Fav. Travel/Bonus CC's - Low spender!

[VAR]

Does anybody have any thoughts or good links for credit cards (or other travel ideas) for somebody not interested in churning?

I want to take a short trip or two a year, US, mostly east coast. I'm still working and don't have a lot of time/energy for big trips.
I'm doing the travel101 series right now and I've read a lot but I'm having trouble sifting through things when I'm not a big spender, not going to manufacture spend, etc. Seems like all the advice is geared for maximizing the cards with big rewards and taking big trips.

What are the best ones for a nice sign up bonus and then keeping it to earn as you go along? Any thoughts/suggestions?

(I always pay off my CC every month. And I already put all possible expenses on it. I used to put everything on my Amazon card just for the fun of getting free books. But now I'm trying to buy less things and more experiences)

[crazy jane]

The Hilton Visa has a low spend requirement of $1000 and no annual fee.

[lauren214]

There's not much of a signup bonus (like 200 bucks), but the b of a travel rewards card gives 2.6 percent on everything if you have a combined balance of 100k with them/ Merrill edge (and with that much cash you can buy vanguard etfs commission free through them).

[VAR]

There's not much of a signup bonus (like 200 bucks), but the b of a travel rewards card gives 2.6 percent on everything if you have a combined balance of 100k with them/ Merrill edge (and with that much cash you can buy vanguard etfs commission free through them).

haha....to some people {{cough, cough, ME }} 200$ would actually be a significant increase in travel budget. Last year's travel budget was essentially zero.

[crazy jane]

VAR,  the Am Ex Hilton is even lower. It's a $750 spend and no fee. Do one at a time over 6 months and you will have 120,000 points. That's enough for 4 nights in a city like Philadelphia. Learn to use Award Mapper to scout hotels and plan accordingly. Happy travels.

[tj]

If you don't have the flexibility to manipulate your spending (say, frontload your insurance premiums for the year, or income/property taxes), there's not a whole lot of opportunity. Compared to before, there are not many cards out there that don't have a spend requirement for bonuses.


if you write a rent check to somebody, you could probably utilize RadPad and come out ahead.


Some peopel get tempted to spend more to hit these sign up bonuses, so if you are a naturaly low spender and don't have the cash to frontload expenditures on paper, I would just pick the card that gives you the highest amount of cashback in the category that you spend the most in, OR something with a signup bonus that you know you can hit.

See fatwallet.com/forums/finance/711457

[VAR]

Thanks for the replies!

I can probably hit $1500/3months. But not every 3 months. I just don't have a lot of expenses right now  or over the course of at least the next 6 months.
I'm thinking maybe I'd like to get 2 more cards this year for the sign up bonuses and then just ride with that for awhile.
I got a reward card last year after 10+ years of defaulting things to Amazon and now I'm feeling kind of itchy to get a little bit more bonus than either my amazon card can give me or last year's card (orbitz, I got 50$ cash back for spending 200$ which was just a pleasant surprise. I hadn't been looking for a new card) 

[VAR]

See fatwallet.com/forums/finance/711457

thanks for the link!!