Cash Back Credit Cards?

[Tiger8693]

Yep, I think it was a terminology thing (for me). I was considering the Payee as the account the bills are being paid FROM. OK, all clear! Would have been great to bypass those companies that don't want you to pay by credit card through using BillPay. In my case, only a couple of recurring bills allow the CC to be used.


Thanks all that answered!

 

[gerntz]

As others have stated, there is no reason to use a credit card that doesn’t pay a minimum of 2% cash back, and it sounds like there may be a few that pay more than 2%, with some caveats. I can’t imagine why you’ve waited so long to make the switch. You have left a lot of money on the table.

I haven't seen/heard of a card that pays over 2% cash back on everything without also having a card fee. If anyone knows, I'm all ears.

 

[ownyourfuture]

My credit card history is similar to yours. Up until about 5 years ago, I had a simple Visa card (no cash back) through Fidelity. Only used it for ’big ticket item’ purchases. Refrigerators, new sets of tires, hot water heater, etc.

About 5 years ago while logging into Fidelity, I saw a promotion for a new Visa Rewards Card. No annual fee, & 2.00% cash-back on everything. Like you, I was somewhat leery, but it's 100.00% on the up & up. 2.00% cash-back on everything, & zero fees.

If you decide to go that route, I should mention one thing that was confusing to me initially. Fidelity only pays you 1.00% on your rewards points, but you get 2 points for every dollar spent. So if you spend $100.00, you get 200 points.

When you go to cash in those 200 points, you'll only get $2.00 or 1.00%
But you only had to spend $100.00 to get the $2.00, so it's actually 2.00%

 

[ownyourfuture]

There is a convenient link to Fidelity BillPay from the Credit Card view.

I go over to the credit card view (select in account list on left side), then in the payment Payment Summary section I select Fidelity Billpay, and it lets me select an account, the amount (I choose last statement balance), and the date when to pay "deliver by".

Then press the "Pay with BillPay" button.

It's added to the Fidelity Billpay list.

Exactly what I do. I pay my Fidelity Visa, Capital One MasterCard, American Express, & truck payment (Chase) through Fidelity BillPay.

Simplicity is beauty

 

[Dtail]

I haven't read all these replies but yes getting a cash back credit card is like free money, much better then airline credit cards also.

I have the BofA Travel Rewards Visa card and easily get $2,000. back each year in cash. No annual fee and no foreign transaction fee either. My reward points are based on my total BofA deposits, higher the amount of deposits, the higher the reward points are.

And like many here I literally charge EVERYTHING and pay it in full each month. Haven't paid a cent in finance charges in years.

There is no perfect cash reward card for everyone. Do your homework.

This is a good card, plus BOA has upgraded their Cash Rewards card. If one keeps 100k with ML for example, one can receive 5.25% on various choices of categories for 2500 quarterly.
This card pairs nicely with their Travel and/or Premier card.

 

[jazz4cash]

Only on ER forum would the term “pairs nicely with” be used in reference to credit cards.

 

[Done]

I have the Costco 4/3/2/1% Visa and Fido 2% Visa but now mostly use the Alliant Visa Signature card. Pays 3% on everything with no fee the first year, then reverts to 2.5% with a $59 annual fee. The extra 0.5% cashback (compared to a free 2% card) covers the annual fee once you spend $11,800 per year. No foreign transaction fee.

https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/bank/visa-signature-card

 

[Kim451]

MultiCards

I do each year sign up for an annual free (but free the first year) card, use it for 11 months, get the $500->$600 bonus, then cancel the card.

How does that affect your credit?

 

[Drake3287]

This is a good card, plus BOA has upgraded their Cash Rewards card. If one keeps 100k with ML for example, one can receive 5.25% on various choices of categories for 2500 quarterly.
This card pairs nicely with their Travel and/or Premier card.

Exactly, and for anyone having a considerable about of money with BofA it's a great deal. Not sure of the exact percentage I get back but it's over 2% on anything.

