Discover Open Road Credit Card Review
The Discover Open Road credit card, as the name suggests, is for those credit cardholders who want to get cash back on gas. Who isn’t looking for a good gas rewards card with the high gas prices we’re seeing these days?
Unfortunately, as gas prices have risen, the cash back rates on gas cards have fallen across the industry and the Discover Open Road card was hit as well. Even though it’s not as easy as it used to be to earn as much cash back on gas purchases - if used correctly the Open Road card rebates can still pay off.
Spending Rebates
The Open Road card gives you 2% back on gas and restaurant purchases, as well as 1% cash back on other purchases once you’ve met the annual spending tier. However, there is a monthly cap on earnings, we’ll talk about the spending tier and monthly cap in a minute.
The upside to the Discover Open Road card is that you can begin earning double cash back immediately on gas and eating out so it works even if you’re a low spender. There’s no yearly limit on rebates and your rebates do not expire. You can also trade in your rebates for double Cashback Bonus with Discover partner merchants, like you can with the Discover More and Discover Miles cards.
To qualify for the gas rebate your purchases must be made at merchants classified as gas stations. You won’t get the gas rebate if you buy fuel at warehouse club. In terms of eating out, it’s considered a restaurant purchase if it falls under the classification of fast food, cafeterias, cafes, and formal restaurants.
Downside to the Open Road
The drawbacks to the Open Road card are the two I mentioned above, the monthly cap and the annual spending tier.
Open Road pays you 2% cashback on the first $250 you spend on fuel and eating out each month. Once you hit that monthly cap, your gas purchases earn anywhere from .25% to 1% cash rebate. If you’re wondering where the .25% comes from, it’s based on the annual spending tier. Purchases on your card that aren’t for gas or restaurants earn .25% cash back until you’ve spent $3,000 for the year. Once you crosss that tier, all non-gas/restaurant spending earns you 1% cashback.
Since there are other rewards cards where you can earn higher cash rebates than .25% on your spending, this doesn’t make the Open Road card ideal for purchases other than gas. However, if you use this card just for gasoline then you can earn some decent cash rewards.
Open Road Fees and APR
For a rebate card, the Discover Open Road card has a realitively competitive APR, with a 0% introductory offer for both purchases and balance transfers. Pay attention to the table at the bottom of this article for exact information on current offers. Another nice thing about the card is that it doesn’t charge you an annual fee – so you can earn rewards without paying.
Credit Card Balances
The Open Road card is most recommended to applicants with good credit or better who are most likely to secure the card’s lower rate. The card does use the two-cycle balance to calculate finance charges, which is more expensive than calculating based on average daily balance. Because of that it’s best for people who choose not to carry a balance on their cards.
How to Use the Open Road Card
The wisest way to use this card is purely for gas and restaurant expenses, because if you use the card for general purchases, your cash back rebates won’t be as high. It’s probably easiest to use it just for gas, once you’ve spent your $250 for the month you can switch over to one of the other top gas rewards cards or cash back cards.
Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card Review
The Starwood Preferred Guest credit card from American Express offers one Starpoint for every dollar spent on the card, as well as 4–5 Starpoints for money spent at Starwood Properties. The Starwood credit card can also be used to accrue frequent flyer points, with cardholders receiving 10,000 bonus points after the first purchase, which can be used towards hotel stays or airline travel. Put more simply, this is a credit card that is great for people who want to use American Express to save money on travel.
The Starwood Rewards Program
The Starwood Preferred Guest program really does reward you for staying at the Starwood properties – places like Le Meridien hotels, the Sheraton, W Hotels, and St. Regis. Every night you stay you earn rewards points, called Starpoints. The number of points you earn depends on how often you stay with them.
Reward Tiers
Starwood has different tiers in their rewards program – Preferred Guest, Gold Preferred, and Platinum Preferred. You enter the program as a Preferred Guest and after you’ve stayed 10 times (or 25 nights) you move up to the Gold Preferred tier. Then, if you stay with Starwood 15 more times (or 50 nights) in that same year you’re moved up to Platinum Preferred.
Each higher tier has increasing benefits, one of those is that you earn more points for each Starwood stay. At the base level you earn 2 Starpoints for every night stay and at the Gold and Platinum Preferred level you earn 3 points per night.
Extra Points & Hotel Credits
The cool thing about the Starwood card is that on top of the Starpoints you earn from staying at the hotel, you earn an extra 2 points if you put your stay on your card. In addition, if you are a Starwood cardholder you get a credit every year for 5 nights and 2 stays towards your next Preferred Guest level.
Frequent Travelers
Our old neighbor was in sales and covered an 8 state area so somtimes he’d be on the road for 2–3 weeks at a time. He used to stay at mainly Marriott properties and used their rewards program but switched over to Starwood about 2 years ago. In addition to the consumer card, there’s also a Starwood business card, which is what he was using.
He’d use all the Starpoints he earned in his travels to take his wife and little girl on trips around the country. They’re also big shoppers – since you earn one point for each dollar you spend on the card it was a good card for them.
Starwood Hotel Deals
The best Starwood deals going on right now are the free nights you can get when you signup for the Starwood Preferred Guest card.
You earn 10K Starpoints when you first use the card and 15K more when you use it for at least $5K of purchases in the first 6 months. Depending on which category of hotel you redeem them with those points can be good for 3–4 free nights.
In addition to the credit card offer, Starwood’s pretty good about running promotions on their website for discounted hotel stays. Usually it requires you staying for at least one night and then getting discounted or free nights depending on how long you stay.
Some of these hotel promotions are more short-term and require a Starwood coupon code to take advantage of it. There are some that are more long standing that don’t require a promotion code, for example
Better Tomorrow Promo – For every night you stay at a Starwood hotel and pay the full rate, you save 40% off the next night you stay.
3rd Night Free Promo – If you book two nights in a row, ie Saturday/Sunday, then the third night is free.
No Blackout Dates
Unlike other hotel rewards programs, there are no blackout dates so you can redeem your Starpoints whenever fits into your travel schedule. Obviously, one of the big drawbacks to some hotel rewards programs is that they have blackout during times when you travel most: the summertime or during holidays. The ability to claim your free hotel room whenever you travel definitely helps set this program apart from others.
