Can I suggest you reconsider the Citi Costco card? You get 4% back on gas purchases, 3% back on travel and restuarants, 2% on Costco purchases and 1% on purchases everywhere else. It doesn't matter where you buy your gas and the savings add up pretty fast.

I have Discover, regardless of having an exceptionally high FICO score and perfect pay history, their rate was high and they would only lower it marginally. Their incentives are based on a quarterly offering and are not very generous at all.

American Express has great security but to a fault as it makes it nearly impossible to get anything done with them. Their rate is more reasonable however again, the incentives aren't inticing for us and they are not as widely accepted.

Our Citibank Mastercard lowered our rate to the most reasonable level and we''ve never experienced a problem with their service. The incentives were also marginal, but they are accepted everywhere.

While we always pay our balance off, the way we were treated by each company during the rate change inquiries really spoke to me about how we'd be treated if we really had an issue and Citibank was the easiest of all to work with.

If you really feel that Citicard's Costco Visa is not an option for you, BankRate.com is a great resource for seeing what's being offered by a large variety of card issuers.

I use my chase visa the most it's totally paid off each month and it has good rewards, it's through my chase bank so easy to pay on the online chase site. I just recently got a new one through camping world it's a visa and any time we buy at camping world we get extra points and lots of special deals. One I have considered because my neighbor has it and I have seen how much it pays off is the Kroger card I am not sure if it's visa or MC. We buy most of the groceries there and it has some great incentives. If you grocery shop at one store you might check out if they offer one and the incentives. It even gives extra off on their gas and we get it there at a huge discount just for buying the groceries there so that's a double discount.

I have a Lowe's card which has been handy right now for all the supplies we have needed and they offer no interest for several months we got 24 months normally every card is paid off monthly but it's a great help now to have that Lowe's no interest till we can get our money from the mortgage company and pay it all off. I hhave a citi card for use online only never keep a balance, I have had it the longest and have a very special rate of 1.99% for purchases, except on cash advance which I never use it is higher.

I have a whole bunch of cards. I pay them off each month and I take advantage of zero interest promotions when making larger purchases.

My most used cards are my Discover and my Capital One Venture due to the rewards. I use a Visa for Costco but since I don't shop there much I haven't bothered with applying for a Costo Citi. When I apply for store cards I get the ones that can be used anywhere. My Target and Sears are good everywhere for example. Different cards offer different perks. Some will double your warranty on large purchase many off travel insurance and added coverage to car rental and so on. I like the trip eraser feature on my Cap One. Feels like I'm getting a free night at a hotel now and then.

I don't much care what the interest rates are because I don't go into debt with my cards. I have had good customer service from all. I manage both mine and DH's cards online.

Clark Howard says:

In the past, I've talked about a site called CreditCardTuneUp.com that analyzes your charging and payment patterns, based on the info you supply, and offers you a list of the cards that have the best rewards for you.

You have nothing to lose by getting the Costco Branded Citibank Visa card. No annual fee -- other than your Costco membership. We got $250 credit just for taking the Visa after Costco dropped Amex. (I don't know if that deal is still on the table.) We spend $300/mo. at Costco (including gasoline). Unlikely you'd have trouble from BOTH Citibank cards at the same time.

We get miles on another card, but are having increasing difficulty *using* the miles. (No available seats.)

I have an Amazon Visa Credit Card. I get points I can use for any Amazon purchase, as well as when I pay it.

I also have an USAA Visa card. But I don't like their "rewards" system, and have it as a back up.

Moni

What makes the Costco card rewards so great is that there are no gotchas. They send you a check (I guess the gotcha is that you can only use at Costco.) You don't have to do anything.

I just found that Chase Freedom Visa is offering 5% cashback on wholesale club purchases until the end of the year. So I'll dig my mine out and use it for any Costco purchases.

I've been happy with a Chase visa (Sapphire) for the last several years. I don't have a Chase bank account but I pay for the card and a mortgage monthly using only the Chase site. Having a Chase bank account isn't needed for that convenience.

I have another Visa, a Chip and PIN card, for use abroad when such a card is needed. Anyone who travels can google for that to find the few US issuers available.

For my second card, I'm planning on getting a Visa card from my bank and put a low limit on it. This will be for on-line transactions. For years, I have had only one card. I got that one because I was traveling on business for my employer and it had a phone calling feature. That was before cell phones. (It still has the phone feature and it works if I can remember the PIN number,)

I use different cards for different things. I love rewards and have managed to accumulate so far this year $1300 plus 2 free round trip tickets for an emergency trip home for a funeral this week.

