Two Great Credit Cards

I have recently been shopping around for a new credit card. I used all of the accumulated miles on my old card and decided to open up a new credit card for added benefits. My rationale is simple, “why should I accumulate more points on an older card if I can just apply for a new card and receive great benefits for simply owning the card?”

I was previously using the Capital One Venture Card and was receiving 2 miles/dollar spent on the card. I made the decision though that I didn’t care enough about accumulating miles any more and would rather accumulate cash back on all my purchases. If I decide to travel anywhere, I can just buy an airplane ticket with my cash back. Also, I am not locked into only redeeming my credit card points into a flight, I can also redeem my cash back into anything.

Factors into Making My Decision

If my goal is to apply for a cash back credit card, I obviously want to redeem the most percentage for purchases I am making. What this means is that I need to examine my monthly purchases and see which card offers the most back for what I spend money on:

• Rent
• Food: Grocery Shopping
• Restaurants
• Gas
• Alcohol
• Clothes/Shoes
• Miscellaneous

My rent is a non-factor in this decision because I can’t pay my rent with my credit card, unfortunately. Food accounts for 60% of my monthly spending. The other 40% falls between gas/clothes/miscellaneous. My goal is basically to find cards that maximize the cash back on these purchases.

American Express Cash Back

I found the AMEX cash back card that perfectly fit what I was looking for. This card not only gave me cash back on all the things I spend my money monthly on, it also gave me the most cash back beyond what any other credit card company was offering. The card offers 6% cash back on groceries and 3% cash back on gas/clothes and 1% cash back on miscellaneous. The only slight catch was their was an activation fee, however, Amex agreed to waive the fee for 2 years if I spend $1000 in the first 3 months of owning the card.

I immediately applied and was approved for the card, and have never been happier.

Chase Freedom Cash Back

The other card I applied for and activated was the Chase Freedom. Chase offers 5% cash back on gas and no activation fee. I also like that Chase uses this 3 month revolving window of new deals to get 5% on. Last quarter the 5% was on Kohls, theme parks, and movie theaters. Chase conveniently staggers deals throughout the year for consumers to benefit from.

That’s all I have for now. More updates to follow.