You do need to be familiar with how Starwood classifies their hotels, by Category levels – the higher the Category the nicer the hotel. You don’t earn more rewards by staying at nicer hotels but when it comes to redeeming your Starpoints they go farther at the lower category hotels. For example, you might use the same number of points to stay one night in a Category 6 hotel that you could use to stay for 3 nights in a Category 3 hotel.
So you can choose whether you want to use all your points in one or two nights at a really fancy place or stretch your free stay out for longer at a different hotel. One thing to keep in mind, the Category 3 and 4 properties are nice hotels, it’s just the 5 and 6 category are far more luxurious.
Redeeming Your Free Room
The free rooms you can reserve with your Starpoints are standard rooms, be aware that a few destinations don’t have regular rooms so you won’t be able to use your StarPoints for free stays at those hotels or resorts.
Something else to keep in mind is that it often takes fewer points to get your free night over the weekend instead of during the week. As you can see in the chart below, your points can go farther over the weekend.
Starwood Preferred Guest Airline Miles
Starwood has relationships with about 30 airline companies that allow you to transfer StarPoints into airline miles, most of them transfer one mile for each StarPoint.
They also have an airline bonus, if you transfer 20,000 points into airline miles, you’ll get back an extra 5,000 points. So let’s take a look at how many airline miles you could get in the first year of your card.
As mentioned above you’ll get 10,000 for signing up and an additional 15,000 bonus points if you spend $5,000 in the first six months. If you transfer those 25,000 points into airline miles to get the additional 5,000 bonus points, that’s 30,000 airline miles. Of course, this assumes that you can exchange 1 point for 1 mile, but many of the major carriers, like United, Delta, Continental, and American Airlines, do give you 1 for 1.
APR and Annual Fee
Compared to other travel rewards cards of its type, the American Express Starwood Preferred Card has a relatively low fee of $65. The APR is also low with a low introductory APR for the first six months of the card (the period where you can earn an extra 15,000 bonus points). All of this means that you’ll be able to reap rewards as soon as you get card without having to spend a lot of money to get it. See the chart at the bottom for specific details about current rates and offers.
Customer Feedback
I asked readers about their favorite credit cards and one guy named Jason had some good things to say about the Starwood card. He covers the credit card industry for another website so he really digs through all the rewards and term and conditions when comparing and using credit cards. I thought the fact that he pointed out this card was a good sign, here’s what he had to say:
Jason’s Comments
For travel rewards, I have found no better card than the Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express. The benefits at Starwood hotels are fantastic – I can book an award stay at any room within their brand, which includes Westins, Sheratons and others, with no blackouts or capacity controls. Awards start at 3,000 points with some Westins going for as little as 7,000.
Your fifth award night is also free, so you can easily save 20% off of those low rates. By comparison, Hilton and Intercontinental group also offer no blackouts and no capacity restrictions on their awards, but their award rates are much higher.
The benefits of the Starwood card goes well beyond hotels. The StarPoints are transferable to dozens of major airlines. They are the ultimate universal currency when you need to top off an airline account for a major award redemption. In fact, you can use the Starwood card to earn more airline miles than the airline’s cards themselves.
Starwood grants a 5,000 point bonus when you redeem 20,000 Starpoints for airline miles. This gives you 1.25 miles per dollar spent rather than the one to one ratio offered by most airline cards. The annual fee is $65, but this pays for itself when you are able to snag a pricey hotel for free or fly in business class after making a transfer of Starpoints to airline miles.
Conclusion
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card has a tough to beat rewards program, which can then be used at over 30 different airlines or at most of the Starwood hotels around the world. This review didn’t talk much about international travel but Starwood recently announced it’s adding 50 new hotels across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Starwood Preferred Guest is obviously best for people who travel frequently, such as business travelers, but anyone who is interested in staying at Starwood properties can get quality hotel stays for big discounts or for free. The relatively low annual fee you pay for access to their rewards program makes this one of the best hotel credit cards available today.
Discover More Credit Card Review
The Discover® More credit card is best known for it’s 5% cash back rebate from Discover’s Get More merchants, making it one of the best cash back credit cards on the market.
In addition to having no annual fee, the Discover More card also allows you to exchange your cash rebates for gift cards worth more than the value of your cash back bonus. You can also earn cash back when you shop online with partner merchants through the Shop Discover website – the amount of savings varies across retailers but can be as high as 20% in some cases.
Cash Back Rates
The 5% cashback bonus for Get More partners covers categories such as travel, home improvement stores, department stores, gas, groceries, and restaurants. As you can see below, the bonus categories rotate during the year, so the purchases that you earn 5% back on change depending on the season.
There aren’t many cards that pay 5% cashback for anything so the bonus categories are a great feature of the Discover More card. As we’ll cover again later in the review, these earning categories do require you to opt-in during the period to earn the rewards.
For all other purchases on the More card you earn cash back on a tiered rewards structure. Purchases that are part of your first $1,500 earn .25% and purchases that are part of your second $1,500 earn .50%. After your total annual purchases exceed $3,000, you’ll earn 1% cash back on money you spend outside of the Get More partner stores.
Gift Card Rewards
Discover has teamed up with a list of stores that allow you to trade your cash back rewards for gift cards to those retailers. In many cases the value of the gift certificate you get is higher than the dollar value of your cash rewards.
For example, the Discover rewards program lets you redeem your cash rebates in $20 increments. In some instances you can turn a $20 statement credit into a $30 gift card for home improvement, restaurants, entertainment, or travel. They call it turning your “Cashback bonus into bigger rewards” and it’s a pretty slick benefit that includes some pretty big retailers:
Of course, if they don’t have gift cards available for places that you visit regularly then this benefit isn’t all that spectacular. However, they do have over 100 partner stores in their program so if you shop at any of them the gift card redemption option can help you get more out of your rewards.
Balance Transfer Offers
On top of the cash back features, the Discover More card offers some of the best balance transfer rates available. There have been times when it was possible to get 0% balance transfers for an extended period or to get a balance transfer with no fees. A quick review of the chart at the end of the review will tell you all about the current APR and offers on this credit card.