The secret to these cards is to charge everything. There are only a few things in life that can't be charged. For a couple of years my kid's colleges allowed me to charge tuition until they figured out how much it was costing them.

 

[Cobra9777]

I love this topic because it is, in fact, free money. Here's our current routine:

1. All Amazon purchases go on the Amazon/Chase 5% VISA. No annual fee.
2. All grocery/gas/drug purchases go on a grandfathered 5% AMEX Blue Cash. No annual fee.
3. Everything else goes on the Fidelity/Elan 2% VISA. No annual fee.

I just checked our 2018 actual spending.... the only items that DIDN'T go on cash-back CCs are: federal tax, property tax, and our health insurance premiums, which are required to be paid by bank debit to our former employers. Fed tax and prop tax can be paid by CC but the fees exceed our cash-back. So that's a no-go. Most bills are paid with the 2% Fidelity VISA. For 2018, 77% of spend went on cash-back CCs. Our weighted-average cash-back was 2.6%. We're trying to get that up by shifting more from the Fidelity 2% card to the 5% Amazon card.

 

[Sunset]

How does that affect your credit?

My credit score varies due to the signup and the canceling of a short term card. Understand I have 6 or 7 other cards that are no fee, rarely used, and I pay off my cards every month, and never miss a bill.

My score varies from 800 -> 780 and the "hit" I take for canceling and getting a new card is 20 points, so it goes down to 780, then in about 3 months, it's back up to 790, then upwards.

I don't really pay attention to the score, as it doesn't vary much.

 

[rk911]

Discover Card. no fees, cashback bonus each month can be applied to your balance, used at amazon or direct deposited to a bank account.

 

[mountainsoft]

I was suspicious for several years, and let some attractive signup incentives and cash-back go by.

I honestly never gave them much thought. We already had credit cards so I simply tossed any offers that came my way unopened. I didn't pay any attention to cash rewards or other incentives.

just saw your post about the low credit limit. They will raise it a bit every 6 months, if you ask via the web site. Ours is up to $30K, but it took a few years.

The $5300 limit is MORE than adequate for our needs. I can't remember a time we've ever had more than $2000 on our cards, it's usually a few hundred or less.

Our current cards have 20K limits if some emergency came up, but I highly doubt we would charge that kind of money. I never asked for the higher limits, they just raised them over time.

 

[Drake3287]

What kill's me is when I'm in line at Costco or some similar place and the people ahead of me are paying in cash for these huge bill's. Such a waste!

I think for many people they can't trust themselves to pay these cards off every month so they don't play the game. I'm guessing the majority of us that do it are well disciplined with financial matters and probably represent the 800 club of credit scores. You don't necessarily need to be wealthy to make this free money.

 

[bada bing]

I love this topic because it is, in fact, free money.

I'm another credit card user, I juggle 5 cards to try to optimize my "cash back".
One of the common questions and misconceptions about cash back cards is that
credit card issuers are setting a trap to get people to carry a balance and pay
interest and that is what funds "cash back". If you do the research, that really
isn't the case. Of course, CC companies are happy to collect interest, but the
financing of "cash back" is actually more nefarious than trapping unwitting card
holders into debt. Credit card issuers have managed to become so entrenched in
the payment of transactions that all transactions have a hidden fee to pay for
credit card usage - whether a card is used or not. Credit card issuers have contractual
language in the merchant agreements that prevent charging less for cash transactions.
Gasoline is one exception, but there aren't many others. The "cash back"
people love is actually just a return of a built in charge. The nefarious part
is that even people who don't use cards pay the hidden fees.

 

[Drake3287]

"Credit card issuers have contractual language in the merchant agreements that prevent charging less for cash transactions"

I ran into that recently, I spent $9,800. on a single purchase and I ask the merchant if he'd give a discount for cash instead of using a credit card and he said no. Sort of surprised me.

 

[mrfeh]

Haven't read the entire thread...apologies if it's already been mentioned: Fidelity Visa. 2% back on everything.

