It’s a good plan as long as the points keep coming. I don’t hear great things about points plans.
When I worked in a retail company(basically underwear), we had to justify the % we pay to American Express. We found that credit card users in general paid more per transaction than cash payers. American Express users paid the least more. Oddly, in restaurants we learned that American Express users paid much more.
That's interesting. If the points go away, we'll be going back to cash. I've heard that retailers may be soon be able to discount based on a cash price. If that becomes the case, I'll also have to weigh my options.
Until very recently, we'd only used Amex for points accumulation - I think we started using it at the grocery store in the late nineties and gradually began adding monthly bills - cell phone, cable, etc. Two years ago, we started using Discover as well, but only on their 5 percent cash back stuff.
That's very interesting about restaurants. I wonder if it has to do with business people favoring Amex? We're not much for eating out, though I do enjoy a meal at the Outback Steakhouse once in a while. I've been ordering the same meal there for 10 years, and I can't believe I'd change if I started using cash over my Amex to pay the bill.