Credit: Playing Your Cards Right

Chase Home Improvement Rewards Visa. If you spend weekends painting, hammering and mowing, try this card. You get 3 percent back, up to $300 a year, for all of your hardware purchases.

Citi Dividend MasterCard. Sadly, this card is chopping its 5 percent rebate on everyday purchases to 2 percent, but it's adding utilities and convenience stores to the list. You can set this card to automatically pay your phone, cable and water bill, and save a little off each.

Costco/American Express True Earnings Card. Free for Costco members, this card offers 3 percent rebates on meals out, 2 percent rebates on travel expenses and 1 percent on everything else. There's no cap on rebates.

Cards for travelers: Those reward miles can get complicated, especially when you try to trade them in for an actual ticket. But real road warriors might find one of these cards useful.

Citi PremierPass MasterCard. Earn one point for every dollar you spend, and one point for every three miles you fly. You can spend the points on airline tickets and booty.

Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards. This card offers an above-average 1.25 miles per dollar spent that can be used on any airline, but there's another reason to like it. Capital One is one of the very few issuers that won't tack on any fees for purchases made in foreign currencies. Even if you don't use it to buy your ticket, use it once you get there.

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