Credit Cards with good perks??
- Thread starter albireo13
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We mostly use our Fidelity Visa card and get back 2% on every purchase. With our expensive Obama health care insurance we actually save over $300 per year using our Fidelity Visa card.
Use American Express for all other stuff. Get miles and free companion ticket every year with this one.
Use American Express for all other stuff. Get miles and free companion ticket every year with this one.
Marketwatcher
Recycles dryer sheets
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Are you a Bank of America customer? BofA has a terrific suite of no-fee credit cards. If you have $100,000 in Merrill Edge account, you can supercharge the amount you get in cash back on the credit cards. I have over $100,000 with Merrill Edge in Vanguard ETFs. That gets me 75 per cent bonus on all cash back. For example, I get back 5.25 per cent on all gas purchases, 3.5 per cent on all groceries (including any purchases at Walmart!) and 2.625 per cent on everything else. I get this through the Cash Rewards and Travel Rewards cards. So with two cards, I get back at least 2.625 per cent on everything. And the Travel Rewards card has no foreign transaction fee, so it's great for travel. I have other credit cards as well, but these two are a great two card solution if you can park money in a Merrill Edge account.
bmcgonig
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Some general advice. Always carry at lest two credit cards if you're traveling. Sometimes one will be rejected for potential fraud reasons. Sometimes that's easy to remedy (they send you an email/text immediately if they reject and ask you to confirm or not). But other times it's not.
Also, if you rent cars abroad, make sure the card offers primary insurance coverage. Most of the time the insurance coverage is a multiple of the actual rental cost. I've been living in Europe for the last year and have been driving a rental car for all that time. The cost of the car is usually less than €10/day, sometimes €5 (compact car). The insurance would be >€20. And then there would still be a deductible of €1500 whereas the CC coverage has no deductible.
Also, if you rent cars abroad, make sure the card offers primary insurance coverage. Most of the time the insurance coverage is a multiple of the actual rental cost. I've been living in Europe for the last year and have been driving a rental car for all that time. The cost of the car is usually less than €10/day, sometimes €5 (compact car). The insurance would be >€20. And then there would still be a deductible of €1500 whereas the CC coverage has no deductible.
This is a very good way to get cash back on all your bills, and not worry about late fees or writing checks.
One caution: if some business where you used your card gets hacked, they'll re-issue your card with a new number. If it's the card you use for automatic payments, this can be a nightmare. Trust me, happened to me twice!
I finally smartened up and now use one card ONLY for automatic payments, and a different card for routine purchases. This way if one of those random businesses I use my card at is hacked, my automatic payments continue.
And don't think that notifying them of your travels ahead of time will make any difference. This happened to me, with a long line of customers behind me, none of whom (or the cashier) spoke my language. Not fun.
Cell phones don't work inside many larger stores, so the text may not get to you until it's too late.
When I finally did get to speak with someone, they explained that the "possible fraud" decisions were made by a computer, which apparently isn't tied into the note they put on my account about being out of town travelling. Even listing the exact destinations and dates was no help.
I like cash back.
I also like to keep it simple.
5% Amazon cash back card used exclusively for Amazon purchases.
Citi double cash back (2% cash back on everything) for all other CC purchases
The Citi card is great. The app for it is super user friendly and easy. I pay it off monthly through the app and I can direct deposit my cash back money whenever I want via the app as well.
I also like to keep it simple.
5% Amazon cash back card used exclusively for Amazon purchases.
Citi double cash back (2% cash back on everything) for all other CC purchases
The Citi card is great. The app for it is super user friendly and easy. I pay it off monthly through the app and I can direct deposit my cash back money whenever I want via the app as well.
Just applied for the Amazon 5% signature card.
If you use the Citi 2% card for monthly bill paying (utilities, cell, internet, etc) do you get cash back for that? I guess they aren't really purchases.
Given that, how about using it to pay your monthly mortgage payment?
If you use the Citi 2% card for monthly bill paying (utilities, cell, internet, etc) do you get cash back for that? I guess they aren't really purchases.
Given that, how about using it to pay your monthly mortgage payment?
Amethyst
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I use it for electric bill (in months where the CC rebate exceeds the $2.00 fee, which is virtually all year for us). Also for Verizon bill. Don't have a mortgage but if the bank allows CC's and doesn't charge exorbitant fees for using them, why not?