Customizable Cards
Nowadays we’re used to being able to customize products and services to our own individual tastes and Discover is well aware of that.
You can choose from over 150 different card designs when you apply for the Discover More card.
While choosing your design is cool it is the least important feature of the card. I’ve had a slick looking card for years (Blue Cash) and I’ve gotten lots of comments from store clerks and shop owners on it’s uniqueness, but that does nothing for my bottom line. I agree that it’s nice to be able to choose the design, to make it a little more personalized – but hopefully this isn’t your primary decision point when choosing a card.
Discover More Reviews
It always helps to hear the experiences of other peple who have used a credit card. That’s why I like a feature on the Discover website where customers can post a review of their card for everyone else to see.
Consumers score their card based on three different criteria: 1) Rewards program 2) Customer service and 3) Online Account Center. They they can rate each of those criteria from 1-5 stars, then the three scores average out to give the card review an overall score.
To get some good value out of the reviews you’ll have to go through pages of them, most aren’t very extensive and few offer much valuable feedback. A lot of the comments say something like “great card” or “not my favorite card” but without any detail behind their opinion.
However, if you read through them all you’ll get an idea of the main things people like and don’t like about their Discover card. I think it’s great that Discover posts these customer reviews on their site; it’s probably kind of scary for them to do because they know they’re going to get negative comments but I think it’s a wonderful way for potential customers to get a feel for the pros and cons of the card.
Discover More Complaints
I spent quite a bit of time going through all the pages of comments, so you don’t have to do the thing, here’s a summary of what I noticed. The positive comments about the card covered a pretty wide range but the majority of the complaints centered around one topic, the rules on the 5% cashback bonus categories.
As I mentioned earlier you have to opt-in for the bonus categories every quarter. There’s also a quarterly cap for the dollar amount of rewards you can earn from the 5% cashback bonus. What this means is that once you reach the quarterly cap, or if you don’t opt in, then you earn 1% cash back on those purchases instead of 5%. So most of the critiquies of the card were people asking Discover to increase the caps and not require them to opt-in to the bonus categories.
Interestingly enough, most of the people that left those comments still rated Discover More at least 4 stars, like you see here. Seems like they do like the cashback rewards they’re getting, they just wish Discover would update the cashback bonus policy so they could earn more. Some of these customers commented that once they hit their bonus cap with Discover they switch over to another cash back card like Chase Freedom. Their main point was that Discover would get more of their business if they’d raise the bonus cap.
The other complaint that occassionally came up was that Discover isn’t accepted by all merchants. I guess there’s not a whole lot that Discover can do about that. I run into something similar as well with my American Express cards, which is why I also carry a rewards Visa card.
Discover More Rewards & Customer Service
Although the positive comments covered a much wider range of topics, there were still a few that stood out
- Customer Service
- Gift Card Rewards
- Cashback Rewards Partners
Customer Service
Many people referred to the customer service from Discover as friendly and efficient but there seemed to be something consumers liked even better than just fast and friendly – Discover’s fraud protection. Apparently Discover is very vigilant about suspicious transactions or large purchases and will call you up right away if anything seems out of the ordinary. I read comments from a lot of people who had Discover catch unauthorized card use for them and squash potential identit theft situations.
Another big compliment Discover recieved was the speed with which they redeem your rewards once you request them. One commenter had requested his cashback before bed one night and then saw the money deposited when he got home from work the next day.
Gift Card Rewards
As I mentioned earlier the gift cards can be a good deal if you already shop at some of the partner stores. For example, one person uses their Discover rewards gift cards at Staples and combines it with the cartridge recycling discount to save even more. Another customer that sends flowers out over the holidays uses the FTD gift cards to save on the flowers. A third lady who buys from CVS regularly takes advantage of the $50 gift card for $45.
Rewards Partners
Since the rewards partners discounts can be pretty high, some of the commmentors said they do a lot of their online shopping through Discover. One person did point out that sometimes they’re actually able to find a better deal at online rebate sites, so they compare the ShopDiscover prices to other sites online first.
Conclusion
If you can take advantage of the bonus cash back categories, the gift card deals, or the rewards partners the Discover More card is one of the best cash back rewards cards on the market. If you put a lot of purchases on your card, you might want to keep another cash back card around to take advantage of other offers once you hit the quarterly spending cap.
Another thing to consider, if you’re looking for a cash back card that is also a good balance transfer card then the More card could work for you. This card is great for people who want flexibility when cashing in their rewards.
American Express Blue Cash vs. Discover More Card
Blue Cash from American Express and Discover More are both cash back rewards cards. Neither card has an annual fee and both offer the standard card perks (like fraud protection) in addition to their cash back rewards. However, there are some differences between the two cards that may make one more appealing to you than the other.
Which card you prefer kind of depends on how you view the money you earn with a cash back card. If your goal is to just reduce your overall expenses a bit with the rebates, then your focus is probably on which card can get you the most money back the fastest. On the other hand, if you see the rewards as a type of bonus that can get you some good deals on things you might not buy otherwise, then you’re probably more interested in a card that offers options in addition to cash rebates.
The other big question is how much do you generally charge on your card each year. I’ll explain why these are important things to consider in the following sections.
Cash Back Rewards
Blue Cash® from American Express offers .5% cash back on the first $6,500 spent annually on the card and then increases this rate to 1.25%. Additionally there are some purchases that are eligible for an increased rewards rate of 1% for the first $6,500 spent on the card and 5% after that. If you’re not sure how your spending fits into this structure, American Express has a Blue Cash Calculator on their website where you select what you spend in a year on gas, grocery, drugstore, and all other purchases and they estimate how much cash back you’d earn.
The Discover® More Card gives you .25% cash back on the first $3000 in annual purchases. After that, the card rewards you with 1% cash back on all purchases. Additionally, there are rotating bonus categories on which you can earn 5% cash back. Finally, you can get up to an additional 20% cash back when using this credit card to shop online with select merchants. The Discover® More Card occasionally runs promotional deals. For example, recently it offered a bonus $100 cash back when you spent $500 on purchases in the first month after getting the card.
