Best cards for gift cards

If you are like me, often time apart from cash back, the second best option is the gift card. Many reward programs such as the Ultimate Rewards from Chase or American Express Membership rewards which often best and diverse array of gift cards that are redeemable for hotel gift cards, car rental gift cards, airlines gift cards, amazon or any other retailer gift cards as well as restaurants. However, barring the cash back gift cards, not all programs have good gift cards in them. I have burned my hand in several local credit unions rewards program when they did not have good redemption options. As a thumb rule, the best cards for gift cards are usually tied to a reward program rather than a credit card.

As in most cases at the moment, Chase leads the pack of credit cards which have a good amount of gift cards in their arsenal through their Ultimate Rewards program. Second runner-up is the Discover Program which also has quite a good number of options. Topping off the third rank would be the American Express which lags only because some of their redemption options are not up to par when it comes to certain merchandisers such as Wal-Mart or Target,

So the list would look something like:

1. Chase Freedom: The added benefit should you have a checking account with them is the 10% bonus that accrues at the end of year. The other major benefit is you could transfer points between various members for free and in a rather painless fashion. Another mention here is Chase Sapphire Preferred.

2. Discover IT: The best feature that I think is unique to this card, at least when it started was its integration with amazon checkout process. Deducting the points directly from your amazon checkout bill is amazing and seamless. No bugs there! It just makes you want to go shopping at Amazon again and again.

3. American Express EveryDay cards: Mainly for the Membership rewards program, these cards have two flavors, one paid and another paid but nevertheless both accrue points into the Membership Rewards program. If you don't mind shelling annual fees then, Amex Gold and Platinum cards are the way to go. They have huge bonus points and category rewards on daily spend. But not as much as other cards that we will cover in future.