Comments on: Are Loyalty Affinity Credit Cards Worth It?

By: SavingEverything

SavingEverything — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:09:05 +0000

This post being a branded credit card, I’m wondering why you never wrote about the FIA CARD SERVICES (aka Bank of America Credit cards; previously MBNA) WorldPoints Program and their points and rewards?

By: Foo Finance

Foo Finance — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:16:20 +0000

I swear by my Delta Skymiles Platinum Amex. I travel often for both work and play and the miles I earn (and use!) have saved me thousands in airfare. I get a lot of other travel-related perks from the card which more than pay for the annual fee. I get Delta fees waived, bonus miles opportunities, free yearly domestic companion ticket (this alone is worth more than the annual fee!), and other nice perks.

Seeing as I plan to travel very extensively once I achieve financial freedom it makes sense for me to do this. I spend all I can on the card to earn miles and bonuses. I earn more miles than I can currently use so it is like having a savings account for future airfare.

I also have the Chase Freedom Visa card for when AMEX is not accepted. I use it lightly and when the points add up I get gift cards for Home Depot or a restaurant I like.

I am not a fan of brand loyalty cards as I am not brand loyal. I buy whatever makes the most financial sense for me.

- Bobby

By: saladdin

saladdin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:22:50 +0000

And they ran a special last couple of months with 5% back on “Back to school” which meant, really, anything bought on Amazon.

saladdin

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:42:37 +0000

Pentagon Federal has a great Rewards Card.
5% at any gas station
2% at any grocery store
and 1.25% everywhere else.

By: Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

Kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:14 +0000

We recently applied for a Target Visa. Our credit score is mid/high 700s.

When we got the card, which we intended to use as a replacement for a recently canceled card, the credit limit was slightly less than 1% of our annual gross income. The customer service folks refused to bump the limit, so we refused to use the card.

Seriously, we charge (and completely pay off) considerably more than that amount every month. The Target card would have been pretty much worthless.

By: Fairy Dust

Fairy Dust — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:16:50 +0000

I have a Starbucks VISA card, which I love (I mean, really… free coffee!). The others are brand-agnostic — a Upromise MC through BofA, which we will eventually cancel (I hate BofA and was so upset when they took the Upromise card over from Citi), and a Chase Rewards card.

By: Soccer9040

Soccer9040 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:49:55 +0000

YES! – I’m glad there are people out there who can see through the marketing pitch. I feel like being a good consumer equates itself to being able to figure out how everyone in the transaction is benefiting. Not everything they tell you is true.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:02:36 +0000

Brand-Agnostic – Discover Card

Many options for redemption of rewards…
1) cash back (about 3 days to your checking acct),
2) apply to your bill,
3) donate to charity, or
4) rewards catalog… and many items redeem for more than the value, example, Gap $20 for a $25 store card.

By: skylog

skylog — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:48:25 +0000

my loyalties rest with the best rewards…that said, as i am in state college, nice to see jo pa repping on the page; however the card would be more realistic if he was yelling at someone in the picture.

By: BrianC

BrianC — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:17:55 +0000

For simplicity’s sake I prefer cash back over anything else.

By: eric

eric — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:02:22 +0000

Nope, no interest in loyalty cards. I go whereever the rewards speak to me

By: HuBu

HuBu — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:16:54 +0000

I would love to have a University of Florida BoA card but they don’t have it. Somewhat weird. Either way, my check card is an ASME one.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:26:42 +0000

Targets in the Kansas City area and San Antonio area are currently testing out a new marketing strategy for their Target branded cards. If you use your Target Visa or Target debit card at a store in KC you automatically get 5% off your purchase immediately, 3% in San Antonio. We’ll see what happens.

By: Danny

Danny — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:13:53 +0000

I use the Citi Bank AAdvantage card. We earn miles for everything that we purchase at one per dollar. The best thing about this card is to take advantage of shopping at their preferred retailers if you shop online. That way, you earn one mile per dollar plus the miles per dollar spent for the retailer. The drawback is that the rewards are only good for flights and/or AAvacations websites.

If you want reward points that are easily reemedable for gift cards to various places, I would use the Chase Freedom Card. It still has $100 gift cards for 10,000 points which is kind of rare as other card are charging 12,000 points.

By: glixon66

glixon66 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:36:15 +0000

For me, any rewards CC, be it brand loyalty or affinity, only “pays” off if you pay it off every month. If not, you have to subtract the interest paid from the reward, and, in that case, it isn’t worth it in my opinion, especially if your goal is to increase your net worth.

We have a Costco Amex Card, which we pay off every month, and which gives us a rebate every year for anything at Costco. Since we buy certain items in bulk, this works for us.

We have a US Bank Visa Rewards card, which we also pay off every month, but which we are getting rid of. We have used it in the past for a flight or two, and an iPod Nano, but there’s not a whole lot listed in the rewards catalog that we want or need.

However, in place of this CC we are getting rid of, we received an REI Visa Card and the rewards offered on it are worth it to us. We go camping and backpacking a lot, so being able to purchase items from REI and get rebates that we can use for future purchases, is something we will use, often.

Again, we will be pay it off every month, so the rewards are rewarding to us.