Over the past few years, I have made hundreds of dollars off of rewards credit cards. The best experience I ever had was when I had the now defunct AT&T credit card from Citibank. The offer said that for the first six months it would give back 5% on all purchases. Miraculously, after the six months, I kept getting 5% cash back. This went on for a year! It was fantastic until I get a letter in the mail saying the card was being discontinued.

So here’s what I make do with today:

• The Miles Card from Discover. I got this card last summer right around the time I moved into my new condo.

  This card has 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases for the first twelve months (with no balance transfer fees). It was time for to buy all new furniture and let go of the junk I’d been using since college. This is the only card I’ve ever carried a large balance with, and I’ll have it paid off soon before the intro rate ends.

• The Driver’s Edge Card from Citibank is the current credit card love of my life. For the first 12 months, you get 6% cash back on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores. You can also earn point for the miles you drive by sending in certified odometer readings.

  I’ve registered my car, but haven’t yet followed up with additional miles. The rewards can be used for car services or used as point to buy gift cards.

  Once my six months are up, I’ll be on the hunt for some similar rewards.

• I’ve had the Dividend Platinum Select Card for over three years now. I don’t use it much anymore, but was one of the first big rewards cards that I had. It used to give out 5% cash back on the same stores as the Driver’s Edge Card, but the rewards have been lowered to 2%. At the same time, they started paying out 2% on utilities. Now pretty much all I use it for is to pay the cable bill.

  I make more money with the Driver’s Edge Card, but still bust out the Dividend Select card occasionally.

• Another card that I don’t use as much as I used to is the Chase BP Visa Card. It gives 5% cash back at BP stations and I used it until I got the Dividends Card which worked at all stations.

  My usage on the card picked up recently when they started offering 2% cash back at restaurants a year or so ago.

• The most recent card I have gotten is the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card. Technically, this card is for small businesses, but anybody can apply. When the application asks for the company TIN, just enter your own social security number.

  The reason I got this card is that recently there was promotion where I was refunded $100 off my first purchase. I got the refund within a month and will be cancelling the card soon to avoid the $150 annual fee (the first year was waived upon sign up).

And that’s my wallet (besides a debit card, insurance cards, store loyalty cards, etc.). All of the card mentioned abpve also give 1% on all other purchases, something which seem to be the standard among reward cards. I’ll be looking to pick up a new card soon, but haven’t done enough research to know what yet…

Technorati Tags: rewards credit cards, Citibank, 0% interest, balance transfers, wallet

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