That is true freedom.
Cash is widely accepted.
Unlimited grace period…nothing to pay back
No cash back, because you never gave it to them in the first place.
Interest rate is 0%.
Never a late fee.
never a bill to pay.
Just a tiny bit simpler.

But wait, you say. no rewards or cash back. You are falling into the trap they set.

Those rewards and cash back do not even come close to offsetting the risk associated with credit cards for the average person. risk of “oops, we never rec’d your payment, risk of “universal default”, risk of them changing the rules “interest rate” in the middle of the game.

You must always assess risk in conjunction with financial decisions. Risk is too high for the “reward”

Credit cards are not a tool. A drill is a tool. Credit cards are…credit cards. They are money you don’t have to spend.

Always remember, you are playing by thier rules at their game they created to make them money, not you. It is like gambling. Only fools think they can consistently beat the house. Credit cards are accidents waiting to happen.

As soon as she printed out the form, I looked at it and saw 24% interest. I immediatly called chase and told them this is not what I signed up for and they reduced it all the way to 6.99%. This is the best rate I have seen on any of my credit cards.

Only problem is finding where exactly these 3% transactions are. They say at eligible gas, grocery, etc, but are there specific ones? I just emailed chase asking for more information.

Where, exactly is Discover not accepted? I use my Discover card as my main card and have yet to find a place that accepts credit cards who does not take Dsicover.

for a while they were offering 250 free bucks for signing up for the card..

did it just for that.

Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Mastercard, 5% supermarkets, drug stores, and gas stations, 1% otherwise, 6k bonus TY points, under 14% APR.
https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-bin/citifi/scripts/infrastructure/external_site_popup.jsp?BS_Id=CardsAGDiam&BV_UseBVCookie=yes&BS_Branding=NoBranding

Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards American Express, just like the above card but AmEx instead
https://web.da-us.citibank.com/cgi-bin/citifi/scripts/infrastructure/external_site_popup.jsp?BS_Id=CardsAGDiamAmex&BV_UseBVCookie=yes&BS_Branding=NoBranding

So, may be a way to dilute the $$$ in your top three categories, but if you spend a lot at a few specific stores, might work out.

(NOTE: My account is too new to have any practical experience.)

I actually had the Amazon card for almost a year and switched to the Freedom card because I was finding that Amazon just wasn’t the best deal anymore, even bulk items didn’t usually work out in my pricebook.

I certainly haven’t found anything better than this card. The Citi card you mention isn’t a universal rewards card like this and for someone who doesn’t have a car, it doesn’t do much for me earning only 1% on everything that’s not gas (which I don’t buy).

Needless to say it’s a garbage credit card in any other respect besides the signup bonus.

I signed up for the chase freedom for the $250 signup bonus but it’s been a good card. Yes the interest rate is a ridiculously high 18% but I will never pay interest. I have chase.com set to autopay the balance from my high interest account. It’s also better than my wachovia debit card which has .25% reward points.

Also it’s a Visa signature card so you get all those benefits like an extra year on your warranty and travel insurance.

I’ve had the Chase Freedom for just about 6 months and it’s been set in cash back the whole time. I spend every single dollar I possibly can on this card. I get 3% cash back on groceries, and gas (and “quick service restaurants”, but I have no idea what exactly is included in this) and 1% cash back on all other purchases. As of right now, I have about $85+ in cash back rewards sitting on my card. I pay my balance in full every month (almost 2 weeks before the due date), so I haven’t paid a dime in interest, and I don’t intend to.

Here’s the really great thing about this card in my eyes. Once I build up $200 in cash back rewards, I can turn that in for a $250 check. That’s 25% more cash for free! If you always wait for that (and why wouldn’t you?!?) that turns out to be about 3.75% on groceries and gas, and 1.25% on all other purchases, which is pretty much the best cash back rewards I’ve seen other than something like BlueCash (although they don’t send you a check for your cash back, so you can’t put it into an account anywhere).

I even did the math (in a very Trent like way) to find out what was better, waiting for the $250 or getting $50 back whenever it was available (you can only redeem in ammounts of $50). Based on my spending, waiting for the $250 was always better, by about %15.

As a points card, don’t bother with this card, as the rewards are pretty dumpy, but as a cash back card, I think it’s hard to find a better one out there assuming you always pay your bill in full.

However, if one has been (or is in the future) lucky enough to catch the Chase Freedom card during one of its $250 bonus moments — and if one meets the conditions for that bonus (never hard a card with Chase) — then I feel like a quick $250 isn’t so bad.

Make a single small purchase, redeem the bonus rebates for the $250 check, and frankly you don’t ever have to look at the card again. This is what I recently did. I also got a Citi Professional card for the 10,000 bonus points, which I then immediately converted into a $100 student loan rebate check. I still use the card for restaurant purchases, though, because it gets 3% on those, which my primary card does not.

My primary card, by the way, is your favorite, the Citi Driver’s Edge card. I put about 425 miles a week on my car just commuting, not counting miscellaneous weekend driving. That translates into a lot of gas (a lot of San Francisco Bay Area gas, no less) plus a lot of mileage rebates, once I redeem them. We also spend a lot on groceries because we’re gastronomes, so that pumps up my rebates on the card as well. All told I end up with about $50 (equivalent) in Citi Thank You Points each month, which gets rolled into a $50 rebate check on my student loans once all the forms are filled out. It’s not a lot, but it helps, and it’s money I _wasn’t_ getting before I signed up for these cards. So, a hearty “hear, hear!” for the Driver’s Edge card.

Though, honestly, if I didn’t have a god-awfully long commute, I don’t think I’d miss the rebates.

I am now looking to get a new card.