Riddle me this. Credit card style.

December 4, 2010 8:02 PM

Is the Fidelity Retirement Rewards card the right one for me? If not, which one is.

TL DR version: which is the best rewards credit card to pay off ~$200 in spending each month.

I received a solicitation a few months ago for the Fidelity Retirement Rewards AMEX and I've been considering it on and off since. I like that it offers a manner of contributing to retirement. I do have both a 401(k) and ROTH IRA but I'm not able to fully fund either.

I know about bankrate for evaluating cards, but I find it harder when what I'm looking for isn't necessarily one of the choices. I'm used to looking for teaser low APR or balance transfer, but I don't need either in this case.

I recently balance transferred a chunk on my AMEX to a lower rate offer in order to keep that from continuing to mushroom. My spending habits are much better than they were but my credit card debt is as follows:

*15K on a mixed low/still pretty good rate BT. The low rate is "for life" and while I know they can change that, my credit is solid and I don't think they will. Still pretty good is .99 for 18 months (April 2012) and is 7.99 when the promo ends. I had paid down almost all of the really low rate until this BT which was from a 15%

*3.5K on the AMEX. Couldn't BT it all. Aim to pay this off within six months. This has been my primary card for ~4 years. Great rewards (Starwood) but high APR and AMEX isn't taken everywhere.

The issue is I don't want to continue to charge to the AMEX while paying it off. The charges that I foresee (and pay off every month) are as follows:
cable/internet bill, gym membership and weight loss plan membership. Total is ~200-210/month. Others I can and do pay cash/debit from bank account for. Budgeted for without a problem. Issue with spending on the AMEX was I'd see the bill was so high - why not charge more. I've moved away from that byt I believe a monthly clean slate will help me keep to that. This spending would let me hit the minimum on the AMEX to get the $50 to my IRA, but I don't know if there's something more beneficial I should be looking at.

I have other cards and very good credit (760+ real FICO) but none are much, rewards wise. An Amazon VISA (find it just encourages spending I don't need to do), a Continental Mastercard from when I used to travel more and a Discover (not widely accepted). Is there another card I should consider? Something else entirely? I prefer one that doesn't give gift cards because it just encourages spending I don't need.

TIA for your assistance. Throwaway email for questions/etc: [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to work & money (2 answers total)

My credit union offers a card that puts rewards dollars in my credit union account. It has a reasonable but not teaser rate but it would be great for paying off the balance every month. You might see if there is something similar available to you.
posted by metahawk at 12:40 AM on December 5, 2010

Bankrate.com lets you put in your credit score range and it'll give a list of good credit cards for people in that range. They also sort by card type.

Double-check first that you'll actually get rewards for those payments. These sound like monthly bills that you'd pay through the cards bill-pay service. I don't know if you'd get points for that. A lot of times you only get points with purchases from merchants.
posted by ifandonlyif at 6:53 AM on December 5, 2010