Cash Back Credit Cards

Good point by steve ( capped at 12.00 a month) for the freedom card…. also i recommend shell gas card by citi at 5% off gasoline, not diesel and 1% everything else. rebates redeemed every billing cycle. must have decent credit kinda hard to get

I wish I would have read Steve’s comments before applying for the Chase Freedom. But nevertheless, you still get $50 CashBack after first use. That is a decent signup bonus. That is all I’ll use the card for now!

Chase sucks ass. I have been with them for 6 years; I pay off my credit card in full every month with a minimum of 2,000 a month (that’s a lot of interchange money for them). For some reason 1 payment was 1 day late I guess because of the mail … they refused to reverse the fee. I am finding another card simply based on this. POOR LOYALTY.

I totally agree with Holly. I was with Chase for over 18 years, always pay my balance off in full and never made a late payment in my life. I went online & paid my monthly balance but it obviously didn’t take. They charged $39 late fee & $44 interest. I called and they acknowledged that I have never been late & apologized for the error but would do nothing to waive their fees. I got online the same day and applied for a card with another bank. Loyalty means nothing to Chase Bank.

I got the same letter that JR got about Chase reducing their rebate amounts. Is there another card that offers 5 points on gas, groceries and drug store purchases and 1 point for everything else?

Also, are there any other good introductory freebie offers with any credit cards?

EmigrantDirect online bank has a credit card that pays 1.4% cash back on all purchases if you also have an online savings acct with a balance of at least 10k. also it is ongoing, it’s not just for a few months.
Check into it at emigrantdirect.com

Ok. So, which card(s) would you recommend going with? I buy groceries and gas, not much else right now with the economy the way it is. Any advice on the best cash back card on all purchases/gas? - Thanks!

I have the Chase Rewards card. It’s still doing the 5% for gas/grocery/drugstore. I just recieved a check for $950. However, there is a 30,000 point per year cap, so I’m now using my Costco AmEx Business card for my Gas. It too pays 5% for gas, plus 3% at restaurants, even at McDonalds… 2% on traves… plane/train, hotel/motel… an d1% on the rest… I’m liking it.

I recommend you avoid Chase like the plague. I have a card with them and after 4 years of constant use, always on time, they now attack my credit on a disputed (and paid) medical charge from 5 years ago. In my opinion this company is made up of the 2008 Wall Street people that brought us disaster. Don’t do business with disaster. Ever. I won’t ever work with these folks again.

Add one more Ex-Chase customer. Have a perfect payment record, account for over 8 years, avg $2500/mo in charges ………….one payment was 1 day late and they want to hit me with $60 late fee/interest. Those morons have calculated that they will come out ahead by charging this one time fee and losing my business forever. That’s exactly why the banking/credit industry is where it is today. Fuk’em and feed’em fishheads.

I used to use Citibank all the time, but applied for a Chase card because of a good reward program. What I like about Chase even better than the reward program is that they let me set up an automatic payment from my bank account so I don’t have to remember to log in every month to pay it. So I don’t get late fees. Same for my Target Visa. So I don’t end up using my Citi card much anymore, because they didn’t have that in the past. I wish more card comparison sites showed whether you can have automatic payment at your due date online. Very important feature for forgetful folks like me.

I have been using the Citi cards and they are great. I’m always looking for others but havent found anything better yet. I have different cards
to use for different situations
Drivers edge gives 6 cents on each dollar the first year on gas/food and 3 cent on everything else after that 3GF/1
no annual fee. It also gives you a point for each mile you drive! So if you
go 20K a year you get 200 dollars
There is a cap of $ 1000 earned a year of which $500 can be from driving

American Express Platinum gives 5GF/3 the first two years with
no annual fee the first year and $125 after that also 15000 points
after I think $750 use However this card is not accepted everywhere
so then I use Drivers Edge for GF which now gives me 3 points
per dollar and Premium pass Elite (below) for other things which gives 1 point which
can be matched agains the miles from a flight.

