COcheesehead
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I don’t “count” on anything. I look at all of it as a bonus. Fun money.
Credit Card Rewards for CY21
- Thread starter ExFlyBoy5
- Start date
I don’t “count” on anything. I look at all of it as a bonus. Fun money.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
You literally said, "which I count as being the same as CC points."
Like I said, if you spend $10 on something you wouldn't normally have purchased because it's free after Ibotta, you can't then consider the $10 you get back as free or fun money.
<Rant mode on>
I am amazed at the number of people who post on the Ibotta FB group how they treat their Ibotta money as vacation cash because it's free money.
Oh, and don't keep more than $20 in Ibotta because they can close your account at any time if they think you did something wrong. Ibotta is not a bank, and it is not your money until you withdraw it.
<Rant mode off>
COcheesehead
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You are twisting my post into something completely unintended. Rant somewhere else.
corn18
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I should switch to paying for my Amazon purchases with their CC. We spent $16k on Amazon last year. I got 2% back on my Fidelity CC. I could have gotten 5% back using their card.
I also spent $6700 at Lowes which includes a 10% military discount. So I saved $800 with that.
I also spent $6700 at Lowes which includes a 10% military discount. So I saved $800 with that.
Sunset
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If you got the BOA Customized Cash card , and stashed $100K at ML , then the preferred rewards with give you 5.25% back on ALL your online shopping not just Amazon.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
But remember that the CCR maxes out at $2500 per quarter, so it would not be a solution for the high purchase amount mentioned here ($16k). But similarly, for the person who shops at Lowes, Home Improvement is one of the categories, so that would be a good solution since they were under $10k/year.
Over $200k on CC charges!?! Wow. Here I thought $50k was ridiculous, and we pay virtually every bill (including property tax on two houses) via CC. We had roughly $1500 in bonus money back. Plus a BA Companion ticket and a bunch of Marriott bonuses, and 50k AA miles. I don’t keep exact track. Typically we’ve been getting $900 to $1000 bonus for dropping $50k ea in two Capitol One accounts for 3 months, but they made the offer much later in 2021, so it will be payable in 2022. However, I pulled the $100k from an account that pays 1.25%, while CO only pays 0.3%, so there is a loss against the $900 this year of about $250, so the net gain from them is actually more like $650. Plus free TT Premier from Fidelity, LOL!
SecondCor521
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Does anyone on this thread have a minimum dollar threshold for dealing with this stuff? I decided a year or two ago that below a certain amount it wasn't worth the hassle unless the reward was a certain dollar amount or more.
I guess I'm a bit surprised that people with high spending rates are still chasing bonuses of a few hundred dollars. Probably the same old story: hard to turn off those habits. But the thread on how to save on TT every year seems especially amazing - I doubt anybody on those threads would notice if they actually paid $50 or $100 or whatever TT costs, and TT is one of those products that for this crowd is worth the money to buy. (I get my tax prep software "for free" for myself and about five other people by volunteering with a tax prep organization
)
I guess I'm a bit surprised that people with high spending rates are still chasing bonuses of a few hundred dollars. Probably the same old story: hard to turn off those habits. But the thread on how to save on TT every year seems especially amazing - I doubt anybody on those threads would notice if they actually paid $50 or $100 or whatever TT costs, and TT is one of those products that for this crowd is worth the money to buy. (I get my tax prep software "for free" for myself and about five other people by volunteering with a tax prep organization
)
Sunset
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I don't bother with any bonus offer on a bank account less than $200, and a credit card has to be a bonus of $300 or maybe $200 but the card better have some other great features.
As for the spending, I find it pretty effortless - every 3 months I write down and carry in my wallet which card to pull out to pay:
Restaurants - Sapphire 3%
Grocery (not Walmart/Target) Freedom 5%
Everything Else -BOA Travel 2.6%
Since I online shop from home, that is not on the list as I only use a different card for it.
I have a $300 minimum for bank bonuses and a $500 minimum for credit card bonuses. I did do the Amazon credit card for only $200, but I wanted that card for ongoing Amazon spend.
