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.

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.

3^rd 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.

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. 

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.  

Gas Rewards & Gas Prices

Sadly, gas credit cards and the rewards you can earn from them may be the only good thing about the rising price of gas.  Although earning cash back on your card doesn’t bring back cheap gas it at least takes a bite out of more expensive fill ups.  Choosing the right gas card for your spending patterns can help stretch that cash back a little farther.

Cash Rewards and Interest Rates

One important point is that using a credit card for gas purchases and carrying a balace on it will wipe out any rewards you earn on your purchases. If you really want your gas credit card to make a dent in your gas costs make sure you don’t end up paying interest on your purchases.

If you find yourself putting all your purchases on one credit card, along with your gas, and can’t afford to pay it off each month – you could consider getting a rewards card that’s just for gas and paying for everything else with cash or some other card that features a low interest rate.

How Much Cash Back?

So how much cash back can you expect to earn when you use a rewards card?  The percentage back will depend on which card you qualify for and how you use it. 

Membership Cards

For example, the Costo True Earnings card pays 3% cashback on purchases, one of the best out there.  Of course you can only qualify for the card if you’re a member of Costco wholesale and the 3% cash back rate has an annual cap of $3,000 in gas purchases. So if you’re not member you can’t take advantage of it – and if you do belong to Costco, after you spend over $3K in a year the cash back rate goes down to 1%.

Another example is the Pen Fed Platinum Cashback card that pays a whopping 5% at the gas pump.  This is another card with a caveat.  You have to join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union to qualify for the card and take advantage of the high cash back payout.  The good news is that if you want use the card there’s a way you can become a member but it’s one more hurdle to earning top cash back rates.

Annual Fee

I really like the Blue Cash card from American Express because it has a cashback structure that fits how we spend our money.  They recently updated the card so that now you actually have two options, the Blue Cash Everyday and the Blue Cash Preferred card.

The differences between the two are the card fee and the cashback rates. Although you pay an annual fee with the Preferred card, you earn the highest cash rebate on groceries and gas.  So you have to look at your history and see how much you spend on those two categories to determine if you make enough purchases to make the Blue Cash Preferred worth it.  It makes sense for our family but it might not for you.

Cash Back Categories

Both the Discover More and Chase Freedom offer 5% cash back on gas purchases but they operate a little differently than the other cards mentioned above.  These cards have cetain categories of spending that they pay 5% cash back on during the year.  The categories change every quarter and typically use a seasonal approach.  For example, they might offer 5% back on gas during the summer months when people tend to do the most driving.

Cashback Always & for Everyone

So far we’ve talked about cards that mostly earn 5% cash back but each of them has certain things that might not make them the best card for everyone – membership cards, spending tiers, cash back categories.  Not to say that these aren’t good cards, it’s hard to pass up 5% cash back on gas, but they may or may not be the best fit for you.

There are cards that pay more than 1% cash back on gas every month of the year, don’t have an earnings cap, and are available to a wider audience.  Although the cash back rate on those cards typically isn’t as good, they can still be a good gas card.

One example is the Discover Open Road card.  This card pays 2% back on gas and at restaurants, so if none of the other cards is a fit for you, this could be an option.  They are a litle more strict on who they accept for this card based on your credit history.  If you have a poor credit score you might not be approved or may have to pay a higher interest rate

Comparing Cards

Hopefully this has been a helpful look at the different types of gas credit cards available, how much you can earn, and things to think about for each one. You can review the benefits and features of these top gas rewards credit cards listed below and hopefully find the right gas card that will save you the most money.

For example, even the best cash back cards won’t earn you enough rewards to make up for interest fees if you carry a credit card balance. In order to select the best cash back rewards credit card, you really need to know yourself as a credit card holder.

Questions to Ask Yourself when Choosing a Cash Back Card

Ask yourself the following question to make it easier to compare different cash back rewards credit cards with an eye towards those that will be best for you.

What do you spend the most money on? The types of things you spend the most money on and where you shop can make a big difference; a lot of cash back cards pay higher rewards at gas stations, drug stores, and supermarkets. For example, the Citi Dividend Platinum Select and Chase Freedom cards both offer 5% interest back on certain rotating spending categories including restaurants, car rentals and hotels.