Annual Spending
Both of these rewards plans take a little bit of assessment to figure out since they aren’t entirely straightforward like some other cards are. Essentially you’ll want to look at whether or not you’re likely to spend $6500 per year or more on the card or if you’re more of a spender in the $3000 annual range.
The Discover More is nice because you can start earning 5% back on certain categories as soon as you start using the card. You don’t have to wait to cross the spending tier like you do with the Blue Cash card. However, since there’s a quarterly cap on the amount of bonus rewards you can earn with More card – if you put a lot of purchases on your credit card the Blue Cash could be a better option. There’s no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn with Blue Cash and if you’re spending a lot annually then you’ll get into the higer earning tiers more quickly.
Spending Categories
Unfortunately, both cards limit your 5% cash back to certain categories of spending. The upside to the Discover More approach is that you earn those bonus rewards on seasonal purchases, in categories where you might tend to spend more money at a certain time of year.
The downside is that you have to keep track of those categories and enroll in them every quarter to qualify for the bonus cash back. Compare that to the Blue Cash that pays the 5% on things you buy all year round (gas, supermakets, pharmacies) and doesn’t ever require you to enroll your card – you automatically earn cash back each time you make a purchase.
Redeeming Cash Rebates
It used to be that Discover had the upper hand when it came to redeeming your cash back. However, with the introduction of Blue Cash Reward Dollars, American Express now makes it possible to cash them in once you’ve accumulated $25 worth. In the past you were only paid your earnings once a year but the new system AmEx put in place fixed that.
Discover More does still have an advantage if you want your rewards in cold hard cash. Once you’ve accumulated $50 Discover will send you the money electronically to your bank account (or if you only have $20 they’ll send a Discover gift card). Although you can get your money sooner with American Express, it only comes across as a credit to your account, not as cash directly to you. That’s not a big deal to me because we put most of our expenses on our card and pay it off once a month, so the credit just serves as a savings for us. However, if you want cash it’s something to think about.
Another difference between the two cards is that Discover will also let you turn in your rewards for gift cards. I’m not a huge fan of gift cards but Discover’s rewards program lets you buy gift cards at less than face value with your cash back rewards, so you can get anywhere from 2–10% additional savings when you redeem your earnings for gift cards at places you regularly shop.
Interest Rates
The rate and terms you’ll get from the Blue Cash card vary based on your credit history. You’ll need good credit to qualify for the card but excellent credit will get you lower interest rates and sometimes even longer terms on 0% interest intro APR offers.
The Discover More Card also requires that you have good credit and the interest rate you’ll pay on balances does depend on your credit history. However, the More card tends to have a lower APR on purchases and balance transfers than the Blue Cash card.
If you’re looking at a balance transfer you’ll also want to consider the balance transfer fee because the Blue Cash is usually lower by a percentage or two than Discover More. To do an accurate comparison of the rates on the two cards you can scroll down to the side-by-side information chart, which shows up-to-date APR and offers.
Summary
The bonus cash back rewards on the Discover® More Card definitely make it the stronger of the two competitors right now if you don’t spend a lot on your card. The lower APR and the offer of a 0% intro APR for balance transfers also make it an appealing choice if you carry a balance or are planning to transfer a balance.
However, the option to earn a higher cash back rate on purchases after the first $6500 each year make the Blue Cash® from American Express card an appealing option if you put lot on your card. Unlike the More card, the Blue Cash doesn’t have a limit on the amount of cash back you can earn so higher spenders truly benefit more from this card than from Discover More.
American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card Review
The Premier Rewards Gold is a rewards card with a fairly generous payout for purchases and some extra bonuses added in. The Premier Rewards Gold card does have some attractive features that help it stand out from other rewards cards; such as triple points on airfare, double points on gas and groceries, and a nice bonus.
Premier Rewards Gold Points
You’ll earn bonus points when you spend a certain amount during the first 3 months of owning the card. The amount you have to spend and the amount of bonus points you earn varies depending on the current promotion. Compared to other cards this card is very generous to start, so long as you spend fairly regularly or for a big ticket item when you first sign up for the card.
Additionally, this AmEx gold card gives you the opportunity to earn 3 times the points on airfare, 2 times the points on gas and groceries, and 1 point on everything else. So the card can almost be seen as a combination of a travel rewards card, a gas rewards card, and an everyday-purchase card. Having an all-in-one rewards card like this doesn’t always maximize your rewards per category but it does make earning usable points easier.
Redeeming Rewards
American Express has always been known for having quality rewards programs. Although not every merchant will accept your card because American Express does charge higher merchant fees, you know that when you do use your AmEx you’re earning pretty decent rewards.
I’m a big fan of their Blue Savings rewards but they’re probably best know for their Membership Rewards program, which is the one that the Premier Rewards Gold card uses. The nice thing about the program is that it is pretty flexible, you can use your points to get a wide range of rewards.
Travel Rewards
For example, using the Pay with Points feature you can redeem them for points on most airlines and not have to worry about blackout dates or restrictions. The way it works is that you buy your ticket using the AmEx Travel site and apply your membership points towards the price of the ticket. You don’t have to wait until you have enough to cover the whole ticket, the remaining cost of the flight will be charged to your card.
I remember when I first signed up for the Gold card years ago they were offering a big bonus and I used my points to pay for a ticket to a conference I was attending. I was actually looking online for flights to Vegas where the conference was held and I saw the ad for the bonus so I signed up for the card.
There is an alternative to booking through American Express – you can also transfer the rewards points you’ve earned to rewards programs at some of the major airlines. The conversion from rewards points to frequent flier programs doesn’t always give you the best bang for your buck so be sure check what kind of value you’re getting out of the transfer.
Using Points
If you’re not a big traveler you can use your points for discounts on other types of purchases or for gift cards.
One aspect of the Membership Rewards is a site called ShopAmex where you can use your points for purchases. You can see in the graphic the number of items they have available in the different point ranges. Similar to their travel site, if you don’t have enough points accumulated you can put the rest on your Gold card.
If you’re like me then you’re not a big fan of shopping and only buy something when you really need it. I’m not a fan of browsing to buy something just for the fun of it. In that case the gift cards might be a better option for you. You can use your rewards points for dining or entertainment gift cards, AmEx also has retail gift cards available in their program.
