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EDITORS CHOICE
2008 Best Credit Card Pairs
While any one of our EDITORS CHOICE picks is a good
choice, often a pair of reward or miles credit cards will help
you maximize benefits, or give you flexibility if you are in
one of the rare places that doesn't accept American
Express.
No annual fee cash
back
Blue Cash® from American
Express® + Chase Freedom Visa
Apply here for the Blue Cash® from American Express®
card
- Earn up to 5% cash back on everyday
purchases - even gas!
- No Annual Fee
- 0% Intro APR for up to 12 months on
purchases
- Low Balance Transfer APR - 2.99%
for 12 months
- Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60
seconds.
Apply here for the Chase Freedom Visa card
(0% APR with
your first Chase Freedom Visa purchase)
Blue Cash® from
American Express® offers you 5% cash back on 'everyday'
gas/grocery/drug purchases and 1.5% on all other purchases
after $6500 in purchases each year, well above the typical 1%
you see with many cash back / rewards cards. For your first
$6500 in purchases each year, you get 1% cash back on
'everyday' purchases and 0.5% back on all other
purchases.
The Chase Freedom Visa offers 3% cash back
or 3 points per dollar spent in your top 3 'everyday'
categories each month, including gas stations, fast food,
movie theaters, drugstores, departent stores, grocery stores,
pet stores, cable/satellite bills, beauty salons/spas, gyms,
commuting, utilities, and dry cleaning among others. You earn
1% cash back or one point per dollar spent for your remaining
purchases.
To maximize your cash back we recommend
using the Chase Freedom Visafor
purchases in those special categories, while using the
American Express Blue Cash card for your other purchases or at
the few places that don't accept American Express
cards.
No annual fee travel
rewards
Blue Sky from American
Express® + Chase Freedom Visa
Apply here for the Blue Sky from American Express®
card
- 0% Intro APR for up to 12 months on
purchases
- Low Balance Transfer APR - 2.99%
for 12
months
- Earn 1 point for every dollar you
spend
- Points good on any airline, hotel,
car rental and more.
- No blackout dates or travel
restrictions
- Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60
seconds.
Apply here for the Chase Freedom Visa card
(0% APR
with your first Chase Freedom Visa
purchase)
The Blue Sky from American
Express® card earns you one point per dollar you spend on
the card. You can redeem your points in 7500 point increments,
and each 7500 points is worth $100 off travel purchases with
any airline or any hotel, car rental agency, or cruise line.
That works out to about a 1.3% return with every dollar
you spend. You simply purchase the trip through your
favorite travel provider and tell American Express you'd like
to apply your points, and you will see a statement
credit.
The Chase Freedom Visa offers 3% cash back or 3
points per dollar spent in your top 3 'everyday' categories
each month, including gas stations, fast food, movie theaters,
drugstores, departent stores, grocery stores, pet stores,
cable/satellite bills, beauty salons/spas, gyms, commuting,
utilities, and dry cleaning among others. You earn 1% cash
back or 1 point per dollar spent for your remaining
purchases.
We recommend using the Chase Freedom Visa
for purchases in those special categories, while using the
American Express Blue Sky card for your other
purchases to get the better 1.3% return versus the
1% of the Chase Freedom for purchses outside the special
categories and places that don't accept American Express
cards.
Maximum
Flexibility
Starwood Preferred Guest®
Credit Card from American Express + Citi® PremierPass(SM) Card
- Elite Level MasterCard
 Apply here for
the Starwood American Express
- Earn up to 25,000 Starpoints
® — enough for up to 6 free nights at a category 1 or
2 hotel.
- Use Starpoints® for free nights and
upgrades at over 860 participating Starwood hotels and
resorts in 95 countries including Sheraton, W Hotels, Westin
and more with no blackout dates
- No annual fee for the first year
and $45 thereafter
- Transfer Starpoints® — almost
always on a 1:1 basis — to the frequent flyer programs of
over 30 major airlines
- Earn one Starpoint® for every
dollar you spend and double Starpoints® at participating
Starwood properties and retail partners
- Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60
seconds.
Apply
here for the Citi® PremierPass(SM) Card - Elite Level
MasterCard
(10,000 point first purchsae bonus with
the Starwood American Express, 20,000 point bonus with the
Citi® PremierPass(SM) Card - Elite Level when you make $600 in
purchases within your first 3 months)
The Starwood
Preferred Guest card lets you earn points for no blackout
hotel awards at Shearton, W, Le Meridien, Four Points, and St.
Regis hotels. We generally recommend using points for hotel
rewards as they tend to require fewer points to redeem and
have a value often as high as airline tickets. However, if you
want ot use air awards, this card lets you transfer
your points to over 30 airline miles programs, usually at a
1:1 or better ratio with a special 5,000 mile bonus for each
20,000 you transfer. This is great if you want to upgrade paid
airline tickets, or have existing miles to top off.
(Learn more about the
Starwood Preferred Guest credit card ), our EDITORS CHOICE
pick for best overall reward credit card.
The Citi®
PremierPass(SM) Card - Elite Level is a good companion --
with the Starwood card for hotels, airline upgrades, and free
flights on your home airline, and the Citi card for free
flights elsewhere. You earn Citi points for every mile you fly
on tickets purchased with the card in addition to one point
per dollar spent, supercharging your point earning power when
you fly. The catch is you have to spend an equal number of
dollars in order to use the flight points you earn, but you
are effectively earning double points for your purchases.
For example, if you pay $350 to buy a plane ticket
from New York to Los Angeles, you will get 350 purchase points
and 5,000 points for the miles flown from Citi. In order
to use those 5,000 points from the flight, you need to match
them with $5,000 in spending on the card, which will also
earn you 5,000 points. So, you get over 10,000 points for
$5,000 in spending. These points can be used for any airline,
anytime flight awards.
(Learn more about the Citi®
PremierPass(SM) Card - Elite Level ), our EDITORS CHOICE
pick for best any airline/anytime premium
card.
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