How much money do you spend on your credit card each month? Each year? Some cash back rewards cards offer bonus points if you spend a certain amount of money each month. Other cash back rewards credit cards offer a higher rate of cash back after you spend a specified amount on the card each year. If you’re a big spender then these cards can benefit you greatly. There is another important factor for big spenders to look at, though, and that’s whether or not there’s a maximum on the amount of cash back that can be earned each year. A big spender won’t benefit optimally from a card that has such limitations.

Will you be making a large purchase on the card right away? In some ways, this relates to the last question. If you are then you may want to get a credit card that offers bonus points for spending a large sum when you first get the card. However, this question is important in another way as well. If you’re going to spend a lot of money when you get the card and won’t be able to pay it off immediately then you should look for a cash back credit card that offers a 0% or low interest promotional APR. An example of a cash back credit card with a 0% intro APR offer is SimplyCash from American Express.

Are you likely to carry a balance on the credit card? If you are then you are going to want to look for a credit card that has a low APR even if the cash back rewards program isn’t as strong as that of another card with a higher APR.

Do you only want cash back or do you wish for other rewards as well? Most people who get a cash back rewards card are primarily interested in actually getting cash back. However, some cash back rewards cards also offer the opportunity to redeem the rewards for merchandise, travel and other rewards. For example, Discover More allows you to redeem cash back for gift cards that sometimes have double the value of the cash amount. If you want flexible redemption options then this would be something to consider.

How do you want to receive your cash back rewards? The wide variety of rewards programs available today allow you to redeem points for cash, get a reward check, redeem gift cards, or even sign up and get paid via direct deposit.

Is there a credit card brand that you prefer? All of the major credit card companies offer at least one cash back credit card so if you have a company that you prefer over the others then it may be worth it to you to check out what they have available. Don’t forget to compare them to other brands to make sure that they do offer the best deal, though.

Do you fall into a specific consumer category? For example, the Discover Student Card is a cash back card designed specifically for college students that have good credit.

Review the benefits and features of the top cash back cards listed below to figure out which cash back rewards card is the best one for you.

The SimplyCash may be one of the best business credit cards out there because of the fact that it combines a lot of rewards opportunities with reasonable rates and no annual fee. The card offers the highest cash back percentage on wireless phone services and office supplies, 5% back, and earns you 3% cash back on gas purchases.

Other business credit cards offer a flat 1% cash back on all purchases but the SimplyCash card combines a cash rebate card with a gas rebate card for business owners.  It kind of borrows from the model of the TruEarnings card, where you earn a fixed percent back on all your purchases, in the case of SimplyCash that’s 1%, and are paid a considerably higher rate for things like gas and office products. Having both of these available on one card is what makes it stand out the most for me.

Although there’s no annual limit on the total cash back you can earn with the card you only earn 5% back on the first $12,000 worth of purchases of wireless and office supplies you make in a year.  The same applies for gas purchases, after your first $12K annual gas spending, the remaining sales earn you 1% cash back.

Simply Cash Discounts
In addition to the cash rebates, the SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express OPEN offers discounts at all OPEN Savings merchant partners. This means that not only will you receive cash back on purchases, but you can also save additional money on a variety of office-related products and services.

The OPEN Savings program has a good selection of companies that businesses tend to work with for things like travel, technology, shipping, etc.  Here you can see some examples of the merchants in the program such as HP, Hyatt Hotels, FedEx, AirTran, Hertz, and Symantec.

The Open Savings program is pretty simple, if you use your Simply Cash card at one of the merchants, the discount is automatically applied when you pay.  For example, Symantec makes the popular Norton Anti-virus software, if you buy Norton for your business with your SimplyCash card you get a 10% discount.  You do have to read the terms of each merchant and product to make sure you get the discount.  In the case of Norton, the Symantec products are only eligible for the discount if you buy through their online store.  So be sure you know the terms of the merchant before you buy.

Rewards are Automatic
Another nice thing about this business rewards credit card is that redeeming your rewards requires absolutely zero effort on your part. Each month when you receive your credit card statement you will see that your cash back rewards have been automatically added to that statement. Many business owners have good rewards credit cards but are so busy that they forget to redeem those rewards. That will never be a problem with a card that offers automatic rewards!

