Author Topic: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase  (Read 2592 times)

jeff2017

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Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« on: October 29, 2018, 11:09:07 AM »
Per my other thread, going to be buying an engagement ring very soon and interested in the best cashback card out there. Ring, diamond, and band will be around $4,500 and can also use the new card for monthly expenses as well if needed to hit the minimum spend to get the best card for cash back.

One poster suggested the Capital One Savor card as it offers $500 plus 1% cash back. Their website shows you just need to spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of opening the card and no fee for the first year, but a $85 annual fee after that.

Not sure if relevant, but I'm not a CC churner, I currently have 2 Credit cards, the first being a card I got like a decade ago and rarely use and the second is a Discover Card that I put most of my monthly purchases on. This would be a consumer card and I have excellent credit (805 credit score last time I checked). I like my Discover card, so the only real objective of adding a card would be to get the most cash back possible.


jeff2017

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2018, 11:13:02 AM »
Also, not sure, so I'll ask.

We will likely be exploring the idea of buying our next house as early as mid-2019, although I could also see it not being until late 2019 or even early 2020. Would adding a credit card at this stage have any detrimental effect on me, I guess from a credit perspective or in any other way?

We both have excellent credit scores, no consumer debt of any sort, only debt is the current mortgage.

ericrugiero

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2018, 12:57:24 PM »
~$500 bonus seems about the best you can typically do.  Capital One Savor, Chase Saphire Preferred and several others will offer basically the same thing.  The Chase card will give you cash back OR travel rewards that can be used for lots of airlines, hotels, etc.  The travel rewards could be worth more than $500 if you shop around smartly but that only helps if you need them (honeymoon??).  Many of the "experts" like the Chase Saphire Preferred for the flexibility but if you just want cash back I think it works out the same.  Pretty much any card with a big signing bonus will have the annual fee but you can just cancel before the year is up. 

A new card will drop your credit score slightly (5-10 points maybe).  I wouldn't worry about that with a score of 805.  Doesn't seem like you get much benefit past 750 or so.  Just don't go opening up a bunch right before a mortgage.  You can keep the spend on your cards low the month before applying for a mortgage because your utilization % affects the score.  (% borrowed of available credit)


frugalfoothills

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2018, 01:23:55 PM »
Also, not sure, so I'll ask.

We will likely be exploring the idea of buying our next house as early as mid-2019, although I could also see it not being until late 2019 or even early 2020. Would adding a credit card at this stage have any detrimental effect on me, I guess from a credit perspective or in any other way?

We both have excellent credit scores, no consumer debt of any sort, only debt is the current mortgage.

Adding a new card at this point, especially with great credit, should not impact your score into 2019, definitely not 2020. Usually you'll see a slight dip (in the order of a few points) after a new tradeline appears, but the score recovers quickly.

GizmoTX

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2018, 03:21:17 PM »
Citibank Double Cash card, earns unlimited 2% with no annual fee. The cash back is 1% for the purchase & 1% when you pay it. Opt for direct deposit to a checking account instead of refunding to the credit card to get the full 2% cash back.

We also like the Barclaycard Arrival Plus. Earn 60,000 bonus miles (travel points), unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, 5% miles back to use toward your next redemption every time you redeem. No foreign transaction fees. Also has warranty extension. It has an annual fee of $89 but it's waived the first year.

tralfamadorian

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2018, 04:53:00 PM »
Do you want cash bonus, ongoing cash back or travel points? Cash back is nice; as stated above, $500 is about the ceiling available at the moment.

If you want to bank points for your honeymoon/other travel, there are various 50k-100k point bonus offers right now. Not all points are equal but there are calculators out there to help. Delta AMEX is doing its annual referral campaign through the next week or so with high sign-up points. Gold is 60k points with $3k spend in 4 months and $95/yr fee, waived the first year. Platinum is 70k points with $3k spend in 3 months and $195/yr non-waived fee. These are the two I use because I'm near a Delta hub so usually end up flying with them the majority of the time. If you want the referral links for those, let me know.

CSP (chase sapphire preferred) is also very popular for travel- 50k points with $4k spend within 3 months and $95/yr fee, waived the first year.

jeff2017

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2018, 05:15:21 PM »
Do you want cash bonus, ongoing cash back or travel points? Cash back is nice; as stated above, $500 is about the ceiling available at the moment.

If you want to bank points for your honeymoon/other travel, there are various 50k-100k point bonus offers right now. Not all points are equal but there are calculators out there to help. Delta AMEX is doing its annual referral campaign through the next week or so with high sign-up points. Gold is 60k points with $3k spend in 4 months and $95/yr fee, waived the first year. Platinum is 70k points with $3k spend in 3 months and $195/yr non-waived fee. These are the two I use because I'm near a Delta hub so usually end up flying with them the majority of the time. If you want the referral links for those, let me know.

CSP (chase sapphire preferred) is also very popular for travel- 50k points with $4k spend within 3 months and $95/yr fee, waived the first year.

Cash bonus is what I'm most interested in. Sounds like the $500 is the best I can do, I didn't think $500 would be available for something like this, so it is thankfully exceeding my expectations.

jeff2017

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2018, 08:34:37 AM »
Went ahead and signed up for the Capital One card this morning.

It was extremely easy, took a few minutes to fill out the app online and it said I was approved and should get the card within 7-10 business days.

DS

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Re: Best CashBack Card for Making Large Purchase
« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2018, 08:55:59 AM »
Capital One is fantastic! And the rewards are in your account almost immediately upon qualifying for them!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!