|
Here are our thoughts and recommendations on the what we think are the best credit cards in various categories. In light of the global credit crisis that we are facing, and the fact that many banks have tightened their lending standards, we will also be recommending cards for those with just average credit in this section as well.
Best For Gas, Travel and Online Shopping
There are quite a few very good cash back credit cards in the market today. Below are two cards that we recommend that allows you to earn more than the standard 1% rebates with most cards.
The problem with most cash rebates given by credit cards is that they are confined to just a few categories like gas, supermarkets or they only pay 1% rebates for everything. Some even put a cap on the amount of cash rebates you can earn in a calendar year. This is where the Discover card blows away most other cards. You can earn 5% rebates on more items than any other card. Here's the run down :
5% rebates on Airlines, Hotels, Car Rentals and Cruises between Jan and Mar
5% rebates on Home Improvement Stores, Department Stores and Clothing Stores between April and June
5% rebates on Gas Stations, Hotels, Theme Parks, Zoos and Bookstores between July and September
5% rebates on Grocery Stores, Restaurants, Movie Theaters, Movie Rentals between October and November
5% and 20% rebates (I look at them more like discounts) at over 100 online retailers like GAP.com, OldNavy.com, Dell.com, BestBuy.com!
You can also Double the value of rebates that you have earned if you redeem them for select gift cards (over 100 partners). For example, if you have accumulated $40 in rebates, you could get a $80 celebrity cruise, carnival cruise or Universal Orlando Resorts gift card or a $100 Hyatt Hotel and Resorts Gift Card
There are just so many items where you can earn 5% rebates if you use a Discover® More(SM) Card that you should never leave home without it! If you want to earn more rebates on gas, the Discover® Open Road(SM) Card has all of the above features and lets you earn 5% on gas and auto maintenance year round.
The TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express is another great card to get. It pays 3% on gasoline, restaurants and 2% on any travel items. There is also no annual fee with this card (though you need to be a costco member).
Best Balance Transfer Credit Card
0% APR For Purchases and
Best Credit Card Rate
At present, there are two cards that I will recommend for both 0% balance transfer deals and 0% deals for purchases. They both also have low interest rates if you have good credit.
The Citi® Platinum Select® MasterCard® is a card that offers 0% APR deal for both balance transfers and purchases for up to 12 months. The APR is as low as 11.99%. If you shop online a lot, this card has a unique feature whereby you are given a separately generated credit card number just for online use. This is another step to preventing fraud online. Citi allows you up to 12 months to do your first balance transfer and as long as you do it within 12 months of your application and approval, you will still get the 0% rate for 12 months or whatever terms you have been given. Once again, as a best practice (and to increase your chances of approval), we suggest that you wait till you get approved of the card (and also know your credit limit) before requesting your balance transfer.
If you already have a CitiCard, then you cannot get another one to do a balance transfer. If that is your situation, we recommend the Discover® Open Road(SM) Card. It offers a 0% APR for both balance transfers and purchases for 6 months. While most folks play the balance transfer game and stop using a card when they transfer an existing balance to a new card with another teaser deal, this is one card which you would want to keep using because of its low rate and also because of all the cash rebates you can earn at so many places (see comment above). Discover allows up to about 2 months to do your balance transfer. As a best practice (and to increase your chances of approval, we recommend that you do not do the balance transfer within your application, but instead wait and check what credit limits you have been given.
Travel Rewards
The Escape by Discover® Card is really one of the best travel rewards card available today. You can earn Double Miles on everything that you charge to the card. You can book your own travel items (ie find your best deals) without any restrictions like having to stay a Saturday night, booking 21 days in advance, no stopovers etc. You can also earn unlimited miles. The $60 annual fee is a small price to pay for the convenience and flexibility compared to traditional airline credit cards. For those who do not want to pay the $60 annual fee, Discover also has the Discover Miles Card, which works the same way. It has no annual fee and allows you to earn double miles for the first $3000 in annual travel purchases made on the card.
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card is one of the most popular credit cards among the really frequent fliers and travelers. This is because it has probably the best hotel reward program, but also allows you to transfer points you earn (at a one for one ratio) into miles of over 30 airline partners. Furthermore, you get a 5,000 airmiles bonus if you transfer 20,000 points into miles. Effectively, you only need 20,000 points or miles to get a free domestic flight (since most require 25,000 miles!). Many American Express Centurion and Platinum cardholders also carry this card.
For College Students
The Citi® mtvUTM Platinum Select® Visa® Card for College Students is probably the most innovative student credit card. The reward program is based on Citibank's ThankYou Network reward program. You can earn five points for every dollar you spend at (1) bookstores, (2) record stores, (3) restaurants (including fast food), (4) motion picture theaters and (5) video entertainment rental stores and earn one point for every dollar spent on other purchases. But in addition to that, you earn 25 points each time you pay your minimum bills on-time and if you do not exceed your credit limit. You can also earn point twice a year for getting good GPA scores (4,000 points for a perfect score). This is a good incentive to develop good money habits and to motivate you to do well in studies.
Update : The Citi ThankYou Redemptions Network reward
program now allows you to exchange reward points that be
used to reduce your student loans.
|