Premier Rewards Gold Fees
Like other cards with a high-rebate offer, the American Express(R) Premier Rewards Gold Card does have an annual fee. The fee is higher than some of the other rewards cards you’ll find in the market. The good news is this fee is waived for the first year of the card.
No Interest
This card is a charge card, not a credit card, which means the balance must be paid off each month. Since you can’t carry a balance, you won’t build up credit card debt and won’t find yourself paying high interest fees month after month. Although this is a deterrent for people who have to carry a balance, it’s definitely a financially smart option for people who can afford to pay off their balance each month in full. There is no pre-set spending limit on the card so as long as you can afford to pay your balance you can put whatever you want on the card to earn rewards.
Conclusion
This American Express Gold card can definitely earn you a lot of rewards if you put a lot of purchases on your card. The first year of the card is certainly the most attractive thanks to the bonus rewards. However, even without the additional bonus points for a minimum annual spend, the 3-2-1 point system is an attractive rebate package for a wide variety of different purchases for the following years.
If you have horrible credit chances are you won’t be approved for this card but if you’ve done a reasonable job keeping up your credit score then you may be able to qualify for the charge card. There’s really only one way to know if you’re eligible for the bonus and the rewards that come with the card; apply for it and see what happens!
Marriott Rewards Card Review
The Marriott Rewards Credit Card card is a hotel rewards card from Chase that has a good rewards program and lets you earn you a free hotel stay as soon as you sign up for the card. Marriott points can be used at over 3,100 worldwide locations, so wherever you are traveling you can be earning hotel rewards with Marriott. I think this is a good card for the frequent traveler who enjoys Marriott hotels, which may surprise you a little.
I’ve talked multiple times before about the potential disadvantages of earning all your points with one airline or hotel chain and said some good things about cards that let you earn and use rewards independently, like the Blue Sky and Discover Miles cards.
While all the potential negatives I’ve covered in the past still exist, if the rewards program is good enough then it can makeup for those shortfalls. I think that’s the case with this card, if you’re already a Marriott fan then the points you can earn through their rewards program make this a decent option.
Marriott Rewards Free Night Promotion
I suppose I could be a little bias because the Marriott Rewards card was my very first hotel rewards card –- and I signed up for it because it gave me one free nights stay at Marriott. Well times have changed… for the better!
Now the Marriott rewards free night offer has actually turned into four free nights, plus two. After you sign up for the card, you get an e-certificate for a two free night stays, just like before. However, now after you make your first purchase on the card you earn enough bonus Marriott points for another four free nights stay. That’s a nice little vacation break at a Marriott hotel that you can get as soon as you’ve made your first purchase on the card.
Marriott Rewards Program
Your Marriott Rewards card earns you 3 points for every $1 you spend staying at a Marriott and 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases. There’s a big list of the types of hotels where you can use your Marriott points, I’ve stayed in a few of them.
For example, we spent our honeymoon in a Renaissance hotel in the Virgin Islands and I stayed at another nice Renaissance in San Francisco when I was there for a conference. We’ve stayed at a nice Marriott on vacation in Boston and St. Louis and I spent another week at a Residence Inn near Sacremento for a work trip. We’ve also stayed at various Courtyard by Marriott and FairField Inn & Suites locations on family trips around the MidWest.
Some of the hotels where I haven’t stayed but you can earn and use points are JW Marriott Hotels, the SpringHill Suites, and the TownePlace Suites. There are a few Ritz-Carlton hotels and Marriott Conference Centers where you can’t use your points so if you’re looking to stay at one of those call ahead and ask first.
Marriott Points
The points you earn on your Marriott Rewards card can be used for vacations, hotel stays, or airline miles but the majority of people I know with this card use them for free nights and vacations. A good friend of ours travels a lot for his sales job and he takes his family on two or three trips each year paid for with Marriott points. One cool thing about redeeming your points is that anytime you use them to book a stay of at least 7 nights, you earn another 15,000 Marriott points. I don’t know of any other hotel rewards program where you can earn points for redeeming points.
Frequent Traveler Bonuses
Each time that you stay at a Marriott Hotel using this credit card you will earn credits towards Elite Membership. With 10 nights of stays you’ll get silver level elite status, 50 nights pushes you to gold level and 75 nights gets you up to platinum level. At each level you receive additional bonuses at no extra cost to you as a cardholder. These benefits include discounts, room up grades and even additional opportunities to earn even more bonus points on the card. Plus for every $3000 you spend on the card, you get an extra night towards your Elite status.
APR and Fees
This credit card does have an annual fee that’s pretty low compared to many of the other hotel and travel reward cards with fees. Additionally, that fee is waived for the first year. The APR is competitive for a rewards credit card; see the chart below for specifics. The card is designed for people with excellent credit.
Marriott Rewards vs Premier Rewards
You can actually choose between two different rewards cards from Marriott, the regular card or the Premier card. The downside of the Premier version is that you’ll pay a higher annual fee, the question is are the features of the Premier card worth it?
With the Marriott Premier card you earn 2 extra points per dollar spent at Marriott hotels than you would with the base version. You also earn double the points for travel purchases of airline tickets, dining, or car rentals. For all non travel related expenses you earn the same as the regular rewards card, 1 point per dollar.
You also earn more bonus points when you first sign up for the Premier card. You get the bonus points after your first purchase and the Premier version gives you a sizeable amount more. It can also help you get to bonuses that come with Elite status faster, after 10 nights instead of 15.
Probably the best feature of the Premier Rewards version is that every year you get free night at a category 1–5 Marriott hotel if you’re a cardholder. Once a year, about a 6 weeks after your anniversary month you get a certificate in your rewards account that you can use to book a free night. While the free night basically pays for the annual fee, you do have to make sure you use the certificate and not lose it because its not redeemable after 6 months.
From what I can tell if you stay at Marriott hotels frequently, or even just a few times a year, the benefits of the Premier card will outweigh the higher annual fee.