Simply Cash APR and Fees
As is the case with many business credit cards, the Simply Cash from American Express card has a relatively low APR with an introductory 0% APR. The card also has a longer-than-average 25-day grace period, as well as no annual fee and no fee for additional cards, all of which enhance the appeal of this card. To get up-to-date information about the APR for this card scroll down to the chart at the bottom of this page.

American Express Benefits
American Express does make a serious effort to make their business credit cards more than just a credit card. Their OPEN network not only has the Savings program I discussed earlier, it also features the OPEN Forum and Connectodex.  These online business communities feature business resources to help fill the gaps in a business owner’s expertise, as well as networking tools for trading advice and collaboration.

The online account management and reporting you get with an American Express card like SimplyCash are pretty flexible when it comes to tracking and reporting on how you’re spending your money.

Conclusion
Of all the benefits of the Simply Cash from American Express, the 5% rebate on office purchases is the greatest selling point. For any business owner who logs a lot of miles in a car or other vehicle for deliveries or other purpose, the cash back on gas expenditures is also highly attractive especially as gas prices continue to climb. All in all, this card has no annual fee, low APR, and high rebates: all things you should look for in a business credit card.

Airline Bonuses
The Delta Reserve Card has a lot to offer over other frequent flyer cards. The mile-per-dollar spent is the same as most other airline cards. On top of that, however, you can earn additional rewards and enjoy many perks. Double miles are available for certain purchases of groceries, home improvement, gas stations, and at the post office – making it very versatile when measured against other airline reward cards. You don’t have to spend on travel purchases to earn extra rewards towards travel, which is nice for people who travel regularly but not extensively.

Medallion Qualification Miles
The jewel of Delta’s SkyMiles cards is the Medallion Qualification Miles program. The Reserve card is the top tier of Delta’s frequent flyer cards. Other Delta cards offer frequent flyer points, but not in the same bulk as MQM’s, which can build up frequent flyer points by the thousands at a time.

With the Delta Reserve Card, you get 10,000 MQM’s immediately after your first purchase. If you spend $30,000 a year on the card you’ll receive an extra 30,000 bonus miles – in addition to the miles already credited from point-per dollar, for a total of 60,000 rewards points. If you spend $60,000 a year, it will net you an additional 15,000 miles. The more you spend on this card, the more you benefit from it.

Extra Rewards
As a Reserve cardholder you’ll also receive a free flight voucher for a companion ticket on coach or first class. So even though the Reserve card has a high annual fee when compared with other airline cards, this free airfare makes up for the fee. Delta Reserve cardholders will also be eligible for Skyclub access to the Delta Crown Room for the cardholder and two guests. People who enjoy travel perks when they fly will enjoy what this card has to offer.

Free Checked Bag
Now that airlines are charging to check bags, the Delta Reserve card can save you money each time you fly. With your card, you get a free checked bag on every flight.

Travel Perks
In addition to airline miles perks and the free checked bag deal, the American Express Delta Reserve Card offers everything you would get with a typical Amex card: travel insurance, as well as enhanced fraud protection. Overall, this card is pretty attractive, definitely attractive to those who use their credit card a lot every month for travel as well as other standard purchases.

Annual Fee
This credit card does come with an annual fee of $450. That’s one of the highest annual fees in the market so that’s certainly something to ponder carefully. However, the fact that you can earn so many rewards points on this card, as well as the fact that you get a free ticket each year, can offset the cost of the annual fee.

Conclusion
Delta and American Express put together a pretty good travel rewards program with this card, you have more ways to build up frequent flyer points than other cards of its kind with the Delta Reserve. You do have to weigh the annual fee with the rewards that you’ll get to make sure that this card will be worth your while.

The Hilton HHonors card is a travel rewards card with a generous points system: 5 points for every dollar spent at a Hilton, as well as money spent for gas, at supermarkets, drugstores, and other purchases. It’s not a Hilton-only rewards program by any means, making it one of the better hotel-affiliated credit cards available. Cardholders get 10,000 points after first purchase, as well as 10,000 additional points after the first stay at a Hilton Hotel.

Hilton Rewards In addition to 5 points rewarded at select merchants, the Hilton HHonors card gives cardholders a full three points for all other purchases. That’s pretty much unprecedented for a rewards card of this type. Most travel rewards card follow the point-per-dollar model. While points never expire, there is a limit of $100,000 in spending every year, which is more than enough for the vast majority of cardholders. Anyone spending more than that each year could combine this rewards card with a second rewards card to meet all of their spending needs and still get the great rewards offered by this card.

