For those of you with 100k in stocks sitting around, I'd recommend the BofA Premium rewards card. You need to transfer 100k in stocks to BofA's brokerage but that'll give you a card which gives 3.5% back on dining/travel and 2.65% on everything else. It saves you way more time than juggling points, and I'm much happier after switching to a one card system.
I really haven't seen any card that has better net reward generation than Discover, if you want a "one card for maximum rewards". You can definitely earn more if you juggle cards, but the base discover card is really quite good as a one-card system, and I think would beat any "2%-3% on everything" card.
It does operate on 5% categories each quarter, but those categories tend to be really common and broad, and their systems aren't exactly the best at determining when something shouldn't be in a category. In 2021, their categories are (Grocery Stores, Walgreens, CVS), (Gas Stations, Wholesale Clubs, Streaming Services), (Restaurants, Paypal), and (Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target.com). That's in addition to 1% on everything else.
Combine that with no annual fee (the BofA Premium Rewards card is $95/year, Sapphire Reserve is $550/year)... its very difficult to beat.
That being said, I'm a bigger fan of the Chase Freedom Unlimited or Flex, as I have everything else with Chase and I prefer keeping total "accounts to log in to" at a minium. The Flex has a rewards system similar to Discover, whereas the Unlimited is more static x% on Dining; they both get pretty close to Discover.
5% rotating category cards aren't that great IMO, it's a waste of your time tracking what the categories are. And if you add up the overall cashback percentage you're getting, it's likely going to be less than 2.65% unless you're spending more than 40% of your spending in those categories.
If you do a lot of Amazon, you might still want to have their 5% card as the default in your Amazon account, for about double the rewards.
The Amazon card rewards redemption is pretty much automatic, so I think the only additional hassle of this particular second card is that there's an additional monhtly bill to make sure gets paid on time.
Or you just have paid automatically. Some people may not like that but IMO the Amazon card makes a lot of sense to use for Amazon properties (and nothing else).
That does not make sense. Presumably your stocks will still grow/give dividends wherever they are. Cash would be locked to the low return rate of Chase account though.
Personal finance is personal. If someone wants that level of comfort and assurance that they can survive for x number of years without work, that’s their decision.
"Within 45 calendar days, transfer a total of $250,000 or more in new money or securities to a combination of eligible checking, savings and/or investment accounts (excludes Chase business checking and savings accounts, any You InvestSM, J.P. Morgan retirement accounts and CDs), and maintain the balance for at least 90 days."
But note, another requirement is: "Meet with a Private Client Banker by January 15, 2021 to upgrade your account to Chase Private Client."
One potential combo for those without 100k of stocks, or without willingness to move them:
Alliant Visa Signature (3% cash back first year, no fee. $99 fee per year and 2.5% afterwards) for all purchases. Edit: It looks like now they have removed that 1st year 3% rate
Amazon's card is 5% back on Amazon purchases
Apple's card is 3% back for Apple purchases
I still find that American Express have some of the best perks/service as far as disputing charges & insurance (rental car insurance for example is better than Visa - or was last year)
+1 - The BofA Premium Rewards card + Cash Rewards card is all you need. The Cash Reward card allows you to select a 3% cashback category (5.25% back with Platinum tier). I have it set to Gas (choose your biggest expense). The rest goes on Premium rewards card with 2.65% back on everything.
For reference, the categories available are gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drug stores, and home improvement and furnishing.
You can change you category once per calendar month. E.g., mine is normally online shopping, but when I needed a leak repaired on my work, I waited until near the end month, flipped the category to home improvement, paid the roofing bill, and then on the first of the next month flipped it back to online hopping.
Without the tiered rewards, it is 3% cash back for the selected category, 2% grocery stores and wholesale clubs, 1% everything else.
The tiers are at $20k, $50k, and $100k in BofA or Merrill checking/savings/investment accounts (3 month average combined balance). First tier gets you 1.25x the base rewards. Second tier is 1.5x. Third tier is 1.75x.
A discover will give you 5% on Amazon, Gas, Dining and Groceries depending on the Quarter, doubled at the end of the year but maxes out at $75 per quarter. Essentialy 10% cashback when you can get it.