Conclusion
The Marriott Hotel rewards card by Chase gives you several different ways to earn a good amount of Marriott rewards. The more you use it, the more rewards you get. The annual fee is low so it’s an appealing credit card for the people with excellent credit who can qualify for it. Like I said, if you’re a fan of Marriott hotels then this could be the hotel rewards card for you.
Discover Miles Credit Card Review
The Miles by Discover® is a travel rewards card, as you can probably tell from the name. It allows you to earn double miles on purchases up to $3000 in travel-related purchases and one-point-per-dollar for general purchases. The miles you earn with Discover Miles don’t expire and there’s no cap on the number of miles that can be earned on the card. The Miles card also has additional perks including the opportunity to amass numerous bonus rewards in the first year of card activation.
Flexible Travel Rewards
Similar to the Blue Sky card, Discover Miles lets you use your rewards across different airline carriers, hotel chains, and rental car companies. Unless you always fly the same airline or stay in the same hotel, this is one of the top benefits of the card in my opinion.
There are other rewards programs that let you earn miles or points when booking travel but some of them require that you use a specific website to find and pay for your trip. Of course the potential downside of being limited to a specific portal is that if you can find the ticket or hotel cheaper through some other site like Priceline or Kayak, then the rewards you earn don’t make up for the higher price of the ticket.
With the Discover Miles card you don’t have to worry about what airline you fly, which hotel you sleep in, or who you book your travel through – you still earn rewards regardless.
Discover Miles Rewards
You don’t get the most out of the Miles card by using it for everyday purchases. You earn a mile for every dollar you put on the card, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary for a rewards card. The biggest benefits come from the double rewards categories and the card bonuses.
The double rewards are in the travel and dining categories of purchases and earn you 2 miles for every dollar you spend in a year, up to $3000. Although there is no limit on the amount of total annual rewards you can earn, after the first $3000 of purchases the double rewards categories go back to earning 1 mile per dollar.
There is one other way to earn double rewards on your spending, from purchases made through the ShopDiscover portal. This may not mean a whole lot to you unless you regularly shop at one of the comapanies that’s part of their ShopDiscover program. Members who login and shop online through this program earn 2 miles for each dollar put on the card. Discover does have a big list of nationally know companies in their program, such as Sears, ACE Hardware, Apple, Gap, HP, Old Navy, Office Depot, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohls, JC Penney, and many others.
If you already shop at any of these stores then you could earn double miles on your purchases with the Miles card.
Card Bonus Offer
Unlike most other travel rewards cards, the Discover Miles Card offers 1,000 bonus miles a month if the card is used at least once a month, for the first year you have the card. There are other Discover and Chase cards that will give you a cashback bonus just for using the card, but they usually require a minimum of $500–750 dollars of purchases in the first few months.
With the Miles card you can get the bonus for a whole year, just by buying a pack of gum once a month. The only other card I know of with a bonus with such low requirements is the Discover Escape card, which actually makes a similar bonus offer but extends it for 2 years instead of 1.
Redeeming Discover Miles Rewards
For every 10,000 miles you earn Discover makes you eligible for a $100 travel credit on your Miles card. So going back to the bonus I just mentioned, those 12,000 miles are worth $120 towards a flight or hotel.
Since you choose how to travel and how to buy your ticket, you don’t have to worry about blackout dates or other restrictions when you go to redeem your rewards. If your purcase is travel related then it’s eligible to recieve the travel credit. After you pay for the rental car, airline ticket, or hotel room you can call up Discover or go through their websiteto submit the purchase and have your travel credit applied to it. Make sure you redeem your miles within 3 months of making the purchase otherwise you’ll have to wait and use your rewards on the next travel you buy.
Discover does offer several other ways to redeem your rewards:
- Gift cards at over 90 merchants (minimum 1000) points
- $25 Discover Gift Card for every 5000 points earned
- Cash back starting at 5000 points
- Charitable donation starting at 5000 points
Although those options are avaibable to you, the best rewards for your money comes from using them on travel with this card. If you’d like to get the cashback or gift cards instead then you’d probably be better off with a cash back card.
Discover Miles Benefits
In addition to rewards points, the Discover Miles Card offers $500,000 in travel accident insurance. This card also offers enhanced fraud protection with a $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee that promises you won’t be responsible for any unauthorized usage of your card. The fraud protection feature is on most cards these days but still something you should check for this era of frequent identity theft.
No Annual Fee
There is no annual fee on this credit card. The lack of an annual fee is significant, as most travel rewards cards do charge an annual fee – some of which can be very steep, offsetting the gains from a better rewards program.
Discover Miles does offer an upgraded version of the card that charges an annual fee. What you get from the upgraded version is insurance coverage against:
- Rental car damage (no deductible)
- Lost or damaged luggage (Up to $2,500)
- Travel Delays ($150 daily lodging)
- Trip cancellation (Up to $2,500)
You’d have to compare the annual fee against the cost of buying travel insurance in a year to see if that version made sense for you.
Discover Miles APR
Like other Discover cards, the Miles Card typically has a lower APR than comparable cards and sometimes features a 0% introductory APR on purchases; see the chart below for details about current APR offers. Like many other credit cards the best rates will be available to the people with the best credit.
Conclusion
The Discover Miles Card is a good rewards credit card. The 1,000 a month bonus is only good for the first year of the card but it can kick into effect for very small purchases, which is definitely appealing.
You don’t need to spend $1000 to earn 1000 miles, so it is a good bet for frugal flyers. The card does have some unique travel rewards possibilities that frequent travelers will find attractive.
Finally, the fact that this card has no annual fee and is flexible about how you earn and redeem rewards adds to the appeal of the card.
Discover More vs Chase Freedom Credit Cards
The Discover More and the Chase Freedom cards are two of the best cash back credit cards available on the market today but they have some differences. Today we’ll compare the More vs Freedom card and point out some key things to consider.
While the biggest difference between the two is probably how rewards are earned, remember there are more things to consider than just the rewards when researching cash back cards.
How Rewards Are Earned
The main difference between the Discover® More Card and the Chase Freedom® Visa is in the way that standard cash back rewards are earned. The Freedom card offers unlimited 1% cash back on all purchases with 5% cash back options on certain spending categories that rotate quarterly – also an additional 10% back when you shop online with select merchants.
