My Favorite Reward Credit Card

Over the weekend, Henry from BinaryDollar asked me for a reward credit card recommendation. Without hesitation, I suggested that he check out the Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select MasterCard. This is our primary reward credit card, and Citi is running a great promo right now. This card normally give 3% cash back on “everyday” purchases (gas, groceries and drugstores) and 1% on all else. But…

For the time being, Citi is doubling the “everyday” rewards to 6% for the first twelve months that you have a card. So that means 6% off all gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases for the next year! And there’s no annual fee.

You can cash out your rewards in several ways. For example, you can fax in receipts for automotive service and they’ll apply a credit to your balance. Or you can send in the receipt when you purchase a new or used car and they’ll send you a check. Or you can cash out your rewards through the Citi ThankYou network, which allows you to trade in reward points for pseudo-cash, like gift cards from a ton of different vendors, statement credits, or even student loan payments.

Another nice thing about this card is that it has a really high reward earnings limit — you can earn up to $1k in rewards per year — and you can let rewards accrue for up to five years (if you wish).

All in all, the Citi Driver’s Edge MasterCard is a great little card, and we’ve racked up a ton of rewards by using it.

With that said, I’d like to hear from you guys as to what your favorite reward cards are, and why you like them.

Published on March 19th, 2007 - 12 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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12 Responses to “My Favorite Reward Credit Card”

1. 1
   Henry @ Binary Dollar Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 8:31 am

   I’m still in the market for another one.

2. 2
   jim Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 9:35 am

   I like the mtvU card, 5% on bookstores, movie theaters, and restaurants; it’s definitely a solid card esp. if you have student loans to pay off!

3. 3
   dianefromPA Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am

   Last week I finally got the notice from Citi that my 5% on gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases would be lowered to 2% April 15. I still have the Chase card which gives 5% but also had a 300$/year upper limit.
   I think I’ll look into switching my current Citi card to this driver’s edge one. That way I won’t be getting a new card and will be able to keep my credit card “history”.
   Thanks for the information

4. 4
   Flexo Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 11:16 am

   I’ve been meaning to switch from my Dividend Platinum card, hopefully all it will take is a call.

5. 5
   nickel Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 11:20 am

   I’d be curious to find out if this offer is good for existing customers that convert from another Citi card to the Driver’s Edge card — I would be kind of surprised if it did. They usually limit this sort of stuff to new customers only, but I didn’t see anything about that here (but I may have missed it).

6. 6
   passerby Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 9:51 pm

   Cards that don’t give Ca$h back are non-starters for me. I have a Chase MC that gives 3%/1%.

7. 7
   SkyeBlue Says:
   March 20th, 2007 at 6:45 am

   One card I use that has pretty good rewards is the Juniper Bank “Best Western” MC. Of course you get points for everything you charge but if you use it for stays at Best Westerns you get 10 points for every $1.00 you spend, PLUS they have promotions for different times of the year, like right now for AAA members where you then get TRIPLE the points for $$$ spent.

   The Chase “Amazon.com” VC also does the 10 points per $1.00 spent on Amazon.com purchases.

8. 8
   Patrick Szalapski Says:
   March 20th, 2007 at 11:50 am

   I JUST got the Driver’s edge Mastercard, and I got it because of reading your site. Nickel, if you can find a way for me to retroactively use you as my referrer, let me know.

9. 9
   master casuncad Says:
   March 27th, 2007 at 8:30 am

   Just a question, why is it always that feeling that getting points is a consolation on having credit cards instead of the service that the bank where the card transaction goes is?

   On the first hand, anybody who has a credit card has to pay his card debt so the best thing i guess to try and look at is the service where times you have a problem regarding anything that relates to credit cards.

10. 10
    philskaren Says:
    April 1st, 2007 at 2:59 am

    I like the Chase Perfect card, with the best feature being the automatic cash back. Check it out if you are so inclined. But, 6% on purchases is mighty tempting.

11. 11
    Credit Card Cash Back Rewards Enthusiast Says:
    May 3rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm

    And don’t forget the fact that if you drive enough miles on your card and participate in the “Drive Rewards” program, you can up to *double* your rewards with this card! (You earn 1 cent per mile driven, up to matching your normal earnings.)

    That means up to 12% back (first year) on EDP and up to 2% back on everything else!