Usually, I keep a credit card for about a year after receiving the bonus and then close it.
Chuckanut
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I have two cards - Discover and Freedom Flex - that I use for the 5% bonus. This gives me 5% bonus for groceries for six months this year. I spend a lot on groceries.
The other big 5% is gasoline. Alas, both discover and Flex have that discount in the same quarter. Discover has a restaurant discount in the 3rd quarter which may be useful if I do a road trip. The PayPal discounts are in different quarters. That may up my use of PayPal. The Flex card's 5% cash-back with Walmart in the forth quarter was very useful this year. More and more I find that Amazon prices are creeping up compared to Walmart so even though there is no Walmart store conveniently nearby, I find I am becoming more of a customer.
It sounds confusing, but in reality it isn't. A few minutes at the start of each quarter and I have things setup. I don't bother juggling cards with minor expenses under about $30 such as my monthly Ooma bill. I like to save several dollars per transaction with a healthy transaction frequency. When in doubt or if I make a mistake, I usually use my 2% card and don't worry about it.
These days bank cash-back credit cards earn me far more than the pathetic interest on most of my CDs.
The other big 5% is gasoline. Alas, both discover and Flex have that discount in the same quarter. Discover has a restaurant discount in the 3rd quarter which may be useful if I do a road trip. The PayPal discounts are in different quarters. That may up my use of PayPal. The Flex card's 5% cash-back with Walmart in the forth quarter was very useful this year. More and more I find that Amazon prices are creeping up compared to Walmart so even though there is no Walmart store conveniently nearby, I find I am becoming more of a customer.
It sounds confusing, but in reality it isn't. A few minutes at the start of each quarter and I have things setup. I don't bother juggling cards with minor expenses under about $30 such as my monthly Ooma bill. I like to save several dollars per transaction with a healthy transaction frequency. When in doubt or if I make a mistake, I usually use my 2% card and don't worry about it.
These days bank cash-back credit cards earn me far more than the pathetic interest on most of my CDs.
jazz4cash
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How does that work? Do cashback cards cost more for merchants than other cards?I have not seen any local retail stores around here pushing cash over cards. If anything contactless payment forms are gaining ground.
aja8888
Moderator Emeritus
PenFed 2% back VISA earned $2208.
Capital One 1.5% VISA earned $308.
Chase Amazon 5% back I don't track but use it a lot on Amazon.
This is enough to cover DW's Xmas spending habit.
Capital One 1.5% VISA earned $308.
Chase Amazon 5% back I don't track but use it a lot on Amazon.
This is enough to cover DW's Xmas spending habit.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
I'll typically do it for $200-300 for checking and $400 for credit, but I keep the cards open (unless there is an annual fee, of course). Most banks do not seem to care about the total amount of credit you have outstanding, it's more the amount of credit you have with them. Bank of America seems to care the amount about your total amount of credit. I opened a new Premium Rewards card in my wife's name a couple of months ago, and they only gave her a $2500 credit limit. Had to work around that to get to the $4000 required spend for the $500 bonus, but I made some early payments, and it worked out. That one will likely get cancelled after the first year
I inadvertently applied for a credit card at a branch a few months ago. I was doing a mystery shop to see if they gave you paperwork to sign before submitting the application, at which point you would say that you changed your mind and not submit the application. The employee failed and did not give me a chance to change my mind before she hit submit. Much to my surprise, I was approved for the card. I had just applied for another card with the same bank about a month earlier (that one was intentional) and did not think that they'd give me another one so soon. I considered cancelling the card when it arrived (there was no way to cancel the application since I had been instantly approved), but decided to keep it since the signup bonus was $800.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
I have heard that rebate cards cost the stores more than non-rebate. Some restaurants around here are charging a surcharge of up o 4% for using a credit card, which really bothers me (fortunately I get 5.25% back from my BofA CCR card).
Chuckanut
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I heard it is all those people who do not pay off their cards every month that are paying for the 2% I get.
