Credit Cards...points or cashback?

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

we are looking to get a new credit card and DH and I are arguing about the best rewards to collect. He thinks cashback (we have one that currently gives us 1.5% on purchases) is better, whereas I think accumulating points for travel is. There are a few cards out at the moment with great introductory offers on points (none that I can find that have introductory offers with excessive cashback) and because we live in the States and to fly home costs so much I'm keen to get on this soon so we're not worrying about the cost of flights for next summer, for example. His point is if the cashback is worth more then we use that to pay for flights, which is fair enough.

NB we do live in America where I think the culture around credit cards is slightly different, everyone uses them here because you literally can't do anything without a good credit score so we would move all our spending to CC to maximise either points/cashback, using YNAB to track all spedning and pay off every month

We do this but only get 0.5% cash back

How much would you need to spend on a card to get a flight home?
How much would you have to spend on the cash back card to purchase a flight home?
The flights on points are generally restricted, and if you had one flight to purchase as points, and one to purchase as cash, you may need to make two different transactions - meaning you can't fly home on points, and a child be bought a ticket, as they would then be classed as flying alone........... ARGH rant over...

Back to the question: cash back would be more flexible, so if you can get a similar deal on cash back, thats what I'd go with. Otherwise you are very restricted with airlines and times (hours and months) with free points.

I know this wont be possible, but we have tesco credit cards, and buy most of the food and petrol at tesco (less that half a mile away). We get tesco vouchers back once a quarter.

I think that's my worry about using points is you lose flexibility...and we're a family of 4 who have to travel in school holidays

We have some Virgin points and they're mostly a bit of a pain, it can be v restricting if you're stuck on dates. But could you use the points towards airport parking/hotel/car hire etc?? Otherwise think I'd probably for cutback.

We use all our credit card points for restaurant vouchers, it means we can go to Pizza Express maybe a couple times a month (pretty much the only place fussy DDs love to go and sit properly and eat a meal) without feeling guitly about the money...

that's a good point about accumulated points/rewards....hmmm, think I'm erring towards cashback and using all cashback for our holiday fund