I’m done with airline miles and points. I want money back from my credit card. In 2008 I switched to mainly using the American Express Blue Cash card which has really good returns for no annual fee. We average just around 1.7% back every year on our purchases with that card. But since not everyone takes American Express, we also carry a Visa. In 2004 I signed up for a card which gave me points for Sony products. Since then I’ve gotten two digital cameras, a camcorder, noise canceling headphones, and two under-cabinet radios. We’re still accruing points but I’ve come to realize that I don’t really want anything that Sony makes anymore. Or at least I don’t want to be forced to chose from only their products. So it’s time to switch!
We ended up choose the Amazon Visa card. We get 3% back on Amazon purchases and credits for all other purchases as well. The rewards come in the form of Amazon points which, for as much as we shop there, is effectively like cash. There’s no minimum required number of points to redeem them.
Part of me thinks it’s fun to get these rewards, but a bigger part of me wishes that credit card companies would just charge lower transaction fees and we could skip all these silly rewards. Just charge me less for the original product and I’ll be happy.
Credit Card Rewards
We ended up choose the Amazon Visa card. We get 3% back on Amazon purchases and credits for all other purchases as well. The rewards come in the form of Amazon points which, for as much as we shop there, is effectively like cash. There’s no minimum required number of points to redeem them.
Part of me thinks it’s fun to get these rewards, but a bigger part of me wishes that credit card companies would just charge lower transaction fees and we could skip all these silly rewards. Just charge me less for the original product and I’ll be happy.