
Cash Back Credit Card Comparison - electricwater
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RcvcjAxSBvbZFrEEZiRZv5Wr-FuyqXBlyphSTuaOqbk/view#gid=0
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floatingatoll
Author of this page, if you're reading this, thank you for making this a plain
text table of data with none of the tracking and marketing cruft that most
people would do with this data. I really appreciate the efficiency of this
approach and I'm grateful to you for keeping it simple.

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3into10power5
Thanks very much floatingatoll

This is way better than reading endless blogspots and searching on google. How
much time did you invest into making this?

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chrisseaton
Why are you asking them? They didn't write it.

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jpmoral
The 'Author of this page' phrase might be confusing.

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alexhutcheson
If you're into optimizing things like this, I highly recommend the Doctor of
Credit blog[1]. Most credit card blogs are basically just ads for credit cards
that make their money off affiliate links, but DoC has made an explicit choice
not to do that, and generally has good information without the "this is a
super lucrative card everyone should apply for" junk that you see everywhere
else.

[1] [https://www.doctorofcredit.com/](https://www.doctorofcredit.com/)

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rradu
Barclaycard Arrival Plus missing from the list, it's my go-to card. I
recommend it to everyone.

* 2 points for each $1 spent + 5% bonus on redeeming (effectively 2.1% in cash back)

* 70,000 points ($700) on signup with minimum spend

* $89 annual fee, waived first year

* No foreign transaction fees

[https://cards.barclaycardus.com/banking/cards/barclaycard-
ar...](https://cards.barclaycardus.com/banking/cards/barclaycard-arrival-plus-
world-elite-mastercard/)

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rsanek
It's a good card, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to everyone. For all but
the biggest spenders, the Citi DoubleCash makes more sense because it also
gives 2% but with no annual fee. Since you're paying the $89, you'd have to
spend over $89,000 annually ($89 / 0.1% difference) to make the 2.1% worth it
over the 2%.

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LeoPanthera
Another good guide from The Wirecutter, that covers more than just cashback:

[https://thewirecutter.com/money/credit-
cards/](https://thewirecutter.com/money/credit-cards/)

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encoderer
If your spending is high enough: Chase sapphire reserve. Has an effective
annual fee of $150 but strong benefits. You can cash out or get a 25% bonus
when using it to pay for air travel.

It’s metal which seems nice but really isn’t. You can’t stick it into many
machines and eventually it delaminates.

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mehrdadn
Annual fee is $450 not $150. You forgot to mention the $300 travel credit is
only relevant if you spend $300+ on travel each year regardless of whether you
have the card.

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loeg
It's easy to cash out the travel credit without traveling.

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mehrdadn
Wait really? How? I thought it was called travel credit for a reason...

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MaxGabriel
Uber/Lyft count for travel which helps a lot.

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mehrdadn
Huh yeah I didn't expect they'd count most transportation as travel. Thanks.

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ryan-c
There's also a bunch of good info on
[https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/)
though that is more geared towards signup bonuses.

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randomacct3847
Personal opinion: Straight cash back cards are not exciting at all. You’re
better off watching what you spend than getting excited about getting $20 back
for spending every $1000.

Credit cards in the US are exciting right now because of premium rewards,
mainly airlines miles, credit card points (Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi TY,
Amex Membership Rewards), which could be worth 2-5 cents per point. Unlike
cash back cards, these usually come with a fee though many waive it the first
year.

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michaelmior
I prefer cash back cards because I don't fly enough to care about miles. I
also don't really want to think about points that I don't get to spend however
I want. But I can imagine if you like the other rewards offered on some cards,
you're probably getting more value than with cash back.

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randomacct3847
If you fly even 1-2x a year then why not fund that trip with one signup bonus
from one card vs getting a cash back card (which usually don’t even come with
a signup bonus and if they do it’s very small)?

If you don’t want to be tied to one airline card, a Chase Sapphire card which
you can use to transfer to airlines or book directly with their reservation
portal will give you 1.25 cents per point redeemed on flights or hotels.

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ip26
I've tried to pay with points before and it never seems to work out
advantageously. A $200 bargain basement Southwest flight will cost like 60000
points. Is Southwest, or international for that matter, an anomaly?

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randomacct3847
That’s just...wrong. If you transfer to Southwest from Chase or book directly
it should be around 15000 points. Both Chase and Southwest have a point value
of greater than 1 cent per point, so there’s no way that could be true for a
$200 flight.

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ip26
Alright, I'll look again in the future. At the time I wondered if the 'wanna
get away' fare was basically cash only.

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gst
For a no AF 2% card the PenFed card not on the list
([https://www.penfed.org/credit-cards/power-cash-
rewards](https://www.penfed.org/credit-cards/power-cash-rewards)) looks better
than Double Cash as it doesn't have foreign transaction fees. To receive the
full 2% cashback a PenFed checking account is required, but there's no annual
fee on that account either.

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mehrdadn
For travel you might want the Pathfinder Rewards card instead. If you're not
traveling Citi has the advantage of letting you create virtual account numbers
and showing you your FICO score.

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chrisseaton
Some of these are incredible - 6% cashback on groceries? I'd be surprised if
the profit margin on groceries was as high as 6%.

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alexhutcheson
One theory is that the high rate on groceries is a way to make you carry
around the card every day, so you're more likely to use it on other things.

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dnhz
With contactless payment systems like Apple Pay, there's little need to carry
around more than one default credit card.

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favorited
Unless you end up somewhere that doesn't support ApplePay, and doesn't accept
AmEx. It's uncommon (where I live, at least), but it definitely happens.

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michaelmior
I assume that's why the parent said there's little need to carry _around more
than one_

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favorited
But if your 'one' is the '6% on groceries' AmEx, you _do_ need to carry more
than one (or accept that there will be places you can't spend money).

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michaelmior
That card is still accepted anywhere Amex is accepted. But yes, if you want to
cover vendors who don't accept Apple/Google Pay or Amex, then you would need
to carry multiple cards.

