Cash Back Credit Cards?

[Chuckanut]

Here's a pretty good reward I am getting on my one and only AMEX card.

AMEX has some sort of promotion with local small businesses. Currently, they are offering a $5 credit for items bought at local small businesses that work with them. The minimum purchase is $10 to get the credit. For example, the local doughnut shop offers me 8 donuts for about $12 and change. I get $5 back from Amex. This bring my cost per doughnut to less than $1 each. That is cheap in my area where a dozen donuts costs about $18.

It can be used 10x until about 9/20/2020 when it ends. You might want to check this out.

 

[sengsational]

Caution when comparing AMEX to other cards' point systems, though.


AMEX points are not the standard 0.01 on use. Depending on how you spend them, they often bring half that. The only way I was able to get 0.01 was to get a Home Depot gift card. And not Amazon...you need to pay 40% more for an Amazon card. BIL needed a water heater, so I sold him the gift cards, and eeked out 0.01 per point, but it wasn't easy.

 

[calmloki]

No longer have any Amex cards, but some years back was able to enjoy an Amex "small business Saturday". At the time I think it was $10 on $10 purchase, Gal also had an Amex and I had great fun hitting a carniceria and several other stores and trotting home with a bunch of pretty much free goodies. Chuckanut's small business promo is the best version from Amex I've seen in about the last 5 years.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Caution when comparing AMEX to other cards' point systems, though.


AMEX points are not the standard 0.01 on use. Depending on how you spend them, they often bring half that. The only way I was able to get 0.01 was to get a Home Depot gift card. And not Amazon...you need to pay 40% more for an Amazon card. BIL needed a water heater, so I sold him the gift cards, and eeked out 0.01 per point, but it wasn't easy.

I don't think they were selling the points, but showing that they are doing a small business promotion that's pretty darn good. I have been using it and expect to max out the promotion in the next month.

 

[sengsational]

I don't think they were selling the points, but showing that they are doing a small business promotion that's pretty darn good. I have been using it and expect to max out the promotion in the next month.

Yes, yes, certainly take advantage of the promotion! I was just pointing out that if someone came across this and began thinking "wow, AMEX offers a "3% card", plus they have these promotions, I'm getting AMEX!", they should know that 3% isn't 3% in the case of AMEX's watered-down points.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yes, yes, certainly take advantage of the promotion! I was just pointing out that if someone came across this and began thinking "wow, AMEX offers a "3% card", plus they have these promotions, I'm getting AMEX!", they should know that 3% isn't 3% in the case of AMEX's watered-down points.

I am slightly confused. I do have a couple of Amex cards, one of which does 6% back for groceries, 3% on fuel, and 1% on all others. The cashback % is indeed what is advertised. Can you elaborate because I must be missing something?

 

[Gotadimple]

I don't think you should confuse using points to buy stuff with cash back credits. Amex has a promotion that will result in a statement credit. In addition, if you accumulate points, don't use it to buy stuff! Use it in $25 increments for statement credits.

- Rita

 

[Chuckanut]

Yes, yes, certainly take advantage of the promotion! I was just pointing out that if someone came across this and began thinking "wow, AMEX offers a "3% card", plus they have these promotions, I'm getting AMEX!", they should know that 3% isn't 3% in the case of AMEX's watered-down points.

You make a good point.

I like the $5 discount. I can put it in my pocket and save it or spend it wherever I chose. They can't devalue it by raising the required points for a free this or that. Give me the the money.

Oh, a few years ago I had a Delta Amex card that gave me a free doughnut and cup of coffee every day for a month.

The funny thing is I don't normally eat doughnuts. But, I do like them.

 

[brett]

We use a premium card that provides 2 percent cash back on travel purchases.. It also has some good benefits for travel.

Last year we had to cancel a trip to China because of a medical issue. Submitted a $1400 claim to the card insurance. Had the claim paid out, in full, within 10 business days. Very happy. It was the first time in 50 plus years that we have had to cancel a trip!

 

[sengsational]

I am slightly confused. I do have a couple of Amex cards, one of which does 6% back for groceries, 3% on fuel, and 1% on all others. The cashback % is indeed what is advertised. Can you elaborate because I must be missing something?

True, they give you 6% on groceries, for instance. So you spend $100 and they give you 600 points. In most cases, that means you can use those points for $6 worth of spending. But that's not my experience with the Amex card I got. When I tried to use the points on Amazon, for instance, I needed to spend 2154 points to get $15.38 worth of goods. So what "should have" cost me 1538 points cost me 2154 points. Another way to look at it is that they added a 40% fee. Maybe you can find a way to spend your points at $0.01 each, and I eventually did (Home Depot gift card). But it wasn't straight-forward to eek out full value for AMEX card points.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

True, they give you 6% on groceries, for instance. So you spend $100 and they give you 600 points. In most cases, that means you can use those points for $6 worth of spending. But that's not my experience with the Amex card I got. When I tried to use the points on Amazon, for instance, I needed to spend 2154 points to get $15.38 worth of goods. So what "should have" cost me 1538 points cost me 2154 points. Another way to look at it is that they added a 40% fee. Maybe you can find a way to spend your points at $0.01 each, and I eventually did, but it's probably not going to be easy.

I am not sure what card you speak of. The cash back card doesn't do "points", it's a cash value that you redeem for cash credit. My business card (2% cash back on all purchases) makes it even easier as it's automatically applied as a credit each month. So, I think we are discussing two different cards. The one I speak of is the AMERICAN EXPRESS CASH PREFERRED CARD." There are NO points earned on this card, only cash back.

There *is* an Amazon card, but as far as I know, this is through Chase...and it's a Visa. They *do* points, but it's a simple 5% for AMZN purchases and redeeming is pretty simple through the AMZN website when you check out. I am utterly confused as to what card is taking a 40% fee.

Looks like we have an apples and oranges comparison here.

 

[audreyh1]

I am slightly confused. I do have a couple of Amex cards, one of which does 6% back for groceries, 3% on fuel, and 1% on all others. The cashback % is indeed what is advertised. Can you elaborate because I must be missing something?

These are giving you the full % back. They aren’t using a point system AFAIK. But I can attest that we are getting the full % cash back.

 

[pb4uski]

Sounds like you all are talking abut different Amex cards... one is points and the other is cash back.... apples and oranges.

 

[kimcdougc]

Use our Fidelity Visa which gets 2% cash back on everything. Pay it off every month. Make around 1000 per year on it.

 

[sengsational]

Sounds like you all are talking abut different Amex cards... one is points and the other is cash back.... apples and oranges.

That must be it. This is a recently issued card that had a big sign up bonus. It's called "every day" or something like that.