Discover More also offers a 5% cash back deal on rotating categories. However, the card only offers .25% cash back on the first $3000 in purchases each year before increasing to 1% cash back after that. Discover More offers 5% – 20% cash back when shopping online with select merchants.
Neither of these is necessarily a better deal than the other; it just depends on what type of shopper you are. If you prefer straightforward cash back rewards then Chase Freedom will be more appealing but if you do a significant amount of shopping online then you may find that you get more cash back with the Discover More card.
Rotating Spending Categories
One way to determine which of these two cards is the better one for you is to look at where they offer the most cash back – in their rotating spending categories. The 2011 spending categories for each card is as follows:
Chase Freedom
- April – June: Home Improvement, Home Furnishings and Lawn and Garden
- July – September: Gas, Airlines, and Hotels
- October – December: Dining, Department Stores, Movies and Charities
Discover More
- April – June: Home and Fashion
- July – September: Gas, Hotels, Movies and Theme Parks
- October – December: Restaurants and Fashion
As you can see, the cards have some similarities (like offering travel-related bonuses during the busy vacation months of summer) but also have their differences. For example, if you are more likely to spend money on fashion than charity then you would find the Discover More card more appealing.
Redeeming Rewards
Cash Back
Redeeming rewards with both the Freedom and More cards is pretty simple, but don’t forget to do it. Both Chase and Discover have websites that members log into and request their rewards. Unlike some rewards cards that automatically credit your card, you have to remember to request these periodically.
If you’re after cash back rewards, Chase does make it a little easier to get your money sooner. With the Freedom card you can request to be paid your cash back once you’ve accumulated $20 worth.
Discover More only sends you cash once you’ve hit the $50 mark, although they will send a Discover gift card for $20. Discover does offer more payment options, they can send the money electronically to your bank account or credit your account.
Chase is a little more limited, just offering check redemption. They have a section in their Ultimate Rewards site where you can request a check be mailed out once you have at least $20.
Gift Cards
Both Chase Freedom and Discover More let you redeem your rewards for gift cards but Discover has the upper hand in terms of the number of places you can get gift cards from and the savings you can get with the cards. They both label the available merchants as partners but Discover’s options make them seem more like partners. You can actually buy a gift card worth more than the amount of cash back you have on your More credit card.
For example, we like to eat at Chipotle one of the Discover partner merchants. If you have $45 of cash back earned on your More card, you can buy a Chipotle gift card worth $50 – a nice boost to your rewards. In addition to this bonus, Discover also has more merchant partners in most every category than Chase. In our case, since Chipotle isn’t a partner for the Chase Freedom rewards, we’d have to settle for a restaurant that’s right across the street – Panera.
However, Chase does offer more redemption levels than Discover. So if we wanted to eat at Panera, we could get a $10 gift card in return for 1,500 points. You can see in the graphic some example levels, they can differ across merchants. So you can get a bonus if you wait longer to get the gift card with Discover but Chase allows you to use your points for gift cards sooner.
Other Rewards
Although Discover More really does offer “more” in terms of gift card choices and bonuses, the Chase Freedom card actually gives you access to more rewards. The points you earn with the Freedom card can be used in the Ultimate Rewards program, which has a lot of options.
Of course if you’re looking for a cash back card, like these two, then you might not care as much about the rewards options other than cash.
Card Payments
Neither one of these cards will let you earn cash back on your purchases if you haven’t paid your credit card bill. Not only do you not earn rewards for periods when you don’t pay, you also can’t redeem rewards earned in the past when your account is delinquent.
The good thing is that your existing rewards don’t expire with either card so even if it takes a while for you to get back on track the rewards will still be there to claim. Although the points don’t expire, if you request a redemption check and don’t cash it in time the check can expire.
One thing to consider in terms of payments is that the Freedom card participates in the Chase Blueprint program which can give you a variety of options when it comes to paying down and paying off your card balance.
Promotional Deals
Both of these credit cards have offered promotional deals for new card members – ranging from a $25 bonus up to a $100 bonus. The criteria usually say that you have to use the card for a certain dollar amount in the first few months to be eligible for the bonus. For example, they might give you $100 cash back if you spend $500 on purchases in the first month.
APR and Annual Fee
Both cards offer a 0% intro APR for balance transfers and purchases; see the table below for the length of the zero interest offers. Another bonus is that neither card has an annual fee. The balance transfer and cash advance fees tend to be higher on the Discover More card than the Chase Freedom card. However, Discover does occasionally run promotions where there is no balance transfer fee, for example, the Discover More – No Balance Transfer Fee card.
Conclusion
As you can see, these two cards are comparable in some areas to one another. Chase Freedom offers a more straightforward cash back policy and generally has a lower rate on balance transfers and cash advances. However, Discover More may offer more cash back on purchases made online and has better gift card redemption options. Either of these cards would make a solid cash back card for the discerning customer. Be sure look carefully at their rotating spending categories and redemption options to help you make a final decision.
Chase Freedom Credit Card Review
The Chase Freedom(SM) Credit Card is one of the better rewards credit cards available. While most rewards cards offer one or two percent in cash back rewards, the Freedom card offers 5% cash back or 5 points per dollar on gas, entertainment, groceries, airlines, department stores, and other things that make up your seasonal purchases. This is what makes the Chase Freedom card especially good for cardholders: you earn back more on those purchases you make.
5% Cash Back Schedule
The way that this rewards program works is that you receive the 5% cash back rewards in rotating categories that change every three months. Here’s the cash back schedule for the Chase Freedom rewards card for the rest of 2012:
- January – March: Gas stations & Amazon.com
- April – June: Grocery stores & Movie theaters
- July – September: Gas stations & Restaurants
- October-December: Hotels, Airlines, Best Buy, & Kohl’s
One thing to note about this schedule is that Chase Freedom tries to offer you the most cash back on the items that you are especially likely to buy in a particular season. For example, there are gas rewards in the summer when people tend to drive most and shopping rewards as well as travel rewards during the winter holidays.
Some people actually use this card in conjunction with other rewards cards, and only put purchases on the Freedom card that are earning the bonus. Of course, the downside of this approach is that you have to keep track of the categories and juggle mutiple cards.
