Any of you have it/have any experiences with it? If so, I was wondering what purchases they did not approve for the 1% into high yield savings account. Card and benefits seem pretty legit, but it seems they could just not allow any of your purchases to go towards deposits into the savings account.

 

IMO is not worth getting... Has an annual fee and you would need to spend alot to see any kinda benefits......

 

first year has no fee, and I could probably spend enough to see decent benefits thereafter

 

Id go with another card with no annual fee so you can keep it for more than a year.

My discover card has been good. They always have some deal that gets me 5% on something...this month its gas and automotive parts. Good thing I need to buy tranny parts this week, I guess

 

So what are the other things they do 5% for? I think I saw it was 4x a year they have something different.


thatguy: all I can say is sit down and do the math. if you figure out that the money that would get put into savings via purchases YOU NORMALLY MAKE is more than the annual fee, go for it. If not, don't and just put that annual fee into savings. Don't spend more than you normally would just to get rewards. (that's what they want you to do since that's how they get paid.)

 

1% on everything.

Not to long ago it was 5% on gnc and gyms etc. The only bad part is you have to sign up everytime, but since I do everything online anyway it takes less than a minute.

The cool thing about Discover is you can cash it out (read: cash it out and put in ING account...) or use it for a certificate for one of their partners. Im saving up to $100 (more than halfway there) so I can double it and use $200 towards a cruise

 

Yeah they seem to have the best deals. Unfortunately I'm in the habit of using my MC and AMEX more even though i should be using Discover for everything. (trying to switch already)

Oh I noticed they say 1% on "qualified purchases" on the website. But I can't seem to find what a "qualified purpose" is. Do you know?

 

that's what I was curious about myself.

 

Its doesnt include stuff like cash advances and balance transfers, Im sure.

 

So I've been using this card for a couple months now, and so far everything is going quite well. My only gripe is that customer service is iffy at times. Amex says they offer 24hr customer service with the One card, but I called late last night to ask them to put a test charge through, but I was bounced around from person to person and no one had access to put it through. Either way, I'm very happy with the card. This bad boy has also taught me a lot of self control when it comes to spending money. A card with no pre set spending limit is kinda nuts for a 21 year old.

 

well so far all of my purchases have been "qualified". from buying gas, to electronics, to a set of rims, I'm getting cash back on everything.

 

Do you have to pay off the balance every month?

 

It's only nuts until you buy more than you can pay for and get charged interest Have fun but keep paying attention.

 

nope, but I have done so since I have the card. Interest rate if you carry a balance is like 16%+ so I'd rather not have to pay that.

 

I always pay attention

 

What about the Blue from AMEX? Points or cash back. No annual fee?

 

I have Blue, it has a small reward pts program, but not as good as my discover. no annual fee though.

 

Scrib,

I have Blue and Blue Cash. With Blue cash after charging $7000 > paying I saw about $75 cash back on my statments plus the rewards points... Its not a bad card.

Best credit card to get right now is Clear from American Express

 

i have the clear card too.

 

Good. Yes. No.

I like mine, simply because it was an AMEX on my credit report.

I still love my Discover card. Great website and rewards. I have my cell phone bill and gas attached to it. Ive already surpassed that $100 mark. I may just cash out and blow it when I go up north

 

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that explained how none of these "savings" cards are any good, and how you would basically need charge everything that you buy onto the cards to make it worthwhile. It did all the math and outlined numbers to prove they were just OK, but not really worth it.

 

But some do. For instance the Costo AMEX Card, no fee and 1% ~ 3% back.
I paid no interest for it during the last year (paid in full) and accumulated near 300 bucks in cash back. I went to Costco and CASHED it out.

Thats negative interest right there.

 

I've had my Blue card for about 7 years but I don't use it very often at all. My points are still there and one day- when I got to 1,000,000 I'll spend them. lol 882,000 to go!

 

f900, i was wondering what makes clear the best card to get right now? do you have it in addition to the blue and blue cash? reason i'm asking is because i just started building my credit a year ago. i've currently got the citi mastercard dividend 1% cashback on everything, 5% on gas and supermarkets. so basically i use that one for just gas and supermarkets to get the 5%. however, i was looking into gettin an amex sometime by the end of the year so i can a) have an additional type of card besides mastercard and b) one for personal spending as opposed to the typical monthly expenses i put on the citi card.

so, if anyone has any of these, what are the benefits of clear, blue and bluecash? those are the three i was looking at, and i've read everything on amex's site... but i was just wondering what people thought who actually have those cards or know people who do. thanks for any input guys

 

The biggest perk with clear is this...

No Fees of Any Kind
"Clear from American ExpressSM has no extra fees of any kind—no annual fee, no late fees, no over-limit fees, no balance transfer fees, and no cash advance fees"

https://www124.americanexpress.com/c...rblue.benefits

Some of the other AMEX cards have fee's, clear does not...... BUT for you it may not be the best card to start with.. Why ?

Well AMEX require you to have aleast 2years of credit history, its not 100% but for the most part thats what they want to see.

The easiest card to get with AMEX is the Green Charge card, once you have had that for about 6months > 1year you will get approved for there credit cards, Of course all depends on credit history, etc....

Out of the 20 or so Credit cards I have, I have 4 personal AMEX cards and not including the 2 Business AMEXs, in addition to the blue cardsI have the AMEX Platinum Card and Platinum Delta SkyMiles.

On a side note have you tried MBNA, with over 1 year you would be able to get a Credit card from them, and they have lots have chioces..... They have been good to me and I've had no complaints about them.

 

I use the AMEX Blue, as mentioned... I take the points, though... So it's basically equal to that of the traditional charge AMEX cards... Just no annual fee. I'd get a Gold or Platium AMEX, but I don't need any more cards and I've had the Blue for 11 years now, so I can't get rid of it.

And the total keeps growing and growing... Approaching 175,000 points.

 

I have the Blue card and love it, I use it for everything that accepts AMEX.

 

I love this card. I got the "Blue for Students" a couple years ago and just let it sit there with my $2k credit limit. Then 6 months back or so I discovered the "request a credit increase link" while looking at my statement online, and it turns out the increase (if you're eligible) is effective instantly, i.e. you don't have to talk to anyone or email anyone or wait.

So my first bump was up to $4k, a few months later it got bumped up to $8k, and just the other day it got bumped up to $11,300 So anyone with Blue that doesn't know this, give it a shot.

 

Amex Gold

Available Balance as of July 31, 2006: 250,245

I've reached the 250,000 mark twice so far. In 2001 I cashed in 250,000 for two round trip, nonstop flights to Hawaii in first class for me and my wife for our honeymoon.

5 year anniversary is this September.

 

Business or personal card?

That's a crapton of points though, regardless.

 

Personal card. We put everything on Amex.

 

I use the starwood preferred guest platinum card. Got it with a 5K limit after having Blue for students to establish credit. If you stay at a starwood hotel (there are 750 hotels all over the world such as Westin, Sheraton and so on) you earn triple the points and you can also redeem them for flight points. If you travel alot I would say this is a great card. When i signed up i got an automatic i believe 6500 points with the deal they had. Free first year but annual fee after that. But if you spend enough and travel enough it works out.

 

Good freakin' lord!

And I thought I was an AMEX whore.

 

Whats this I hear about AMEX raising raising the annual fee of most of their cards...including one that is fee free? Apparently the news will be in your next statement. Sucks for me since I havent used the card and havent gotten a statement in a while.

 

If AMEX imposes a fee, I am out. There is no loyalty nowadays. Fee-free or nothing.

 

I've had the fee waived from AmEx for as long as I can remember.