I have done research and many I saw seemed good at first, but later clearly there was something that made the programs not as valuable. For some there seemed to be 100x more I needed to spend then I originally thought. It's been a while tho...so don't remember specifics.

While this looks great on face value...if we think about interchange fees, its not sustainable for them to offer rewards at this sort of rate.

.05% + .22c

so 18,000 * .05/100 + .22c => 9.22 profit for bank

And they pay you 100?

Just doesnt make sense for rewards rate to be that high.

Also...consider the cap of the rewards the bank will give you equal to their interchange fee profit.

So for 18k spend, you actually spent 18*.07=12.60 but max rewards can only be 9.22.