Playing the credit card bonus game is working!

[kendallf]

When I started using Mint late last year after reading one of MMM's articles, one of the first things the program came up with was rewards credit card offers.  After some googling, I decided to apply for a couple of them.  We have fairly heavy expenses right now as I'm renovating a house, our youngest daughter's headed to college with some attendant travel costs, and we're taking a last vacation with both girls in a couple of weeks.

To keep it short, I've racked up enough points and bonuses to cover two round trip flights, all of our hotel stays for the vacation, and I still have Discover points in reserve.  All of this with no change in spending, just buying what I was going to purchase already on the cards.

The topper was when I got curious about my longest running card, a Visa from our local credit union.  I went and checked, and they had a (very unadvertised) rewards program and I'd accumulated 50,000 points on it over the years.  It just paid for a finish nail gun I need for the house.

The challenge now will be to keep on top of them and cancel a couple of these next year before the annual renewal fee comes due.  I'll probably take a look around then for the current bonus points leaders and try to repeat the process.  It takes a bit of organization and planning, but it's been worth it so far.

[MakingSenseofCents]

Awesome!  We played the credit card game a little last year, but stopped once we thought we wanted to buy our 2nd house. Well now we have decided that we are going to wait a little longer to buy, and will be getting back into the credit card game. I'm excited!

[DocLago]

Last year around this time I got in on 300$ back on 500 and 400$ back on 500 spending.  So in essence 300$ out of pocket for 1000$ in merch.  Was a great deal and I am looking for another one of these to come along this year to get paid a little to spend on some needed luxuries.   

[kendallf]

Just booked two round trip flights using Chase points (from the Sapphire Preferred card).  $704 flight cost per Kayak, the cheapest I could find.  $52 net cost after I used 52,000 points.  They had a 40k point signup bonus with a $3k spend.

50k in Marriott points just hit my Marriott Rewards account; this was a bonus after spending $1k on the Chase Marriott.  That's going to get us several nights lodging as we drive up through California next month.

I just signed up for the Hilton HHonors Amex card, as it offers another 40k bonus on HHonors and has no annual fee.  I think I'm going to leave things alone now until New Year's.  :-)

All of this makes it sound like we're spending lots of money, and compared to MMM and family, we are.  I am happy to say that we've been steadily optimizing things though.  I think I'll post on that topic elsewhere, in fact.

[BC_Goldman]

I don't burn enough money on things that can be paid with a cc to make this work very well. Going to try one of the cards that gives you $100 credit after $500 in purchases within 3 months. I should be able to make that happen.