good Amazon gift cards left (now only 3500 points for $25 amazon gift card).

About this thankyou network, somebody on another board was saying you can buy a roundtrip ticket for 25k points fixed. I know that would be a good deal if you live in a remote location which is far from any major airport. But for someone like me living only 10 miles to BOS, I wonder if I can actually get better deals elsewhere.

Tons of questions about Citi's Thank-you network. But since it's not really cash back, maybe I should put those in a new thread.

I still see $50 Amazon GCs for 6000 points, so maybe they just got some back in. No $100 GCs for Amazon though.

That's still less than a 1% return.

I've updated the links and information in the OP. Please feel free to comment or post any additional cards I've missed.

thank you for keeping the thread alive, dewolfxy

Bump. Now that NCL Mastercard is going away (at least the 3% part of it is going away), I'm in search of a new rewards card. Anyone have any suggestions?

So far, the Chase Freedom Plus Visa Signature looks OK, (3% on 6 of 15 categories, 1% on everything else), with a $30 annual fee after first year.

I would rather avoid the annual fee, and would also like better rewards, but I'm not seeing much these days.

https://secure1.sinclairoil.com/soccc_rsc/f...t_services.html

I buy most of my gas at Sinclair, which is mostly in the Midwest and West. At a few stations they still pump your gas and when the price changes, they are the first to drop and last to raise, usually. I seen info at the pump on a 7% cash rebate, which I found on their web site.

Chase Freedom doesn't have an annual fee - or at least there's a version that doesn't. I guess the difference is the free one gives you 3% of 3 of 15 categories, but you get the 6 with a chase checking account I believe. That's a good choice, and then I would get the PenFed card for its 5% on gas and 1.25% on everything else. That pair is a good combo.

The new 2 best cards are Fidelity and Schwab rewards, which are 2% each deposited to your brokerage account with them. You need to open that brokerage account, but there are no minimums and both are good places to invest. Will post more details to the OP when I have time.

Combine those two with the associated Bank 5% back on groceries and you have a killer combo. I use all 3, Associated for Groceries, Chase Freedom for my phone bills, and Penfed for everything else including gas.

OP is updated with the most recent information. Go for the Schwab or Fidelity 2% cards as your primary now - they are both excellent deals. Then add in one of the other cards to use for gas/groceries/drugstore/etc. You can get a really simple 2 or 3-card mix that optimizes your cash back.

The most current version of the Chase Freedom regular card has 3% cash back on 3 categories for the first 6 months, and 1% on everything else, which is a deal-breaker for me. I did get the Chase Freedom Plus Visa Signature card, which has NO cap on earnings in the bonus categories, which are not just for the first 6 months. It has a $30 annual fee after the first year (first year is free), signature perks, and gives 3% on 6 categories and 1% on everything else. Once you get $200 in cash back in your account, you can also redeem that for a $250 check (just like the regular freedom card, only with the freedom plus it is actually possible to get that much without years going by). When this $200=$250 check feature is figured in, it comes out to 3.75% on 6 categories, and 1.25% on everything else. For me it is worth the $30/year annual fee after the first year. The downside is that I'm not sure this card is still available for new cardholders. I converted one of my other Visa Signature cards over to it a few months ago.

What is a brokerage account for? Is it a business or a personal one?