Sunset
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+++1
Annoyingly it does take a 3 month waiting period to get preferred status.
Merrill gives you 30 free trades per month if you have 200K with them, which makes it nicer. (and a $600 bonus for funding your new merrill account or moving stocks to it, to fund it).
ghsebldr
Dryer sheet aficionado
Venture Capital. 2% on everything. When redeeming, points can be used for any airline, hotel, car rental or airbnb.
If you redeem for cash you only get 1%. $99 annual fee after the first year. We haven't paid a penny on any of our trips for 3 years now. Well worth the annual fee. They also had a 40k bonus when we signed up.
We spend a quite a bit on business so I honestly don't see us ever paying for a trip again. Points are for life too.
As a bonus their spokeswoman Jennifer Garner is quite hot too.
If you redeem for cash you only get 1%. $99 annual fee after the first year. We haven't paid a penny on any of our trips for 3 years now. Well worth the annual fee. They also had a 40k bonus when we signed up.
We spend a quite a bit on business so I honestly don't see us ever paying for a trip again. Points are for life too.
As a bonus their spokeswoman Jennifer Garner is quite hot too.
audreyh1
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I have those two cards. Maybe it’s worth moving $100K over.
Hmmm ... I just got a cash rewards CC offer in the mail from BoA. It looke good at first ...
3% cash back on car fuel
2% cash back on groceries
1% back on everything else
The APR was 14%. The one hook was that if there was one late payment, the APR doubled to ~28% indefinitely! You have to be very disciplined about paying off the balance each pay period. There were also late payment fees in there as well.
Read the fine prints!
3% cash back on car fuel
2% cash back on groceries
1% back on everything else
The APR was 14%. The one hook was that if there was one late payment, the APR doubled to ~28% indefinitely! You have to be very disciplined about paying off the balance each pay period. There were also late payment fees in there as well.
Read the fine prints!
audreyh1
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That’s what I set up after a couple of compromises. I use a couple of older legacy cards that I don’t carry anymore.
audreyh1
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My BofA credit cards are ebilled to my BofA checking account and automatically paid one day ahead. I also get a 10% bonus on the cash rewards from having a BofA checking account.
Chuckanut
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FWIW, I once got nicked with a late payment fee that was easilyh 4x more than the interest.
I ended up setting up my bill-pay at the bank to automatically make the usual minimum payment amount every month. I might still pay interest, but not that darn late fee. Mostly though, I just make sure I don't miss a payment and always pay it off the month I get it.
Often, if I make a big purchase on a CC I tell bill-pay to make a one time payment of that amount immediately, thus sucking the money out of my checking account as though I had paid cash.
I hear you on the late fee. Never want one of those!
But most CC companies will let you "pull" your payment automatically. In other words, you set it up with the CC company, not the bank. If for whatever reason they fail to pay themselves on time, not your problem!
IMHO, there are two good reasons not to auto-pay. If there's any risk of overdrawing the account, or if you have inconsistent cash flow and need to defer some bills from time to time. You could also argue that paying every bill as late as possible means more interest income. Big companies that move large amounts of cash will do this, but it's probably not worth the effort for most individuals.
Amethyst
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Over the years, I've had late fees twice, each time due to some stressful situation at home that caused me to forget to pay until a couple days late. Both times, I pleaded "good customer, please give a break" with a rep on the phone and got the late fee removed. Two different cards...I doubt it would work twice with the same card.
Yes everything that's charged gets the rebate. Not sure about Mortgage payments. (I would check with your bank on this)
I used to pay my sons tuition with the card, but the school started charging a fee, making it not worthwhile. I also pay my Insurance polices with the card.
calmloki
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Looked at that yesterday and don't find the (BofA card point bump offer) anymore. Which could be lack of skill, but was hoping our Merrill cards would work.
I use credit cards to pay for insurance. I always pay the entire year at once and I find this is a good way to fulfill bonus requirements for new credit card offers. Otherwise it takes awhile to spend the $2-3k required.
Sunset
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calmloki
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Think that is the one, thanks. Unfortunately it doesn't work with our Merrill+ cards and is limited in reward categories so even with a .75% reward bump it doesn't beat the dead easy 2% on anything Fidelity cards.
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