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Any Awesome Credit Cards?

Anything related to investing, including crypto

healthstatus

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My Amex Gold annual fee just went to $175/year. I don't see that much ancillary value in the services. Anybody have any recommendations on an Awesome credit card for my business expenses? My rating is excellent and I don't carry a balance, ever.
 
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Michael C

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My personal recommendation would be the Chase Ink Plus Business Card. With it, you earn 5X points at office supply stores and phone/internet/cable services as well as 2X points on gas and hotels. Most importantly, I value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at one of the highest valuations for credit card points. They also have great flexibility in that they can be transferred to 11 different travel partners including United, Southwest, Hyatt, IHG, etc.

By hitting the sign-up bonus, you can get 50,000 points, which at a minimum is worth $625 but could be redeemed for over $1000 of value if maximized. The annual fee is $95 and waived for the first year. It also has no foreign transaction fees.
 

Haze

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Sallie Mae mastercard has 5% gas, grocery on first $250 (for each category) every month. No annual fee. 5% on first $750 on bookstores (amazon counts). Not a whole lot but easier to remember than others that do seasonal categories.
 
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Azif

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Get the Amex Business Gold Card. You get $750 when you spend $5000 within 3 months. It has an annual fee of $175, but really if you cancel after a year it's basically a free $750 because you aren't charged the first year. That's like 15% cashback on the firs $5000 + you would get extra points for purchases as well.
 

Npl9

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Get the Amex Business Gold Card. You get $750 when you spend $5000 within 3 months. It has an annual fee of $175, but really if you cancel after a year it's basically a free $750 because you aren't charged the first year. That's like 15% cashback on the firs $5000 + you would get extra points for purchases as well.

I think he's trying to get rid of the Amex Gold card.
 

lrryjrry

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I have chase freedom, Bank of America Visa, USbank Cash+, American Express Blue Cash everyday, American Express Simply Cash, Citi Prefer.

They are all good reward cards. Out of all, I would like to apply for Citi double cash which will have 2% back.
 

eliquid

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I generally use both my Chase cards, the Ink for business and the Sapphire for personal. Easy to move points around for different things.

I also mix in my Amex Starwood too.

Been thinking about the Spark since Biophase has brought it up a lot for the 2%. I need to see if 2% is really worth it for me compared to how I maximize my points on Starwood/Chase though.
 

G_Alexander

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biophase

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I generally use both my Chase cards, the Ink for business and the Sapphire for personal. Easy to move points around for different things.

I also mix in my Amex Starwood too.

Been thinking about the Spark since Biophase has brought it up a lot for the 2%. I need to see if 2% is really worth it for me compared to how I maximize my points on Starwood/Chase though.

I made the change after calculating a few things.

First is the freedom of cash back. I am no longer limited to using my rewards for travel. I can use it on any aspect of my business.
Second is that when I used miles for plane tickets or hotels, I was not deducting them as a business expense. So if I got a mileage valued $500 plane ticket, I kept forgetting about adding that $500 expense to my expenses come tax time. If I just pay for the ticket, I never forgot.
Third is that 2% what about the same value as the price of my plane tickets, if I spend $25,000, I got $500 back or 25,000 miles. 25,000 miles is a round trip ticket worth about $350-$450 to me. So $500 was actually a better value to get back.

Where miles are superior is upgrading though. Going from coach to business class for 25,000 miles is way better because you cannot pay anywhere close to $500 to do that. But, I hardly upgrade things, so that's why I choose to get the cashback.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Do you get a 1099 on your cash back?

I always do. I just got a $1,500 credit on my Amex for rewards and I know Ill be taxed on it for income. Then a few years ago I got a free cruise (about $2,500 value) from Ameritrade for depositing $1M into another brokerage account and I ended up getting a $2,500 ding on it for my taxes.
 

biophase

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I haven't received a 1099 from them for 2014. I don't think I ever have.
 

eliquid

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Do you get a 1099 on your cash back?
I always do. I just got a $1,500 credit on my Amex for rewards and I know Ill be taxed on it for income. Then a few years ago I got a free cruise (about $2,500 value) from Ameritrade for depositing $1M into another brokerage account and I ended up getting a $2,500 ding on it for my taxes.
I haven't received a 1099 from them for 2014. I don't think I ever have.


Odd.

I've gotten a lot of points, gift cards, and cash back ( as a credit ) mainly from Chase, but also from Starwoods Amex, Discover, Capital One, and Citibank and I have never once seen a 1099 from any of them over the last 8 years.

I use to worry about this and get antsy about getting those 1099's every year and how they would impact my numbers, but they just never came and I finally stopped looking for them.
 

Ronak

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My Amex Gold annual fee just went to $175/year. I don't see that much ancillary value in the services. Anybody have any recommendations on an Awesome credit card for my business expenses? My rating is excellent and I don't carry a balance, ever.

What are you looking to get out of it? Cash back? Travel rewards for international business class?

Many factors to determine what's right for you.


I personally love miles cards and have used points for trips all over the world.
 

Kak

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I use Chase Ink for business and a my wife and I use a JPM “Chase” card for personal.

I used to be an Amex guy, but I find the points situation with Chase’s “Ultimate Rewards” program to be more valuable to me. Houston is a United Airlines city and the Amex points used to be worthless for United. Also, I pool the points between business and personal.

Yes they’re like $600 in total AF's, but I get way more value back out of them.
 
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G-Man

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Citi Double Cash - I only use Amex for business or when I buy something expensive enough I want to be able to charge it back.

If you're just starting out AMEX is a good idea because in my experience they're the most likely to give you a decent line size when you start your business if you have a history with them.
 

MTEE1985

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Only one I consider “awesome” is Amex Blue cash preferred, gets me 6% back on groceries for the first $6,000 which we almost always spend.
 
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