which is the best credit card cash back reward plan for a user that
pays 100% each month and carries no balances?  Ross1234

The one that pays the highest percentage return (check for annual caps
on this) minus the annual fee.

I've been searching for years, and the best I've found is Citibank's
Dividend Platinum Mastercard. (It's also available in Visa.) It gives
1% cash back on all purchases, and 5% on purchases from gas stations,
pharmacies, and grocery stores, up to a maximum of $300 in a calendar
year.

Discover Card also has a series of Platinum cards that pay 5% in
various categories. (It's tough to find these cards without a whole
lot of digging on the Discover Card website.) Such categories include
home improvement stores, restaurants, and several others. That's 5%
for stores in that category, plus 1% for stores in other categories.
And you can get up to double that amount through their cash back bonus
merchant program. The catch is that the 5% (plus 1% for other
purchases) is only for the first $1500 per membership anniversary
year, and then the rewards start to decline. Contrast this to the
regular Discover card, where you have to spend $1500 in the membership
anniversary year before you get up to that full amount. (So the
specialty cards have decreasing rewards of much higher value, whereas
the regular cards have increasing rewards.)

Personally, I use a Dividend Platinum Mastercard for gas, groceries,
and prescriptions, a Discover specialty card for restaurants, and then
a separate Discover card for everything else.

Look out -- those Discover specialty cards do have caps. Here's from
<a href="https://www.novusnet.com/acqs/stdapp/req?cmd=impInfoDefault&cardType=REST">the
restaurant card site</a>:

<blockquote><b>Rewards</b>: With this Cashback Bonus program, you will
earn a cash award on qualified purchases, up to 5% of each restaurant
purchase and up to 1% of each other purchase, based on your annual
level and type of purchases, with your first $1500 in purchases
accruing awards at 5% or 1%, respectively. You will not earn a
Cashback Bonus award on annual restaurant purchases in excess of
$25,000.</blockquote>

The other Discover specialty cards are the same way, with only the
first $1500 counting at 5%, and lower percentages beyond $1500, capped
at $25,000.

Please be advised that some of the information you are receiving is
incorrect.  The discover platinum gas card is one of the best out
there. It pays 10% - thats 10% - one more times 10% cash back.
You really need to visit www.creditcardcite.com amd there you may
compare all cash back credit cards.  look at the facts. --
https://discovercardapplication.com/default.aspx?cid=52835&affid=10366
The one person offering a comment about 5% does not know what they are
talking about.  As long as you pay off the balence monthly there is no
cap.  The person telling you there is a cap must not be able to pay
off monthly - and therfore should not use a cashback card - but should
use a low interest or a 0% interest balance transfer credit card like
one of the American Express cards.  You can obtain 0% apr balence
transfer rate for 15 months.
To help the person that doesn't know what they are talking about
should consider one of these other cards.

If you have kids and are thinking about college costs, the
Fidelity/MBNA 529 Rewards card is hard to beat.  It pays 2% on all
purchases up to $1500 per year ($75,000 in purchases).  Money goes to
a Fidelity 529 tax-advantaged college savings account. You can get
more information on this card here:
http://529rewards.com/529-credit-card-mbna.php.

Have a couple of recommendations. Both of cards have simple rebate formula.

Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card
AT&T Universal Cash Rewards Card from Citibank

Both these credit cards pay 5% rebate on purchases from standalone
supermarkets, gasoline stations and drugsstores. The AT&T card also
gives you 5% rebate on AT&T purchases. You get 1% for everything else.
Both have no annual fee as well.
Your total rebate percentage that you earn will depend on the how much
you spend on "everyday purchases" that earn you 5%. Both allow you to
earn up to $300 in rebates annually.

I would avoid cash rebate credit cards with rebate formula that
requires you carry a balance (since you do not carry a balance) and
spend beyond a certain amount to earn "maximum rebates". Cards
requiring that you carry a balance and have annual spending
expenditure conditions to earn "more rebates" include the Chase
Cashbuilder, Chase Ultimate Cash Rewards and American Express Card
Blue Cash.

Some cards like Discover cards lets you earn "more rebates" by
requiring you to exchange your cash rebates for gift certificates or
gift cards from their partner merhcants. So you might want to check
them out if you are ok with this.

You can see reviews of both the Citi Dividend Card and AT&T Universal
Cash Rewards Card at


http://www.compare-apply-credit-card-online.com/CitiDividendPlatinumSelectMastercardReview.html
http://www.compare-apply-credit-card-online.com/ATTUniversalCashRewardCardReview.html


You can also find more cash rebate cards at

http://www.compare-apply-credit-card-online.com/CashRebateCreditCards.html

I would suggest reading the following article from SmartMoney.com
(affiliated with Smart Money Magazine) that was published on January
22, 2004:

http://www.smartmoney.com/debt/advice/index.cfm?story=creditcardrewards

This article contains some good consumer tips about reward cards. Some
of the other sites referenced here are strictly ad based (i.e. just
promote cards that they earn money from) and have little or no
original content. :0(

Good luck!

Don't Fall for any of the Credit Card gimmicks.  They are offering a
payout because they know they will win in the end.  Credit Card
companies are like Casinos, they always win in the long run.  They
wouldn't offer the gimmicks if they weren't going to make money.

Check out other info on:
http://debtbenimble.com