PremiumPass Elite gives 2GF/1 (20000 points for first $600 spent) however if you get flights, the
mile you fly get matched agains points you earned e.g.
if you flew 10000 miles and you bought 5000 in gas the
5000 in gass would give 10000 points and then the 10000 miles
flow would be matched agains the 10000 points to give 20000
points. This card also has a deal that for 20K points you get
a flight in US/Canada up to $400, Europe 60K points gives up the
$1200, Asia 80K points gives up to $1600

YOu can also merge the points from all cards on the thankyou network
and then use the Premium plus to but the ticket.

So for instance using the drivers edge if you put 7000 on in gas
and food on it the first year thats $420 or (42000 points for thankyou network) and drive 20000 miles you would be able
to transfer 62000 points to thank you network. Then if you
have the Premium pass you could by a ticket to Europe with
60000 points which costs up to $1200.

Furthemore you can get great flight/car/hotel deals through
Premium Pass. During the summer I was interested in
going to Denver from NYC for 4 days. With a 4 star hotel,
flight and economy car it was 65000 points.

I went on this site to obtain valuable information and all that I’ve found is that Chase gets bashed and Citi gets praised. Hmm, this has NOT been my personal experience - I have found BOTH to be about the same.

The skeptic that I am, though, came out even more when I read the Dec 2 post from Matt and Dec 8 post from Craig R. Gosh, both start out almost exactly the same way - as if they were following a script!?!

And don’t overlook that wedged between those two posts is Reid writing about how great Citi is!?!

I’m NOT a “conspiracy” type of guy, but there are an awful lot of coincidences on this site.

BTW, I have a Citi Diamond Preferred and a Chase Freedom card. I mostly use the former - so, I’m clearly not flacking for Chase - just expressing my “opinion!”

Add me to the list of fed up Chase customers. I also go hit for the $39 late fee plus interest for being one day late, even though the due date was on a Sunday ( I pay by electronic transfer from my bank). This after many years of perfect payment history. I almost cancelled on the spot, but the phone rep reminded me that I would lose any accrued points and I was due a $100 cash bonus. I have stopped using the card and once I get the check, I’m bailing on these guys. Good riddance…

Funny about Chase, because I am at this site looking for a new card because of Chase’s recent model of service. Over the past few years, I have had a payment or two late (either because of mail or otherwise). With a good payment history (pay in full each month) they always waived any fee AND finance charge.

In December, I completely forgot to schedule my online payment (my fault), and paid in full 2 days late. They agreed to waive the late fee but not the Finance charge, saying this is their “new policy”. This from one of the supervisor—not the call center rep in India.

While I don’t feel any of these companies care about customer service, the only thing I can do it take my business elsewhere.

PS: This is not a fradulent message–just an individual consumer’s point of view.

For all those looking for a great gas card and have their stores near them, I recomment the Marathon credit card, for new customers they are 10% for all Marathon purchases and 2% for all others, after the trial it goes in half, but what I really like is that it goes for all purchases made in the store!! so 5% of a 12 pack of beer when I get a fillup is good!. Unlike Shell where its 5% only for the gas and not their store purchases. I think that really sucks.
As for the all the Chase haters, I had a similiar issue where I was one day late, but they reversed it, I have the freedom and I am not capped at 12 bucks a month. I also have the mastercard freedom which I don’t believe they offer anymore.
I used to have the citi advantage where it was 5% off gas/grocery/drugstore, then they dropped it down to 2%, then I dropped them.

Discover card is really great too.

Dittos on Chase! I actually got so torqued off on this that I filed a complaint with the FTC. I have also been with Chase for years with no, repeat no, late payments. I was paying my Chase Credit Card from my newly set-up Chase Checking account. I got the Chase Checking for their on-line bill pay capabilities. The FIRST time I went to use the on-line bill pay, it didn’t post on-time and they charged me the $39. I complained a lot and got it reversed. They then charged interest and wouldn’t reverse that so I cancelled the card. After I cancelled, my final bill pay was “delayed” again. My complaint fell on deaf ears until I filled out the FTC complaint form. Never had this problem with Discover, but it isn’t accepted internationally or at golf courses; otherwise I’d stick with them.

Anyone interested in a class-action lawsuit?

It’s funny how people will change credit cards after a fee is charged to them. It’s probably because there are so many options of applying for credit cards these days. I’m weary of these cashback cards simply because of the high fees for not paying on time. Some charge 18% interest and they give people back 5%, they still make their 13% off of consumers.

