The only card we have is the Citi 2% cash back card. What would be the first card to get that's just the easiest? as far as Highest Cash back and use on whatever you want for purchases.
Cash back is the suckers bet when it comes to redeeming points. Most credit cards will have a travel portal that you can use points on. Even better is you can transfer those points to travel partners and get crazy redemption value. For instance I found my buddy first class lay flat plane tickets to Japan. If he was going to pay cash the tickets where going to cost $16,000 for two, but with points he only had to redeem $2400 worth of points to get the same two tickets. I know not everyone travels but the credit cards are very lose what they deem qualifies for travel. You can get show tickets, chef tables at very nice restaurants, flights, hotels, rental cars the list goes on. Plus it's always nice to have a couple hundred thousand points stashed for emergency travel ect….
I wouldn't call it suckers bet. Sure you can get a lot of luxury from maximizing points. But that requires a lot of planning ahead and churning to reach that. That just doesn't fit with everyone's lives. Travel portals and cashback are easy and attainable for most. And it doesn't usually require lots of multiple cards and excessive spend. It all depends on your circumstance. I mean, having to churn 2 cards to get one fancy ticket isn't really useful for a family of 4. For me, I travel mostly in hostels and cheap hotels. So I don't give a crap that I can get a $600 a night hotel for 30k points or whatever. I'd rather have the travel portal give me 33% off my already cheap-ass hotel making it $20 a night versus $30.
Option 1: 2,400 pts. 2 biz tix to Japan. Awesome!
Option 2: $2,400 in Statement credits or cashback. Awesome! (Let's say you lose 25%, you'll still get $1,800 cash). To some that money is better than having a lay flat seat.
Option 3: Buy 2x tix to Japan at $1,000 value. Pay 1,600 in points buying through a portal at 25% (or more) off. And still have $800 worth of points left. Could redeem $600 for spending cash if desired or just wait for the next trip.
Some good straight cashback cards, or easy travel cards, would be to go with Chase cards (Ink Biz, Sapphire Preferred). The travel portal is relatively easy to use and has lower cost hotel options.