Switching credit cards

For 10 years now, I've been a loyal Discover Card user/member. It has been my/our "default, use it unless the place doesn't take it" card, mostly because of the cash-back bonus. This weekend, that has changed. I finally made the decision to switch to the Amex Blue Cash card. Why? It's a far, far better cash-back program.

Discover maxes out at 1% cash back, across the board. Quarterly, they have specials on certain types of purchases to get 5% back on (for example) gas during the summer vacation season. But it's 0.25% for the first $1000 in purchases each year, 0.50% for the next $2000, and then 1% after that. That middle threshold may be different, I don't recall at the moment.

The Amex Blue Cash is much, much better. 1.5% on "everyday" purchases (drugstore, gas station & supermarket) and 0.5% on everything else for the first $6500/year. After that, it's 5% on the everyday stuff and 1.5% on everything else.

According to the calculator on Amex.com, our annual cash-back should be more than double using their card vs. Discover. Plus all the usual Amex member benefits. So long, Discover - it's been fun, and I'll still drop in and see you from time to time, but I'm moving on.