$25000 spent on a frequent flyer credit card vs. a cash back card

As you can see from the chart below a typical family could easily earn almost $700 with the Amex card in a year, or over $500 with the Chase, assuming a spend of $100 a week on groceries, $3000 a year on gas, $1000 annually on drugstore/pharmacy purchases., and the rest of the $25,000 on other categories.

Clearly, if you spend more on gas and groceries than what we’ve allowed for, then the Amex card might be an even better idea,.

The nice thing about cash is that no airline is going to tell you that your cash isn’t good here anymore, as they might with miles (ever try to use frequent flyer miles to Hawaii? Hah!).

And Chase and Amex aren’t going to go bankrupt; your airline may and there go your frequent flyer miles (just ask all those folks who had miles on Aloha Airlines).

There are no capacity controls on cash.

There are no fees spending your cash on an airline fare.

There are no annual fees for your credit card.

And for $500 or $700, you can buy yourself a pretty fine airline ticket, even an international one, or even one to Maui.

Spend 25,000 miles, in contrast, and do obtain and use those miles you’ve already paid up to $150 in credit card fees and booking fees, so the cash earned from a no-fee cash back card looks even better.

Oh, sure, I know I’ll be hearing from all you mileage junkies out there, and to repeat, there are tickets for which miles make sense, such as international business and first class. But if you’re like the vast majority of Americans who don’t even own a passport and sit in the back of the plane, listen up: frequent flyer miles, like my Aunt Freda’s beloved green stamps, aren’t what they used to be. Take the cash instead.

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