I am fed up with Chase. I always pay my balance in full each month on time for years. Two months ago I paid my balance after 4 pm on the due date, Chase said it’s past due according to the policy, I was charged with late fee and finance charge totaling $80. The 1st time I called, even when speaking to supervisor, they would not remove neither the late fee nor the finance charge. The 2nd time the late fee was removed, but not the finnace charge After I paid the balance in full, the next statement still has $20 finance charge. I was told it takes TWO billing cycles to pay off the finace charges. Chase really knows how to treat customers! I am taking my business somewhere else!

I have had the Blue Cash from American Express for 2 years now, and I absolutely love it. I first got their One card, which offered 1% cash back which they automatically deposited into a high-yield savings account, but when I was approved for the Blue Cash and realized there’s only no annual fee for the One card in the first year ($35 thereafter), I closed that account and now I try to only use Blue Cash for gas, groceries, and drug store purchases and my Household Bank card for everything else (it gives me 2% everywhere all the time , no matter how much or little I spend).

Drawbacks with Blue Cash:
If you spend less than $6500 in a year, you only get 1% back on gas, groceries, and drug stores and .5% everywhere else. However, if you do spend more than that, you’ll get 5% on gas, etc and 1.5% on all others. Also, you get your “cash back” once a year (the anniversary of when you opened your account) and it’s automatically credited to your account.

I don’t know if Household Bank still offers the 2% card to new customers, but if it does, I would highly recommend it. There’s no minimum to spend to receive cash back, and there’s no cap on how much you can earn in one year. Also, you can request a check for your cash back any time you have earned $25 (I’m only slightly upset that they just changed it from $20 to $25).

http://cardbonus.spaces.live.com/blog/
There has a free $100 amazon card to get in a simple and clear way.
Addition $200 credit if you apply sony card, end tomorrow.

I love my Chase Freedom cards. Chase also has my checking account, increasing me to 5 categories for 3%. Plus, in those months I spend a lot, I opened a second credit card to overcome the limit on the 3% cap. All the complaints seem to be about missing a payment and blaming Chase for holding the person to the terms of their contract. I don’t feel I am entitled to preferential treatment, not sure why others feel deserving? The world does not operate for my benefit. If you have concerns about missing payments, set up automatic payments 2 days prior to due date? All this loyalty belief is silly. Most of us are fickle customers of limited duration. We have no loyalty to Chase, why do you expect it from them? All those preaching loyalty would leave Chase the moment they get a better offer from the competition. I know I will. For now, I am milking Chase, and Citi (Driver’s Select) for all I can.

well i just recieved notice from discover card that all the card rebate will bereduced by more than and on some of them they are reducing rebates to only 1/4% how about that crap ..i am cutting my card up and will send it to them with final billing..

Discover just launched a new cash back credit card. Gives you up to 5% cash back on popular purchases and 1% for all others with no anual fee and 0% intro APR. Low 10.99% after 6 months. You can get the card here:
http://www.cardz.com/Compare_Credit_Cards/Discover

People who pay off their balance in full every month are NOT considered GOOD customers for credit card companies. You’re using them and they don’t make any money from you. So when they get a chance, they sock it to you. Loyalty is to money.

Been a “Chase Rewards” customer for 5-8 years…never late with any payment, always pay off in full…approx $1500/mo. Yesterday got a notice from them that my account was being “Updated” to “Chase Freedom”. Instead of 5% on gas, groceries & drugs, plus 1% on everything else…my “Updated” account will now get 3% on gas, grocery & fast food (up to $12/mo = $600 max on bonues) plus 1% on remaining. And now after the first year there will be a $30/year charge.

You know if they had told me that times were tough and we gotta cut your rebate I would have respected them a lot more, and not been ticked off. But the flowery, good news, “Update” correspondance is a an indication of what they think of their customer base….ie they think we are idiots. I am looking elsewhere.

BTW…during my complaint call the guy advised “Yes, the benefit was going down a little.” I responded since when is 40% a “little”!!…he then added I can now get my rebate in gift certificates from Star Bucks, Target or some other businesses….that’s a LOT better than cash huh!!

