If you have steady business spending (eg you travel and are reimbursed for your expenses) with flexibility to make some of your own decisions (hotel, flight, etc etc), then I think that's the lowest barrier of entry.
Play by the same rules as the stock market: it's not about picking winners a low percent of the time but rather avoiding losing anything and running a reasonable risk profile.
If you've got a bit of business spend you can allocate, then you get to play without risking anything. At worst (if some bonus doesn't come through because you missed fine print), you're right where you started (not earning extra rewards).
Disclaimer: Assume it's implied, but no points are worth souring a business relation over. Don't chase points too far.
If you need to play solely with your own money, it gets a little dicier. For example, that $450 annual fee (not waived) card that results in $1,500 worth of travel points w/ $5k spend in 3 months? You'd better be sure you know all the rules.
I'd recommend (as someone else did), trying a few of the smaller card offers. Chase Freedom is a good small starter. They run decent cash bonuses with low spend, no annual fee, and it can ultimately pair with CSP.
Basically, approach it the same way you'd approach a casino. They're trying to attract your business. You're trying to game the system. They're constantly tweaking their rules to mitigate the impact of incentives on their bottom line. Learn the basics and then decide how far you want to go.
And frankly, if you're in the situation posited at the top of your comment, you may be better off just taking 1% Amazon points or whatever. (Or even a higher % for travel-related expenses on some credit cards.) It's often a lower exchange in theory but it's a lot more fungible and easier to spend than miles.
If you're in that situation, you're probably best off earning one of the flexible currencies like Chase's Ultimate Rewards or Amex's Membership Rewards. You can redeem for a statement balance or transfer to one of their partners.
If you do just want cashback, Fidelity has a straight-up 2% cashback card.
I actually use the Chase Sapphire Rewards card but I should probably look into the Fidelity as most of my points seem to end up getting shifted into Amazon anyway. It's a little complicated because of the minimum to get to 2% but it's probably a better deal than my free Chase Amazon card in any case.
> It's a little complicated because of the minimum to get to 2% but it's probably a better deal than my free Chase Amazon card in any case.
If you're talking about the Visa (?) with the spend then 2%, the Amex version is straight-up 2% from the first dollar. A free-to-sign-up-for-no-fees Fidelity Cash Management Account suffices for a transfer target for accumulated cash back, then you can EFT the funds wherever you like (side note, Fidelity has great EFT options).
The downsides to the Amex are:
(1) slightly lower acceptance
(2) FIA Card Services (the administrator is not Amex proper) has no auto-pay
(3) it's not an Amex proper, so you aren't eligible for most of the Amex $x off $y at z deals
Though I find this game to be lots of fun, I do think that most people are probably better off with a cashback card. Actually, most people probably shouldn't have a credit card to begin with (it pains me to say that given the differences in fraud protection but CC debt is something most are better off avoiding).
CC vs. debit is a matter of discipline but, of course, no real argument for most people if using a credit card in all but the direst circumstances means carrying a balance.
The issue with a lot of the rewards game is that the best "values" usually come from redeeming for awards that you'd never have considered actually paying cash for. There's still an equivalent cash value to you that may or may not be more than the 1-2% of actual cash you could collect but it's often not really free money in that you're giving up some level of actual fungible cash to get it.
Play by the same rules as the stock market: it's not about picking winners a low percent of the time but rather avoiding losing anything and running a reasonable risk profile.
If you've got a bit of business spend you can allocate, then you get to play without risking anything. At worst (if some bonus doesn't come through because you missed fine print), you're right where you started (not earning extra rewards).
Disclaimer: Assume it's implied, but no points are worth souring a business relation over. Don't chase points too far.
If you need to play solely with your own money, it gets a little dicier. For example, that $450 annual fee (not waived) card that results in $1,500 worth of travel points w/ $5k spend in 3 months? You'd better be sure you know all the rules.
I'd recommend (as someone else did), trying a few of the smaller card offers. Chase Freedom is a good small starter. They run decent cash bonuses with low spend, no annual fee, and it can ultimately pair with CSP.
Basically, approach it the same way you'd approach a casino. They're trying to attract your business. You're trying to game the system. They're constantly tweaking their rules to mitigate the impact of incentives on their bottom line. Learn the basics and then decide how far you want to go.