The Chase Freedom credit card is one of my two favorite credit cards.  I wait until I have $200 in rewards, then "buy" a check for $250.  We have done this twice so far.  We were using this card mainly for gas, groceries and fast food because they were getting the 3% rewards; but now that those rewards are flexible, we'll change how we use our two cards a little.

The best way to use a credit card is to pay the whole balance each month and earn rewards.  I especially like cash and higher value gift cards.  These rewards are truly free to us because we don't pay an annual fee or any finance...