Recommend a Credit Card

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last 4 months and could be spending 800-1200 a month for a rental car 500-1000 for plane tickets, and another 3-4k a month for hotel. right now I am direct billing everything to my company

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Good god, you have wasted alot of chances to earn reward points.

Depending on what airline or hotel you like, I have a Southwest Visa and an American Express Hilton card that work very well for me. I charge every possible thing I can on them.

Flyertalk has a forum dedicated to this topic, see LINK.

Thanks Dave.

To the OP: if you stay at one particular hotel chain a lot, I would suggest you get the Amex version of that hotel chain. Also, if you are putting that much on it, it is probably worth it to pay an annual fee.

Dude, you could've been George Clooney in "Up In the Air" if you wanted.

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Lou

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Yes, you can pay cash if you want. But if you travel as much as the OP says, you will not get the discounts either. Paying cash all the time can cost you, it isn't just about the FICO.

Personally, I pay as much as possible with my credit card. They pay me a minimum 1% cash back, and sometimes more. Do you get that with cash?

Starwood Amex (SPG): points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to many airlines, so you aren't limited to just one. Just cancelled my American Airlines card in favor of this.

I use a BoA cash rewards visa for gas. It gives 3% cash back on gas.

Also look for great deals on bonuses. Google can help with that.

Look at the Chase Freedom card just for now.
$100 back for spending $500 and 5% on airfare and hotels right now.

Reread my post, I was mainly addressing the FICO score myth. I never said "you should never under any circumstance use a credit card."

It's a fact that people with credit cards are likely to spend more money than they would if they used cash. I would rather spend spend $100 cash and get no cash back, than spend $115 with cc and get $1.50 back. As I said, cash back programs encourage you to spend, not save. CC's foster impulse purchases - that is not my opinion, that is a proven fact. If it wasn't you wouldn't hear a thousand commercials a day from lawyers peddling bankruptcy services, and credit consolidation agencies offering to help you get out of credit card debt.

If you are truly disciplined enough to never use a card frivolously or excessively, then yes, it's a good idea, and you win. And if he is spending thousands every month on business expenses, then yes he can take advantage of rewards programs - as long as he doesn't make one or two unnecessary purchases that would negate every dime of cash back he earned.

Honestly when I have cash in my wallet I spend it. If I just have a debit and credit card on me I probably won't frivolously use it because I don't want it to pop up on Mint.

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It's a fact that

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That you're still an idiot.