Holly has it right…there is no customer Loyalty any longer.

Bob K

I love how people think that since they use a banks credit card they are doing the banks a huge favor and that the bank owes them rewards because of this, the bank makes about 1% every time you charge your card. Is it a huge surprise to you morons that since the government is limiting how they do business that the rewards are decreasing, interest rates are going up, credit cards make money with fee’s, yes even a day late….. but if you want to get the hallowed 5% cash back and a rate under 10% the banks need to charge the people that mess up, even a day or two late. I work at one of the big three and know a lot about the business of credit, lets just say the credit heyday is over. I can personally tell u what to expect and this is strait from the horses mouth, No more life of the loan balance transfers, significantly reduced rewards, interest rates 12% or more even w/excellent credit, just wait the changes are coming so expect to get a change in terms notice on your account. The bill that congress passed only helps credit deadbeats, people who regularly default, people that pay on time or pay in full will only lose out on a good deal.

I have been a loyal Chase Freedom card holder for almost 3 years now. While I have read all the unfortunate customer service incidents with many of the above, I have been late on payments maybe 3 times by one day (I forgot). I always pay in full and when I call them to talk about this, they more than willingly waived the late fee and never charged me interest. They have been great. They are making some changes to the reward program, so I am not sure if I will stick with them, but they have been great to me!

eric g said:
on May 13th at 09:26 pm
I just got a letter from chase, both my cards, the cash rewards and freedom will now have a 30 dollar yearly fee in addition to lowering the cash back bonus amounts…I will be cancelling both cards which is terrible because I have used them for many years and it will KILL my credit rating. I am certainly going to file a HUGE Complaint with them. People stay away from CHASE and double check if you have either rewards or freedom you will be getting a 30 dollar a year charge

*******

Now that you cancelled your chase accounts, please let us know the product you found which was superior to the revised chase program. Eventually, all the rewards programs will be similarly affected.

I paid my Discover and Lowes in full last month and this month Lowes sent my statement with zero balance. Discover sent me a bill for $74 interest owed this month. I had to pay th $74 to close the account. I will never use Discover again! CROOKS!!

Wow! Talk about a Chase bank bashing! I personally think every credit card has its issues. They are deceptive, lying, manipulative. You just have to be careful and aggressively proactive…..but you can make credit cards work for you. I purchase everything with my credit cards. Everything. Even 10 cent items. I like it because it allows me to track my spending in detail. It is easy to slip $1 here, $15 there…and then wonder where all your money went. But when you have a printed page listing all the glory details- it is helpful. I’ve used this feature to cut my spending to practically nothing. I pay my credit cards off in full on time every month, since I was old enough to get my first one. If you have no self control, credit cards are not for everyone. It is soooo easy to get caught up in that credit tsunami…and once you are in it, it is super hard to get out. I also like my credit cards because I get rewards. I use the system. I hop in and out of credit cards. They reduce the rewards? see ya!
I don’t agree with folks complaining about Chase charging a late fee. Umm…you paid late? That seems to be the biggest complaint here! I started something this year that has changed my life. Automatic payments! All my credit cards, utilities, everything…is automatically deducted from my money market account. I was always forgetting to pay, or getting too busy and not having time to pay. No more worries! no more late fees! Priceless!!!!!!!!!
I will note that I have had Citibank Dividend forever (back when it was Shell MC, and then something else and then Dividend- they changed it three times!)….and they will forgive one late fee and finance charge a year. I know, because I used to forget to pay at least once a year. They were very good about it.
So that’s good..however if I told you the horror story of a $5000 dispute gone wrong, you would cringe. I would have rather had the late fees charged. It took me months to resolve a dispute that Citibank messed up big time…..boy what a debacle! But the story is too long, so the moral of my story is…..
There is no loyalty. Loyalty? Are they your brother? No. It is business. Don’t take it personally. All credit cards are scavengers, and they all suck in their own way. Use em to your advantage. Pay your bills on time every month, or don’t buy the stuff already! Don’t got the money? Don’t freaking buy it! Don’t let these banks that need bailouts to run their operations ruin your life. Use em, pay em, get rewarded, that’s all.

