I like the Amex because I have a family and shop at Costco. I bumped up to the Executive Memebership so I get 2% back on purchases as an executive member and I get an addition 1% back in purchases on the AMEX. Rather than getting a card for myself and my wife because 99% of the time we shop together I got one for myself and gave the otehr to my mother who I now colect the 2% on. All in all I spent 50$ more for the Exectuvie membership but ended up getting close to 300$ back at the end of the year.

If you don’t have balances to transfer you are missing out on 1000$ a year. It is not hard to carry a balance of 20 k on a couple fo credit cards and shift them around. During that period of time the money can be sitting in a MMA earning you 5% or better. If you have a Costco membership you can open up a capitalone MMA and it is paying an APY of 5.2%.

Another great tool to make managing this stuff easier is yodlee.com

If you have a fidelity account the FULL View feature is built on Yodlee’s Platform. Sam is true for Merrill Lynch and many of the other larger brokerage firms. Give it a shot.

One caveat to be aware of is that you need to pay down some of this stuff 2 to 3 months before making major purchase. Your credit score will drop a little as you carry high balances on teh CC and the Usage % goes up. For me I will gladly trade a 780 credit score that does nothing for me for a 720 and 2 or 3 grand a year.