AAZZZ, I agree. Joel already has the HSBC card which is similiar to my Chase Plus Rewards, though for non-EDP you only receive 0.5% on HSBC until a $3000 tier; with Chase, you get 1.0% on non-EDP from the "get-go". Of course, the problem with HSBC and Chase Plus are their ceilings on annual rebates. That's why I prefer AMEX Blue Cash........

Great find OP

samko said:Thanks for the website, joelmeu. One bug I have noticed is that if you list too many different expenditures in different categories, you get no result. I don't know if this is a problem on my end or if your engine can't handle it when it requires to analyze more than 5-card combos.
Thanks samko. Oddly, that doesn't happen when I run the engine on my own local system. It only happens on the system that's hosting creditcardtuneup.com. I've successfully tested the engine up to 11 card combinations in the past. Thanks for alerting me to the problem.

joelmeu said:I heard a rumor over on the flyertalk forums that after the mbna merger, the Fidelity cards might be going away. Has anyone else heard this? Any confirmation?

Do you have a link?

Was this general, "all co-branded banks won't do business with BoA because they are a competitor" talk or was it Fidelity specific?

asdf9876 said:joelmeu said:I heard a rumor over on the flyertalk forums that after the mbna merger, the Fidelity cards might be going away. Has anyone else heard this? Any confirmation?

Do you have a link?

Was this general, "all co-branded banks won't do business with BoA because they are a competitor" talk or was it Fidelity specific?
There doesn't seem to be much information regarding this rumor/allegation. Here's a link to the FlyerTalk forum topic:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=621702

g10ny said:joelmeu said:
Hi g10ny. I'm not sure I understand what it would look like to "guide people through seasonal switches between cards". Would that be sort of a month-by-month picture of spending and which cards were used for the spending?

An example would help clarify this idea for me.

Joel,
As asdf said, I was referring to a more in-depth look. I mean, as a math model, your product is great. It's the detail which I am concerned with, although you can say it's anyone's guess (the most important result of your work was to show that we don't need a large number of cards to achieve the maximum amount of rebates (aside of scenarios like 10 cards of the same type, to get 10 times the $300 cap).
What I wanted to say is about modeling this switch from one card to another after you reached the rewards cap or you reached another rewards tier (of course, capping the rewards means you reached the zero rewards tier). A little bit of this dynamic would help, in the sense that it would complete the general view provided by the "dry" mathematical verdict.
This was what I meant by the expression "seasonal switch between cards". Of course, you can't factor in the Discover's Get More, but if you factor in, for instance, the Advanta 5% ($25 a month) with my 5% Dividend (still alive) plus a Blue Cash, this picture can become quite complicated. Still, some general guidelines can be of real help.

HTH.
Ahhhh, yes, I understand you perfectly. Thanks for clarifying this for me. A close friend suggested/requested this as well -- a chronological picture (within a hypothetical 12-month period) of one's spending and earning and card usage and switching.

Interestingly, a friend recently built a different kind of simulator we'd been discussing that shows both the dry mathematical summary verdict as well as the month-by-month picture of activity over a hypothetical 12-month period.

Thank you for the suggestion.

ProfessorEd said:This is a valuable site. Even if not perfect this Credit Card Tuneup site gives a good starting point for someone looking for cards to use for spending.

One mechanical problem seems to be that if you click on a card application (perhaps to read the terms and conditions), the back button does not seem to let you return to the screem where you had put in the numbers. You might want to enter the numbers once, copy the worksheet, and then go to the cards of interest.

Thanks again for your thorough analysis ProfessorEd.

I did address this first observation you made about the mechanical problem of not being able to get back to the worksheet. Now when you click on a link, it opens in a new browser window, leaving your worksheet intact in the original browswer window.

In time, I will be addressing some of your other observations such as the ability to specify that certain cards will be in the solution (because you have them or because you specifically want them).

ProfessorEd said: ...................Somebody in one thread even stated he wrote convenience checks to his relatives to be cashed in the event of his death (on a credit protected card) and hence got free life insurance. Sounds like a lot of trouble, but perhaps there are few dedicated “fat wallet” members who upon being told they have only a short time to live, will think immediately to run up their credit card debts on a suitable card . It would be nice to have the card already with the credit protection feature in place. Obviously, such a card should not be one you normally carry a balance on, since such plans are grossly overpriced for the limited insurance they provide. Hopefully such people are not merely “cheap” but those with families to provide for, or a favorite charity in their wills.

.... these relatives should be instructed to come back and make a final post in FW on behalf their deceased FW guru ....

germanpope said:ProfessorEd said: ...................Somebody in one thread even stated he wrote convenience checks to his relatives to be cashed in the event of his death (on a credit protected card) and hence got free life insurance. Sounds like a lot of trouble, but perhaps there are few dedicated “fat wallet” members who upon being told they have only a short time to live, will think immediately to run up their credit card debts on a suitable card . It would be nice to have the card already with the credit protection feature in place. Obviously, such a card should not be one you normally carry a balance on, since such plans are grossly overpriced for the limited insurance they provide. Hopefully such people are not merely “cheap” but those with families to provide for, or a favorite charity in their wills.

.... these relatives should be instructed to come back and make a final post in FW on behalf their deceased FW guru ....

I don't know if this strategy was meant to be humorous or not. It is hard to tell one person's joke is another person's actual method. However, I would be extremely leary about trying to do this. If the CC companies find out that you cashed them after you had knowledge that the person had died that may constitute fraud. I mean even though they signed the checks before they died the fact that you waited until after they died knowing that CC debt dies with the person pretty much means your intent was to defraud the issuer.

joelmeu said:Note that the new Orchard Bank 2% Cash Back cards have been added to the Credit Card Tune-Up: Maximize Your Cash Back Rewards tool.

Previously these cards were only available by invitation.

There is a platinum version of the card with a $59 annual fee (so you have to spend over $5900 per year to outperform a 1% card or $11,800 per year to outperform a 1.5% card (Fidelity)).

There is also a secured version of the card with a $35 annual fee.
I stand corrected. Apparently, the annual fee can vary from one person's online offer to the next. For example, some people have seen a $39 annual fee for the Platinum card. Some have even seen a $0 annual fee for the Platinum card.