I am wondering if my fellow mustachians can suggest the best credit card or cards for accumulating as many air miles as possible. Please list pros and cons of the card as well. I would hope that there is a card out there with no annual fee. I just find it so hard to bring myself to pay a fee for a credit card. lol
If you have any particular info for me to read on cards, then please do share. Thank you. =)
So it really depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.
For the casual user who wants 1 card and minimal headaches, cash back is the way tot go. You should go with IMO the new Fidelity 2% Visa card. 2% everywhere, 1% FTF (so 1% cash back international), no annual fee, $50 minimum redemption, will work at Costco come March. Not enough information out there yet, but if the "points" you earn on it are US Bank Flex Points then you could really be earning near 4% on your purchases when using points towards travel.
If you have 100k at Merrill Lynch you can get 2.625% cash back on the BoA Cash Rewards CC.
If you want 3% CB you can sign up for the Discover It Miles card which offers 1.5% cash back, then it will double all cash back earned on your 13th statement.
Points are great but you need a lot of them (especially if you plan on traveling as a couple) and are relatively worthless until you have enough for a redemption. 48,000 united points are worthless to you if you need 60,000 to go to Europe for example.
Also--everyone here is recommending Barclay Arrival +. I mean it's great for the $400 sign up bonus but sucks otherwise and is definitely not worth keeping past year 1 when that annual fee comes due. I'd just stick with a regular 2% cash back card.