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WHEN I MATCHED UP our monthly spending with the terms of the Starbucks Rewards Visa card, I calculated that I could potentially get a free drip coffee every day of the year. Given the proliferation of Starbucks in our Los Angeles suburb—including one within 400 yards of my office—it’s tempting to cover my caffeination by swiping my credit card.
After some deliberation, however, I’m going to focus instead on amassing travel rewards points. For the past five years, I’ve used the Marriott Rewards credit card, which gives me at least one hotel point for each dollar I spend. The key reason I like this card: With my spending, I’m effectively forcing myself to save for a vacation. While a daily Starbucks coffee would be nice, I can see this reward getting old after a few weeks. I treat myself to Starbucks once or twice per week. A daily dose may be too much. I view it as more prudent to save for a big experience a few times each year rather than focus on getting my daily coffee comped.
Another solid feature of the Marriott card: The effective rewards rate compares well to the teaser rates advertised by cash-back cards. Based on our spending level, I place the value for the free nights we earn at about 1.7% of our total spending. While that’s lower than the 2% that Katie Ledecky was advertising during the Olympics, we have a lot more fun with our free hotel nights than we’d get from a periodic credit on our billing statement.
An additional benefit I’ve been impressed by—and one not to be taken lightly when evaluating cards—is that it’s been easy to use our hotel points. The rewards points post soon after the dollars are spent, and we’ve never had an issue getting a Marriott reservation at the time or location we wanted.
I’m a novice compared to some people, but I leverage two cards, my banks United Airlines card and my Amx and everything is charged on those two, plus I use a Hilton rewards card as well. I use a EXXON rewards card and of course, Starbucks. My Amx let’s me move points around including to Hilton. I’ve gotten many free Hilton hotel free nights. Last year I got two free roundtrip Polaris class flights from NJ to Buenos Aires.
Our Costco Visa card offers 2 years extended warranty on purchases using the card at any store, not just Costco. I bought an expensive Sony TV from Best Buy and it died 19 months later. Sony only offered a one year warranty but the card reimbursed me the $1900 I paid for the TV. I only had to prove the TV was unrepairable which the TV repairman certified for me. I was amazed at how easy it was to get reimbursed. We use this card for all major purchases where a warranty is important.
The card initially offered a guaranteed best price feature as well. If the cardholder found a better price within 60 days, they would reimburse the difference. They discontinued this feature, but not before I got $200 for one purchase.