Credit Card Rewards for CY21

[NYC1967]

In 2021 I got back $1,077

I use citibank double cash rewards card - 2% on everything and
Costco credit card

 

[foxcreek9]

I got the Chase Sapphire sign-up bonus of $1,000 (+) worth of points. But yesterday I got my house insurance renewal....the dreaded "we couldn't give you the best rate" cover letter This isn't based on credit score (mine is >800), it's based on several things, one of which is the number of hard credit pulls, and also the most recent issue of credit. I don't know exactly how much more I'm paying, but it's probably around $50. No big deal, but annoying.

I followed up on this with my insurer, State Farm, and according to their underwriting department, hard pulls play no part at all in pricing HO insurance. May want to look at another insurance company.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My apologies if this information is up-thread somewhere. I didn't read all the way back. I just received notice that my Citi Double Cash card will be awarding "ThankYou Points" as the default starting March 28th. I believe in the past, you needed to convert your earned cash back dollars into ThankYou Points in order to use them.

According to the flyer, you can still easily apply your points to a statement credit (which no longer has a $25 minimum). Unless it's hidden in the details, nothing else appears to change.

 

[MisterBill]

My apologies if this information is up-thread somewhere. I didn't read all the way back. I just received notice that my Citi Double Cash card will be awarding "ThankYou Points" as the default starting March 28th. I believe in the past, you needed to convert your earned cash back dollars into ThankYou Points in order to use them.

According to the flyer, you can still easily apply your points to a statement credit (which no longer has a $25 minimum). Unless it's hidden in the details, nothing else appears to change.

That's interesting news. TY points are typically not redeemable for a penny per point unless you have certain cards. Do they say that you will still be able to redeem at a penny per point? Or will you have an option to stay in the current cash redemption?

Update, I found a thread discussing this on DoC - https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi...thankyou-points-remove-25-redemption-minimum/

Apparently you will have your choice of cash or points. But TY points can be more valuable for some people. If you also have a Rewards+ card, you get a 10% bonus on each redemption, up to 10,000 bonus points per year. That would make your 2% DC rebate actulaly 2.2%.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

That's interesting news. TY points are typically not redeemable for a penny per point unless you have certain cards. Do they say that you will still be able to redeem at a penny per point? Or will you have an option to stay in the current cash redemption?

It says "Redemption rates vary depending on how you choose to redeem your ThankYou Points". It also says "Same great value for cash back. When you redeem your ThankYou Points for cash back, you'll receive the same value as you did before. 1000 ThankYou Points equals $10 in cash back."

I'm having trouble visualizing the latter in my head as being the same. But I will wait and see. Coincidently, I just put in a request to convert $150 into a statement credit this morning -- before I got this letter.

 

[pacergal]

We don't have any cash back cc, but we did get $200 in visa debit cards for switching cell phone plans from Verizon to Comcast! And our monthly plan cost went down.

 

[MisterBill]

It says "Redemption rates vary depending on how you choose to redeem your ThankYou Points". It also says "Same great value for cash back. When you redeem your ThankYou Points for cash back, you'll receive the same value as you did before. 1000 ThankYou Points equals $10 in cash back."

I'm having trouble visualizing the latter in my head as being the same. But I will wait and see. Coincidently, I just put in a request to convert $150 into a statement credit this morning -- before I got this letter.

I don't know how Double Cash rewards currently show up, but basically if you spend $500 it would currently show up as $10 in cash back after you pay the bill. Presumably, you would be able to redeem it for 1,000 Thank You points, which can then be redeemed for $10 in the TY portal, assuming you get the penny per point redemption rate. Most people only get a half cent per point if you redeem it for a statement credit or other cash. If you redeem it for gift cards, you get the full penny per point valuation.

Sometimes, they offer discounts on gift cards on the TY portal, so getting the reward as points could be beneficial.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Around September 2018, I signed up for a capital one quicksilver card. It was too tempting to resist. Spend $1000 in the first 3 months to receive a full $500 credit. I use a card for almost all my daily transactions so it wasn't a problem.
In early February 2019 I redeemed $547

After that, I only used it at Kwik-trip gas stations which offered special incentives occasionally. Probably used it once a month.

At the start of 2020, when those special offers ended, I quit using it altogether. This past January, Capital One informed me that I hadn't used the card in 2 years, and if I didn't use it in the following two weeks, the card would be terminated.

I let the account terminate. Earlier this week they send me another special promotion on a new quicksilver card. Spend $500 in the first 3 months and receive a $200 credit. I couldn't say no.

This surprised me. I always figured that once you took advantage of a deal like that, & didn't continue to use the card consistently after receiving the bonus dollars, you'd be blacklisted by that CC company.

 

[Chuckanut]

I let the account terminate. Earlier this week they send me another special promotion on a new quicksilver card. Spend $500 in the first 3 months and receive a $200 credit. I couldn't say no.

This surprised me.

I am surprised also. I have been a loyal Cap One card holder for years. I use their ENO system to pay a lot of online bills using unique account numbers that are good at one merchant. For my loyalty, I was recently offered........ Zero, Zed, Nada, exactly nothing. I am shocked, Shocked!

 

[MisterBill]

I let the account terminate. Earlier this week they send me another special promotion on a new quicksilver card. Spend $500 in the first 3 months and receive a $200 credit. I couldn't say no.

This surprised me. I always figured that once you took advantage of a deal like that, & didn't continue to use the card consistently after receiving the bonus dollars, you'd be blacklisted by that CC company.

Did they do a hard pull for the new account? In general, $200 is on the low end for credit card opening bonuses, since some high bonus cards will check the number of new accounts opened in the past 24 months as criteria for approving a new account. Unless, of course, it's a card that you actually plan to use. Now, if they just reopened the account and did not do a hard pull, that would be worth doing.

And no, banks won't blacklist you if you open an account to get the bonus and then stop using it. But they do try to limit it with the aforementioned 24-month approval rate (typically five cards) to stop you from doing too much o it.

 

[MisterBill]

I am surprised also. I have been a loyal Cap One card holder for years. I use their ENO system to pay a lot of online bills using unique account numbers that are good at one merchant. For my loyalty, I was recently offered........ Zero, Zed, Nada, exactly nothing. I am shocked, Shocked!

I'm confused. Did you call them to cancel the card and ask if they could give you some sort of retention offer to get you to keep the card?