Hilton Bonus Points The Hilton HHonors card can be combined with the HHonors® reward program, which allows cardholders to earn points or frequent flyer miles towards a hotel stay. In addition to 10,000 points after first purchase, cardholders are eligible for 15,000 bonus points if $5000 is spent in five months of having the card. A cardholder could conceivably receive 35,000 bonus points within the first five months of using the card. That is a lot of bonus rewards points to cash in quickly when first getting the card.

Personalize your Rewards You are actually able to personalize how you earn rewards on this card. You can earn points or you can earn miles or you can earn a combination of both depending on what suits you but. You set your own earnings style through your online account.

Redeeming Rewards Most cardholders are travelers so they will want to redeem their points for travel. There are many different ways to do that; you can redeem for hotels, cruises, car rental, or vacation packages. You can also redeem your rewards for “experiences” such as motorcycle rentals or wine tasting. If for some reason you aren’t going to be traveling for a bit, though, and want to redeem your rewards in other ways then that option is available to you as well.

The rewards can be cashed in for shopping, dining and entertainment. You can even share or gift your rewards to others if you are feeling generous. Note that if you’re close to having enough points to redeem for something you want but you want to get it now then you do have the option of simply buying points to push yourself up to having the points you need to redeem rewards. Or you could get a friend to share their points with you!

The Hilton American Express Card The HHonors® reward program is an Amex card, so the card comes with all the built in protection of an American Express card – travel accident insurance, car rental insurance, fraud protection, and replacement protection. As this is a travel-related credit card, this is important. The card also has no annual fee and a low introductory rate. However, the card does have a relatively high long-term rate, so it’s not a great card for carrying a balance month to month.

Conclusion As mentioned, the Hilton HHonors Platinum Card has one of the best travel rewards points programs available and it offers these rewards with no annual fee. At the same time, this is offset a bit by the APR so it’s best for people who don’t typically carry a balance on their cards. If you do a lot of traveling and frequently stay at Hilton hotels then check it out. 

The Discover Student Card has one of the best cash back plans of any rewards card out there: 5% cash back at select merchants.  Most other rewards cards offer 2% cash back at most.  Cardholders can also double rebate points by trading them in for gift certificates or gift cards.  The card also has a lower APR than other credit cards for students.

Rebate Plan: In addition to 5% cash back for purchases at a number of different outlets, such as Office Depot, Lowes, the Gap, Marshall’s, Pier 1 Imports, and a host of other locations, the Discover Student Card has a tiered approach to cash rebates.  A 1% rebate on all purchases kicks in after the first $3000 in purchases.  Up until that point, cardholders will get .25% for the first $1500 spent on the card and .50% for the second $1500.  Cardholders can earn up to $500 in rebates a year.  To calculate that out: .25% of $1500 is $375, so the card would not be maxed out after the first $1500.

Double Cash Back Bonuses: One of the best features of the card is double cash back bonuses.  Cardholders can exchange rebates for gift cards at 60 different select merchants.  This averages out to 2% cash back for purchases – a very generous rate.  The best way to use the card is to cash in small amounts of rebates.  So, for example, if you have $20 in rebates built up after a small number of purchase, you can trade these in for a $40 gift card.  Select merchants include:

Shop Discover: The Discover Student Card is eligible for increased discounts at merchant partners that can be accessed from Discover’s website.  A number of these merchants are perfectly suited for student purchases: such as 7% cash back at Barnes and Noble or a 5% discount at Overstock.com.  Purchases at discount outlets earn an additional .25% cash back.

APR and Annual Fee: In addition to the above bonuses, the Discover Student Card has a lower APR than most other student cards – which usually have a steep APR.  There is also no annual fee for the card and a two-cycle average for determining balance.

Conclusion: Usually a card that has minimum payments before starting a cash rebate program is not all that positive.  The value of the Discover Student Card is not necessarily in the cash back percentages, but how each cardholder chooses to use the card.  If a cardholder never spends money at merchant partners, the cash back program is not all that impressive.  However, if the student adeptly makes purchases from affiliated merchants and trades in cash rewards for double rewards, the card is highly competitive when measured against other student cards.