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Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

The Wallet Card was invented for places that don't take Android Pay, to pay in the form of a regular credit/debit card. Unfortunately, this is useless because it is the same level of (in)convenience as a credit card, and doesn't offer the 2-5% cashback that all the other cards I have do.

Even if a store accepted NFC-based Android Pay, I'd probably still opt to pull out my plastic card for the cashback and consumer protection. Google/Apple Pay need to find a way to weave benefits into their systems if they want to win the market.

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Where are you getting 5% cash back? Highest I've seen is Chase Sapphire with their points which are worth 2-3%. Highest straight cash back I've seen is Citi DoubleCash at 2%.

Chase Freedom has 5% cash back on certain categories that change throughout the year.

Freedom and Sapphire cards are amazing because you can combine points between them.

How does that work? If credit card fees are well under 5%.

Sure, fees are under 5%, but what about that one month that you didn't pay off your bill in full? Enjoy that ~30% interest rate on your account balance.

1) Chase Freedom's APR tends to be around 20% 2) If you only carry a balance (or part of it) for one month (as in your example) and then pay it off the next month, your interest charge is nowhere close to the APR (and it's only calculated against the portion you didn't pay off).

Discover has seasonal 5% categories that change every 3 months but they're pretty broad like "Gas and Groceries" or "Restaurants and Entertainment".

I have the old American Express Blue Cash card which has some crazy 5% cashback on gas and groceries once you hit a minimum spend during the year. That thing paid out like a slot machine when gas prices were hovering around $3.50 a gallon and I was doing a 100 mile commute daily.

USBank Cash+ too. You have to pick categories each quarter. You get to pick though, which makes it more convenient than cards that just assign random categories.

I have an old Citi Forward card that offers 5% back on all restaurants and bookstores (including Amazon).

Until June 4th (FYI)

Can you post a source for that? I haven't heard anything to that extent.

In addition to the ones mentioned here Wells Fargo has a card with 5% back at grocery stores for the first 6 months and the Chase Ink+ gets 5x at office supply stores and a few others.

I have a discontinued Barclaycard that gets me 5% for gas, groceries (including Walmart and Target), and bookstores (including anything at Amazon, even AWS and digital downloads). There are caps, but I almost always spend below (have hit the grocery one a couple of times).

Apple/Google Pay don't have anything to do with that.

The cashback, rewards and consumer protection are done through the card issuer and backing bank. You're still paying through the same account, but with a different interface (your phone instead of plastic).

You can add you American Express (or whatever) card to Apple Pay, the protection and points are not in the plastic.

Add you rewards card to Android Pay, tap at the NFC terminal, get your rewards like normal.

Of course that means your bank supports Android Pay, but that's really the standard hit-or-miss technology adoption that banks are slow at anyways.

I think Discover and AmEx give the same cashback with Android Pay now. Chase is not on Android Pay yet.

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