Best Credit Cards

To apply for cards, follow the posted links or check out cardoffers.com to get up to $40 back for applying for cards.

Schwab First Invest Visa

This is the king of all my credit cards.  A flat 2% cash back that goes automatically into your Schwab brokerage account.  There are a variety of benefits for using this card beyond the rewards:

  1. Price protection – If the price of something you purchased drops within 60 days, Schwab will match the difference if the store won’t.
  2. Automatic extended warranty – the warranty on any product you buy is doubled up to a full year.  No need to pay the store extra
  3. 0% foreign exchange fees.  This makes shopping abroad a breeze – no more worries travelers checks or debit cards
  4. Lost luggage insurance – up to $3000 in compensation per trip booked
  5. Accidental death and dismemberment insurance when traveling.  You and your immediate family are automatically insured when you pay for a flight using this card for the loss of life or limb with up to a $1,000,000 benefit

Discover Cards

Discover offers a nice 5% cash back in varying categories each month and has a nice list of high end stores where you can get up to 20% cash back.  You can double up your cash back by purchasing gift cards from some stores.  Discover has adjusted the amount they charge merchants so you typically won’t run into any issues with businesses not accepting it anymore.  You can click here to apply for a student version.  For the standard version click here.

Discover also offers a pre-paid debit card.  This is great for making sure kids have access to cash when they need it yet the account holder manages the amount of money assigned to each card.  You can fund the card with a credit card and it counts as a purchase for reward points.  The account management website allows you track purchases as well as deny spending in certain categories like liquor stores.  Apply for an account by clicking here