At first it can be a pain to juggle so many cards but after awhile it becomes second nature. I pay every card off in full, so never pay interest. I use the cards for normal everyday spend Groceries, gas, utilities, car insurance so on.

My thoughts are as long as I am not paying interest let them pay me to use their cards. I have one card I pay an annual fee on but even after the fee the rewards more than pay for it plus.

Amex Blue Cash preferred- Groceries 6% they also pay 3% at gas stations, 3% department stores and 1% everything else. This is my main grocery store card. I use it at Publix and places like that warehouse stores do not count.

Chase Freedom- 5% cash back on rotating categories right now it is restaurants and wholesale clubs, Sams, Costco, BJs. Next Quarter it is Wholesale stores again and Amazon. Last year when they did Amazon it was 10% cash back.

Discover IT- Just like the Chase Freedom it has rotating categories right now it is Amazon and Home Improvement stores. Since I just bought a new house the Home Improvement category came in Super Handy. Plus for the first year on your anniversary they double whatever cash back you earned the first year. That equaled $1200 alone for me last year. I cashed it out and put it in savings.

USAA Cash Rewards Plus- Great for gas 5% cash back.

Capital One Quicksilver - 1.5% cash back on everything. There are better cards for everyday stuff like utilities but I like this card and Capital One. I use this card to pay bills and for everyday spend outside of the other cards I get better rewards.

Platinum Delta Skymiles Amex- This one I got the annual fee waived for 2 years so once the annual fee kicks in I am not sure I will keep it as there are better cards. I fly Delta only and just with the sign up bonus I was able to pay for 2 round trip tickets from Florida to Mass no money out of pocket. What's nice about this card is you get free baggage, priority boarding and a few other perks. This card is not for everyone but works for me until I have to pay the annual fee.

Like I said earlier in my post. So far this year I am at $1300 in cash back rewards. I have not cashed those out yet. I usually cash out towards Christmas and that is my Christmas money or I throw it in Savings. Last year I earned over $3500 in cash back rewards but that was also a big year for me. I had to buy new furniture, I traveled a lot and I did a multi state move. All went on the cards and was paid off so no interest at all and I got paid to use my cards. Not bad.

Aprile you use your cards like I do. Yes it takes discipline but it is so much easier to track finances now that we have the internet.

Unless people are unable to track and control spending there is no good reason to not take the highest limit offered. Laws protect you from paying for fraudulent purchases no matter the limit on your cards. A high limit with conservative use gives you a better credit score which allows you the best interest rates when purchasing a new vehicle or should you ever find yourself needing to take out a mortgage or a loan.

Here is an example. I recently merged a low limit card with a high limit card from the same provider. My low limit was added to the high limit card. My credit score jumped 20 points the next month. I was already in the 800s but now I am almost at the top. Why? Because that low limit card was doing nothing and by adding that limit to the other card it lowerd the percentage of available credit I was using on the card I do use. Staying at the top qualifies one for the best deals when making major purchases and the best deals in credit cards when opening new ones. So people shouldn't be afraid of using credit and having several cards.

Using credit wisely is not only money in the bank but an insurance policy against future emergencies.

Yes, I use them more as a rewards type debit card than an actual credit card. If I have a large purchase I will sometimes take the 0% or low finance rate offer but I always have the money in the bank to cover the purchase anyway.

As you said interest rate doesn't matter much to me because I pay them off. Where the rewards cards don't pay off is when you carry a balance and pay interest. You end up paying more in interest than you get in the rewards and that is not very rewarding.

Sushipup1 - The Costco card can be used anywhere and there are rewards for any and all purchases. It's 2% at Costco, 1% everywhere else, but for gas it's 4% everywhere.

Yes, but the "gotcha" I was referring to is that the check you get for rewards is only good at Costco. (Or at least that was true of the Amex card, this one is too new to know.)

Pawprint, the Walmart card sounded interesting until I went to the site. It's 3% at the Walmart website (not everywhere), 2% at Murphy USA and Walmart gas and 1% on everything else. Then I checked CapitalOne. It's 1.5%, not 2.5%.

Guess I'll keep my Discover cards. 2% cashback on gas on the gas card and 5% on gas 3 months of the year on the other.

I don't have a Costco near me but I was suspicious of it being like Sam's Club where you have to spend the "cashback" at Costco/Sam's. I don't want a discount card, I want the cash.

Pawprint, may I ask, which Capital One card do you have that pays 2.5% cash back?