By Mr. BI admit, I use credit cards a lot. To me, it’s much simpler than writing a check, and I tend to carry very little cash. Plus, you can earn rewards from the credit card companies. Yes, I’m one of those people who whips out a card to buy a coffee refill for 85 cents. 
However, I don’t just use whichever card I grab first. I usually carry three or four cards in my wallet, and use whichever one offers the highest reward for the particular category of my purchase. The following is my current plan of attack, which works well for me. Feel free to create your own Variations on a Theme. All of the cards mentioned below have no annual fee.
1) Schwab Invest First Visa – earns cashback
(see post)
Rewards: earn an unlimited 2% cashback on all purchases.
This is my default card for use in all general spending. No, it isn’t the sexiest card out there, but by gosh, its reward program is reliably simple. Every purchase earns 2% cashback; no spending tiers or reward caps.
The Schwab Visa also requires a Schwab One brokerage account in order to redeem your cashback rewards. Yes, it’s a slight hurdle to also open a brokerage account when applying for the credit card, but you can open them both simultaneously. Once your Schwab Visa is linked to the brokerage account, your accumulated rewards will automatically be redeemed monthly into the brokerage. You don’t have to worry about building up your rewards to a certain level before redemption. Nice!
2a) Citi Professional Mastercard – earns "Thank You" points
Rewards: earn three "Thank You" points for every dollar you spend at restaurants, gas stations, certain office supply merchants and auto rentals. All other purchases earn one point per dollar spent.
My primary use for this card is at restaurants and office supply stores. I probably dine out a little more frequently than I should, but at least I’m earning three points for each dollar when I do. It’s also a good alternative to the Chase Freedom card for gas stations.
"Thank You" points are redeemable for gift cards to a multitude of places, such as Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, and many others. Also, you can earn 6,000 bonus points, redeemable for $50, just for signing up.
2b) Citi mtvU Visa – earns Thank You points (for students – see post)
Rewards: earn five Thank You points for every dollar you spend at restaurants (including fast food), bookstores, music/video stores, and movie theatres. All other purchases earn one point per dollar spent.
If you are a student, the mtvU card from Citi is a great option for racking up points quickly. I use it primarily for restaurants and bookstores, and since Amazon.com falls under the category of bookstore, all purchases from Amazon earn 5 points per dollar spent!
You can earn earn bonus points for paying your statement on time each month, plus extra points for earning good grades each semester. Sweet.
The nice thing about the Thank You network is that the points are not exclusive to the individual Citi card. Rather, you can aggregate all of the points you earn from multiple Citi cards into one account by listing the separate sponsor accounts. I have all four of my Citi cards linked to one Thank You account.
3) American Express Blue Sky – earns points (see post)
Rewards: earn one point for every dollar spent. Points are redeemable for travel credits (such as airline tickets, hotels, and cruises). 7,500 points equals a $100 credit, which is equivalent to just over a 1.3% cashback rate. Once you have enough points to redeem, make a travel purchase, then call AMEX (or go online) and request a credit toward that purchase. Easy enough.
Before the debut of the Schwab Visa, I used this card for my collective other category, meaning anything that does not fit into the aforementioned categories. In other words, anything that would net only 1% cashback from another card is applied here. What initially attracted me to this card was an offer for 30,000 points as a sign-up bonus. Keep in mind that this was a targeted offer and is currently not available directly on their web site. They also gave me a massive credit limit! The Blue Sky card is still much better than a generic 1% cashback card, but is now trumped by the Schwab. Still, if you are interested in building points specifically for travel, it’s worth investigating, especially if you receive a sign-up bonus offer.
Summary
With proper usage I can net a solid 2% cashback or more for most/all of my spending. Are the cards I list the best ones available? Possibly. You may find a card with slightly higher percentages. However, for cards with no annual fee and without tiered reward systems, these are good choices.
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There are additional advantage and disadvantage with Citi cards:
Advantage: Certain Citi cards (Platinum Select, Diamond Preferred, etc) provide $1,000,000 Common Carrier Travel Accident insurance, whereas Chase’s coverage is only $500,000. I am more at ease when flying on a plane with that $1 M insurance.
Disadvantage: One Citi “Thank You” point is not equivalent to $0.01. For instance, to earn $250 cash back, you need to accumulate 35,000 “Thank You” points to get that.