 

[scrabbler1]

After years using one of those worthless points-based rewards CC, I switched to a cash-back one about 4 years ago through my home bank, the one I do my checking with and had just begun using its online banking.


I don't charge a lot of stuff, but this change resulted in my using my new CC for supermarket trips, my most frequent spending. Doing this saves me one monthly trip to the ATM and allows me to buy as much as I want at the store, a handy feature now that I often do some food shopping for my ladyfriend and she pays me back later. Combining our food shopping often allows me to use a $5 store coupon I wouldn't be able to use otherwise, an added savings worth more than the cash back.


The cash-back card gives me 2% on those supermarket trips but only 1% on everything else. I don't use it for gas (3% cash back) because my local gas station charges about 10% more if you don't use cash. So, I get about $30 back every 6-9 months and it's nice and easy to pay the CC bill with my online banking.

 

[kgtest]

I don't really pay attention to the score, as it doesn't vary much.

I always thought it was odd the way a "credit scores" bias of just one number effects people different.


For instance DW is about 5% higher than mine and always has been, yet I've had WAY more debt that I've repaid, but also carry higher debt as she has none and I have "some" with mortgage note and revolving credit debt (admittedly I do carry 0% balances sometimes if the market is low, so I had some here when I upped my 401k a bit and will repay that loan to myself come bonus..ahh market timing right? or buying low).


I've owned and sold multiple homes, cars etc...but yet DW has ALWAYS been higher. Truly I was the one able to manage more credit, more effectively than her, but that credit score says otherwise...


As long as I am in the top 10% of of 850 so 773 or better I sleep well. I figure I am getting an A, so yay for me!

 

[bloom2708]

We just got $472 from our Costco Visa. Another $200 from the Costco membership. 4% back on gas. 2% at Costco.

I charge college tuition for our college age kid (the college doesn't take checks Doh).

Amazon Prime (5% back on Amazon purchases is another)

Depends on what rewards you want. We used to be primarily cash. We now charge most everything. Easier to track in Personal Capital and the rewards are free money.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Uber Visa card: 4pct cashback in dining, 3pct on hotels and airlines. Plus they credit you a certain amount towards suscriptions like Netflix each year. No annual fee. No foreign transaction fee. No catches. Has the uber logo on it. I rarely use uber. I just like the high cashback.

 

[Dtail]

Exactly, and for anyone having a considerable about of money with BofA it's a great deal. Not sure of the exact percentage I get back but it's over 2% on anything.

The secret to these cards is to charge everything. There are only a few things in life that can't be charged. For a couple of years my kid's colleges allowed me to charge tuition until they figured out how much it was costing them.

If one has the BOA Travel or Premier card with 100k investments, the minimum one gets back is 2.625%.

 

[Gotadimple]

Cash back cards are great! But instead of buying gift cards or other merchandise with the points, just use them as statement credits periodically.


I have my bill pay set to automatically pay the balance of each card when it's presented. There is a feature in bill pay that lets you set that up and there is only one bank I know of that doesn't work with bill pay: Chase. In this case, I have autopay setup on the Chase site.

 

[Drake3287]

If one has the BOA Travel or Premier card with 100k investments, the minimum one gets back is 2.625%.

Thanks, I knew it was something over 2%. As for that $100,000. deposit threshold for the highest reward tier, BofA counts any accounts/deposits associated with your account.

I my case, my three 20+ year old kids still have their accounts linked to my account from college years plus I have my elderly mothers account linked as a co-signer. Add those to our 2 checking accounts and reaching that higher tier isn't hard. Most of my real cash is in higher earning CD's at different banks.

 

[Sunset]

Cash back cards are great! But instead of buying gift cards or other merchandise with the points, just use them as statement credits periodically.

.....

This reminds me, for some credit cards taking the cash back or credit statement is less value than taking a gift card.
Yet others (Bank of America Travel card, or Barclay Arrival + card) taking the statement credit on actual travel purchases after the fact is worth a lot more than taking a gift card or simple statement credit (not applied to travel).

So depending upon the card, a person can maximize the benefit during redemption.