Sojourner
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I would never pay a surcharge to any restaurant for using a credit card. I mean, how many people actually use cash when dining in restaurants these days? Credit cards are the absolute norm and have been for a long time.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
I would never pay the surcharge if it cost me more than what I get back in a rebate (same as paying a surcharge to charge my income taxes). The restaurants are being foolish about this, cash has its own costs, unless the owner is pocketing some of it and not reporting it.
MisterBill
Recycles dryer sheets
Combination of that and the merchant fees, which apparently CAN be higher for rewards cards. No actual numbers, but it's mentioned in this article.
https://www.cardratings.com/bonus-or-bogus-who-pays-for-rewards-credit-cards.html
Surewhitey
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Yeah, I don't mess with anything without a $500 equivalent. This year's bonus points were two airlines, AA 50k bonus (plus another 10k spent). Also wifey got the Southwest Airlines with a 100k points (plus another 10k spent). We live in Dallas and have tons of destinations we use these for. An example is sometimes as few as 6500 (Southwest) for return flights to visit her family that would normally be $300 normally to a smaller market location. We also use American sometimes to return from Cozumel with a 12k PT cost for a $350 one way equivalent.
We also get 2% on $30k deposits in a small bank by using the debit card 12 times monthly (on small purchases) and get $600 for that (taxable, so more like $480). I lump this with the CC bonuses...
Other bonus items this year was around $400+$500 bonus on the 2% cash back biz card. Our spending is not crazy, so we reduce our annual spending ($50k) by 5-7% after bonuses, another way to look at it.
The only thing we don't spend CC's on is property taxes and lumber yard as they change 2-3% fees. Debit cards work there.
Chuckanut
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I think it depends on the business. Several years ago the owner of a small family restaurant explained it this way to me:
Suppose I spend $50 on dinner for two. The restaurant's profit is $10 before taxes. If the CC charges 3%, the bank takes $1.50 which is 15% of the restaurants profit. I suspect the this owners cost of handling cash is probably minimal in his mind since he considers it part of his job.
Of course in big stores handling cash has many other costs: - slower cashier lines, more security to deter employee theft, on-going 'cash pickups' at registers that are getting stuffed with cash, and all the counting of the cash that occurs after hours when the register translations are balanced. The people who do these jobs don't work for free.
I pay cash if they like. But otherwise I do use my reward cards. And, of course, credit cards do encourage more spending by removing the psychology of having to physically remove cash from one's wallet and hand it to somebody else. OUCH!
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ExFlyBoy5
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I have purposely chosen cards that are easy/automatic. I only have to remember to use AMEX at the grocery store or getting gas. Everything else on the USAA card. AMZN purchases are automatically put on the Chase card. So, no real effort to get cash back.
I used to "chase" bonuses, but not so much these days since they aren't nearly as great as they were a few years ago.
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ExFlyBoy5
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Generally speaking, yes...the merchant fees are higher for the reward cards.
Our cash-back reward total for 2021 was $1,688. That's an average of 2.5% on spend of $68.7K.
Most of that was from the Fidelity 2% VISA. We also have the Amazon 5% card, but overall spend is much lower on that card.
We also have an old AMEX Blue Cash with no annual fee that pays 5% on groceries, gasoline, and drug stores. But we only get 5% after spending $6.5K at 0.5%. Average on that card was 2.4% for the year. So it's still a little better than just using the Fidelity card, but not by much. Just for simplicity, we may stop using this card at some point. It made more sense when we had kids in the house eating groceries and we both commuted.
Most of that was from the Fidelity 2% VISA. We also have the Amazon 5% card, but overall spend is much lower on that card.
We also have an old AMEX Blue Cash with no annual fee that pays 5% on groceries, gasoline, and drug stores. But we only get 5% after spending $6.5K at 0.5%. Average on that card was 2.4% for the year. So it's still a little better than just using the Fidelity card, but not by much. Just for simplicity, we may stop using this card at some point. It made more sense when we had kids in the house eating groceries and we both commuted.
