Archive for the ‘Cashback Rewards Programs’ Category

Discover Open Road Credit Card Review

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Last Updated: 7/7/2011

The Discover Open Road Card is a cash back card specializing in gas and restaurant rewards. It is hands down one of the most, if not the most, complex rewards programs that I have ever come across. It’s so complex that it took me a full 30 minutes just to figure out how to program it into the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine. While we are big fans of Discover and tout some of their cards, unfortunately this card isn’t one of them (not per se because of the complexity, but simply because the rewards don’t add up).  

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Discover Motiva Credit Card Review

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Last Reviewed: 11/29/2010

The Discover Motiva credit card is aimed at the ultra-profitable segment of the credit-using population that pays their minimum balances each month, but nevertheless carries a balance.  

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3 Best Cashback Credit Cards

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Last Updated: 5/13/2011

While there are some amazing airline and hotel loyalty credit cards out there, there’s something special about pure cash back credit cards that’s spiritually appealing to our inner capitalist selves. Out with black-out dates and annoying reservation systems; in with statement credits and instant gratification.

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Review of the American Express Blue Sky Credit Card

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Last Reviewed: 8/15/2010

The American Express Blue Sky credit card is another one of those cards masquerading as a travel credit card, yet behaving more like a cash back card with some redemption restrictions. Thus, on PIQ’s Plastic Ranking Engine you will find the AMEX Blue Sky card in both the travel and cash back categories.

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Review of the Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Card

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Last Reviewed: 8/5/2010

capital-one-no-hassle-cashThe Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards credit card is a fairly straightforward cashback credit card. It’s not an all-star card, but neither is it a laggard–somewhat North of middle-of-the-pack. One callout is that Capital One tends to tailor their offers based on your credit worthiness.

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Review of the Bank of America Accelerated Cash Rewards Credit Card

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

bank-of-america-accelerated-cash-rewardsLast Reviewed: 8/1/2010

While the Bank of America Accelerated Cash Rewards card currently ranks 5th out of 32 cashback cards, as the table below shows, this card will earn you significantly less than the top-ranked Discover Escape and American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card.  

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Review of the PenFed Visa Platinum Cashback Rewards Credit Card

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Last Updated: 5/30/2011

penfed-visa-platinum-cashback-rewardsThe Penfed Visa Platinum Gas card might be called a hidden gem. The value proposition of this card is very straightforward: its awesome for gas rewards (5% cashback)–but plain Jane on all other purchases (1% cashback).  

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Review of the American Express Blue Cash Credit Card

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Note: As of 4/30/2011, American Express replaced the Amex Blue Cash Card (which is no longer available), with 2 new credit cards: the Amex Blue Cash Everyday Card, and the Amex BlueCash Preferred Card.  While the Everyday Card is slightly inferior to the old Blue Cash card at higher levels of spend (say, >$1,000 per month of spend on the card), it does outperform at lower levels of spend.

However, the real gem is the new American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card–which simply dominates it’s predecessor and consistently appears at or right near the top.

Follow this link to read PlasticIQ’s review of the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card.


Last Reviewed: 7/23/2010
blue-cash-amexThe Amex Blue Cash Card (NO LONGER AVAILABLE) is a force to be reckoned with, ranking near the top of the pack if you spend enough on the card. If used skillfully, Blue Cash can earn an effective cashback rate of 3% or even more.

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What is the Value of American Express Membership Rewards Points?

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

There are three levels of Amex Rewards—Membership Rewards Express, Membership Rewards (which is what this article is focused on), and Membership Rewards First. We have blogged separately about the Express program in our post What is the value of American Express Membership Rewards Express Program Points?

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What is the value of American Express Membership Rewards Express Program Points?

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

There are actually 2 tiers of the American Express Membership Rewards Program—the MR tier (this is the “full” program) and the Express Tier (which is identical to the MR tier except that you can’t transfer points to other frequent flyer/hotel programs). The Express Rewards program typically applies to AMEX cards that don’t charge annual fees, such as Blue From American Express.

Since the Express Program offers fewer redemption options than the full MR tier, you might feel like you’re getting hit below the belt (and it turns out to be true!) as the value of the points earned in the Express program is worth less than the same number of points earned through the MR program.

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