I have the Costco American Express that pays 3% on gas, restaurants and air tickets - no limit. I have to pay $50 per year to be a Costco member, but since I spend a lot on air travel and eating out, it’s worth it. I have the 3% Chase card too, which does what it advertises, if you play the game right. For everything that the Costco and Chase don’t pay 3%, I use a Fidelity Visa that pays a flat 2% on everything. You need to open an account with Fidelity, but has very good, low cost mutual funds — a good place for your IRAs. I make every possible purchase with these cards and over the years I have received a LOT of money ($1000’s) in cash back with no problems. Here’s how you can do it:
Always read the fine print before taking a card because most (though not all) cards are not what they appear to be (for example, don’t take a card that says “up to X%” because it is unlikely that you will ever get X% on anything, don’t take cards that pay in “points” instead of cash because they can change what your points will buy, and don’t take cards that vary the categories for which they pay their highest percentage. If you don’t understand the fine print, or if you have any unanswered questions when you are finished reading the fine print, don’t take the card.
Always pay in full each month. If you don’t, then you should not be using cash back cards or any credit cards at all. Pay cash or use a debit card and forget out trying to get any cash back.
Sign up for the card’s automatic on-line payment program, but only the program gives you the option to pay in full. Fidelity’s doesn’t, so I have to remember to pay the bill on time. So far I haven’t missed a payment, but it makes me nervous. But I keep the card because I can’t pass up that 2% on everything though. If a company with a good auto-pay program comes out with a 2% card, it’s bye-bye Fidelity.
Since your credit card company has no loyalty to you, you should not be loyal to them Since its goal is to make you pay high interest and penalties, your goal should be to make it pay you as much as possible without paying them anything. Check the cash back offers every few month and change cards whenever you can get a better deal.
If you read the fine print, go with the best deals, use the right card for every purchase, use auto-pay to pay in full each month, the cash back cards can put a tidy little sum in you pocket each month.

For those people that said “my credit card company does not make money off of me since I pay off my bills each month.” Did you know that everytime you make a purchase the merchant pays the card issuer (ie BoA, Chase, Citi,etc) 3-5% of the transaction…each card company has a lot to gain by providing great service - by losing you - they lose 3-4% of each transacation you make using your card. Card issuers make most of their money this way - and via the fees everyone has talked about. I’m looking for great service (someone who will waive an occassional late fee,etc) - has anyone found this?

Chase has just sent me a letter, deleting the direct cash back rewards, making the deal complicated and less attractive. They are done.

Discover is the best card to have by far. No annual fee. You can get up to 5% cashback bonus on gas up to $1200 worth a year. (You have to convert your card to a gas rebate card. You can convert it to the type of card that gives you the most cashback on the types of things you purchase most. Also the payment each month is simple once you have everything set up to use the automatic payments either over the phone or online. And did I mention its FREE. No 9.95 or 14.95 fees to make a payment online or over the phone. It is by far the best credit card out there

Chase really is bad news. Another “always pay on time and in full” customer here. When I got my new charge plate a couple of months ago, I called in to activate it. The agent asked if I’d like to set any particular due date. I asked for the first of the month, figuring how easy it would be to remember.

The next bill comes, and I don’t bother opening it until the 29th. Surprise! The due date is the 28th. Therefore, the payment is one day late (although two days before the first of the month). I call Chase immediately to let them know the payment is one day late because the new due date is not what I had been promised. The agent tells me to wait until the next bill.

I wasn’t so surprised to open up the bill and find $100 in fees and charges. I call Chase, and the agent kindly reverses the charges for me, the valued cardholder.

The NEXT statement comes, and there’s another $20 in finance charges from the SAME incident. I call Chase again. This time, no mercy. I tell the agent, hey, this is from the same bad communication about my due date, and the same one-day late payment. Still, no mercy. I tell the agent, hey, I’m outta here if Chase doesn’t value my business at more than $20 over what is their (probably deliberate) miscommunication about my due date.

And that’s the end of my relationship with Chase. There’s a reason Chase keeps surfacing here, and it has to do with deception. BTW, my preferred card is Amex. Always first class service, and they never charge a fee or FC’s as long as the payment reaches them before they print the next statement.