This approach can help to maximize the amount you get back but to me it’s more work than it’s worth. It really depends on how much you spend on your card and how easy it is for you to keep track of the bonus categories. You also have to keep in mind that if you open too many cards it can negatively impact your credit score.
Chase Cash Back
You will earn 1% cash back rewards on all purchases you make that don’t fall into one of the seasonal categories, which means you get a 1% rebate for each $1 of purchases.
Also, as part of the Ultimate Rewards program, Chase has a trip planner where you can search for flights, hotels, and rental cars. The functionality is okay, they let you filter by price, schedule, city, etc – like most major travel sites. If you book and pay for travel using the site you earn an extra point for every dollar you spend.
You won’t earn cash back for transactions on your card that aren’t purchases. For example if you do a balance transfer or something like a cash advance don’t expect to be earn any rewards since Chase doesn’t credit them on that type of activity.
Bonus Cash Back for Online Shopping
Chase has an online shopping tool that allows you to search for even better cash back deals when making online purchases with select retailers. It is possible to earn up to an additional 10% cash back on the purchases that are made through this online shopping tool.
Cash Back Bonus Offers
Chase Freedom somtimes offers the opportunity to earn an additional cash back when you first start using the card. You just need to spend a certain amount within the first three months of opening the card and then that money is available for you to redeem. For example, for their $100 bonus offer, if you put $500 on the card during the first 3 billing cycles then they put a credit on your card for $100.
Redeeming Cash Back Rewards
It is possible to start redeeming your rewards for cash as soon as you’ve earned the low amount of just $20 (and you can then continue redeeming in $20 increments). However, there are also other ways that you can redeem these rewards:
- Pay yourself back using the cash back that you’ve earned to pay for a recent purchase on the card
- Get gift cards with your cash back rewards
- Redeem for travel rewards with no blackout dates or restrictions
- Exchange the cash for points and redeem the points for merchandise
Flexible Repayment with Chase Blueprint
Chase Freedom is one of the cards that is part of the Chase Blueprint program, a program designed to allow you many different repayment options for your spending. Those repayment options include:
- Full payment each month in specific spending categories that you select so that you never pay interest on items purchased in those categories
- Set a goal date for when you want to pay off a large purchase and split the payments evenly until that date
- Set a monthly amount that you wish to pay on a large purchase until the item is paid off
- Set a target date and create a plan for paying off an entire balance
The Chase Blueprint program is free and is linked to your online Chase account. You can make changes to your payment plan at any time.
Chase Freedom Fees
There is no annual fee for the card and a relatively low APR compared to other cash back cards. Chase Freedom does occasionally offer introductory 0% APR on balance transfers as well as purchases; see the chart below for more details.
Blue Sky from American Express Credit Card Review
Blue Sky from American Express is one of the top travel rewards credit cards because of the freedom its membership rewards program offers cardholders to choose how you can redeem your points.
Top Travel Rewards Card – One of the problems that can come with using a rewards card with a certain airline or hotel chain is that you might spend years building up rewards and then have them suddenly change the program on you.
For example there were some major changes made to the Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward program not long ago when they overhauled how customers could earn and redeem flight rewards. Many customers and industry experts thought the changes were an improvement but not everyone felt that way. The customers who had been flying Southwest for years and felt they were being mis-treated had little they could do about it other than leave complaints on the customer blog.
Regardless of whether you thought the Southwest Airlines rewards program improved or got worse, the point is that using a specific airline credit card does expose you to that risk. That’s one of the reasons that Blue Sky from American Express is one of the best travel rewards credit cards you can apply for today. With no blackout dates or travel restrictions plus rewards points that can be used for any airline, hotel, cruise, or car rental – the card doesn’t limit you to a specific airline, or even method of travel.
Earn Reward Points Easily – Another nice benefit of American Express Blue Sky over some of the other cards from airlines like Delta, United, and Continental is that the card has no annual fee. The fee for most airlines cards isn’t that high, but no fee is certainly better than even a low fee. With no charge to use the Blue Sky card, you start earning rewards right away without having to worry about making up the annual fee.
The Blue Sky also has no purchase limitations on where you can earn travel points. As a card member, you earn one point for every single dollar that you spend and there is no earning limit on your rewards. Expiring points are not an issue either, the points you earn will be available as long as your account is active and in good standing.
Not to complain about the airlines again but I’ve had so many frequent flyer miles expire over the years, it’s nice to know that the rewards you earn when traveling will be there for you to use them. If you’re not a frequent traveler and are trying to save up rewards for a big vacation a few years off, then this is a great feature for you.
I don’t know how many offers I saw come in the mail to use my frequent flyer miles to buy magazine subscriptions. It was a prett inefficient way to redeem the miles, I wasn’t getting a very good conversion rate when it came to mone spent on flights vs rewards, but once or twice my miles were expiring so I opted for the magazine. I’m glad I don’t have to mess around with that anymore because of cards like Blue Sky.
Blue Sky Travel Savings – The Blue Savings program is a good way to earn discounts on travel. You can find deals from 5–20% off hotels (like Marriott), rental cars (like Hertz), and restaurants when you pay with your Blue Sky card. It’s a nice perk – the Blue savings program was setup for the Amex Blue and Blue Cash cards but since Blue Sky is in the same card family, you can take advantage of the savings as well.
Blue Sky Protection – Another thing people like about the Blue Sky card is that it offers travelers protection against unexpected problems while on a trip. Card holders can call the American Express Global Assist Hotline for help with coordination of emergency assistance for medical, financial, and legal matters. They also offer a lost wallet service, which does cost extra, that will rush you a new card and will help expedite getting a new passport or ID if you’re overseas and lose your wallet.
Blue Sky from American Express also provides the Purchase Protection Plan, which can cover items you buy while traveling. It protects eligible purchases made with the Card against accidental damage and theft for up to 90 days from the date of purchase. The Blue Sky card also offers auto insurance for rental cars but make sure you understand the rules of the credit card rental insurance and what it does and doesn’t cover before you start driving.
You can review the features and benefits of the card listed below and see if the Blue Sky travel rewards credit card will save you money on your next trip.
