rtabern
Conductor
For the past 5 years or so, I had primarily been using a Citi card that gave me about 1% cash back on everything and I think about 2% back on gas and groceries. I mainly used the AGR card for Amtrak purchases only.
Well, twice in the past year Citi detected someone "possibly" trying to illegally make a balance transfer on my credit card. I am pretty protective of my credit card -- so I am pretty sure it was their computer error and not someone actually trying to screw around. Anyhow, they froze my account and insisted on issuing me a new credit card number and everything. It ticked me off because I had a lot of automatic payments set up with it... so I had to go and change all those.
When it happened a THIRD time in the same year, I had enough and decided I was going to ditch Citi.
That's when I sat down and did the math on the GREAT return rate the AGR card had for Amtrak travel.
Ok, let's say I were to put $20,000 on the card in a year (I charge everything -- even little $1 or $2 things to get the points and all the way up to every utility bill and even my mortgage)
Under the old Citi card... spending $20,000 would get me between $200-400 cash back.
Under the Amtrak card... spending $20,000 would net me 20,000 AGR points.
20,000 AGR points is enough for a 2-zone roomette trip from CHI-LAX via SAS or PDX for two people. That's 4 days and 3 nights on the train... and could cost as much as $1,000... especially if you go 421 or 7 and 11.
So, okay, spending $20,000 can net you about $1,000 in free travel.
If my math is right, that's about a 5 percent return rate --- much better than the 1 to 3 percent I was getting with Citi.
Well, twice in the past year Citi detected someone "possibly" trying to illegally make a balance transfer on my credit card. I am pretty protective of my credit card -- so I am pretty sure it was their computer error and not someone actually trying to screw around. Anyhow, they froze my account and insisted on issuing me a new credit card number and everything. It ticked me off because I had a lot of automatic payments set up with it... so I had to go and change all those.
When it happened a THIRD time in the same year, I had enough and decided I was going to ditch Citi.
That's when I sat down and did the math on the GREAT return rate the AGR card had for Amtrak travel.
Ok, let's say I were to put $20,000 on the card in a year (I charge everything -- even little $1 or $2 things to get the points and all the way up to every utility bill and even my mortgage)
Under the old Citi card... spending $20,000 would get me between $200-400 cash back.
Under the Amtrak card... spending $20,000 would net me 20,000 AGR points.
20,000 AGR points is enough for a 2-zone roomette trip from CHI-LAX via SAS or PDX for two people. That's 4 days and 3 nights on the train... and could cost as much as $1,000... especially if you go 421 or 7 and 11.
So, okay, spending $20,000 can net you about $1,000 in free travel.
If my math is right, that's about a 5 percent return rate --- much better than the 1 to 3 percent I was getting with Citi.
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