My current credit card cashback strategy

[jnw]

Let me know what you think. Always looking to improve it.  Image attached below.

[Joel]

Citi Double Cash provided 2% on all spending. That is my default catch all card.

[ChpBstrd]

@jnw this looks fairly optimized. Well done, and lots to learn from this graphic.

One difference with my approach is I'm paying $95 per year for an American Express cash preferred card that gives me 6% cash back on up to $6k per year on groceries, 6% on streaming, and 3% on gas/transit. Similarly, the Citi custom cash card only allows up to $500 in purchases at 5% cash back before their 1% rate kicks in.

The problem is, my family's annual grocery spending is about $12k, so I'm maxing out the AE card and only getting their 1% rate for the other half of my groceries (actually I should use a 2% card for half my groceries, but let's keep it simple). Your post helped me realize I could optimize by using the AE card for half my grocery purchases and the Citi custom cash card for the other half.

Current return on $12k grocery spending, if all through the AE card:
($6k x 0.06)+($6k x 0.01) - $95 = $325

Return on $12k grocery spending optimized at 6% AE card and 5% Citi card:
($6k x 0.06)+($6k x 0.05) - $95 = $565

So I could save up to $240 per year by alternating these two cards each grocery run. The $200 initial cash back offer on the Citi card increases the value of doing this to $440. The terms to get the reward are fairly generous and doable - $1500 spending over 6 months.

[charis]

This is fine.  But I would never remember which card to use for what with this many cards and a rotating category card.  And you get a lot more points from signing bonuses.  We have a couple of everyday use cards and periodically get new cards for travel hacking.

[Tasse]

Citi Double Cash provided 2% on all spending. That is my default catch all card.

This or Fidelity's 2% card. No reason to settle for 1.5% on anything.

I am not quite as hardcore as you, but I do have the Freedom Flex, Discover, and Custom Cash cards. (Pro tip: if you have a partner with combined finances, two Custom Cash cards will get you an additional 5% category.) I literally have their categories written on them on tape.

ETA: Also, the Freedom Flex gets 3% on dining; you could drop the Capitol One card.

[roomtempmayo]

Citi Double Cash provided 2% on all spending. That is my default catch all card.

This or Fidelity's 2% card. No reason to settle for 1.5% on anything.

We're also a Citi 2% for pretty much everything house.  I think I'm going to cancel our Delta Amex that we used for travel once we burn this year's companion fare.  Then we'll both just have cards on the same account to minimize the logistics.

I can't imagine rolling around with nine credit cards and trying to keep track of what's what.  Seems like a whole lot of management for minimal benefit.

[ChpBstrd]

I can't imagine rolling around with nine credit cards and trying to keep track of what's what.  Seems like a whole lot of management for minimal benefit.

It helps if you want to develop an 825 credit score, like I have with about 10 lines of credit and minimal utilization.

[zolotiyeruki]

Here's ours:
Groceries - Walmart/Capital One - 5% back on online purchases, which includes grocery pickup
Everything else - City Double Cash - 2% back on everything
Occasional: Chase Freedom (where we also have our bank accounts) for rotating categories.

I've thought a lot about getting an Amazon Prime visa, since we seem to buy a lot there and it would give 5% back, plus no foreign transaction fees.

[roomtempmayo]

I can't imagine rolling around with nine credit cards and trying to keep track of what's what.  Seems like a whole lot of management for minimal benefit.

It helps if you want to develop an 825 credit score, like I have with about 10 lines of credit and minimal utilization.

Yes, I guess that's not really one of our priorities since we're not in the market for a mortgage or auto loan.

I think I'd need to see a major benefit to going from about 775 without thinking about it to 825 while managing a bunch of cards. 

I guess it might matter a little bit for car and home insurance, but where else are you seeing benefits, and how big do you estimate they are?

[jnw]

Btw, I have all my cards in Apple Pay wallet. Both of the grocery stores I shop at accept Apple pay so it's easy to use Citi Custom Cash at each. I can easily remember to Citi Custom Cash for groceries only; it's all I use that card for.  So I don't carry the physical Citi Custom Cash card with me.

U.S. Bank Cash+ is easy to remember to use to pay utility bills and internet and it's done from home once per month, with the credit card sitting in the desk.

It's easy to remember to use Shop Your Way card for auto fuel, since it's 5% cashback on fuel year round.  I do have to carry this unless pumps take Apple Pay now I dunno.  I'll have to check.  But I only fuel my car about once every 3 months, so I can just leave the Shop Your Way card in the desk until I need to refuel.

You are right about the rotating category cards etc.. A bit of work to remember, but I haven't had a problem with it.  I usually only carry like 2 or 3 credit cards with me at all times, and leave most of them in the desk.

We very rarely go out dining, and I just have to remember the Capital One Savor Card is for that occasion and take it with me when we do.  We dine at most a handful of times per year.  Really since we dine so little I could just get rid of the Capital One Savor One card.  I could use a 2% cashback card instead.  Eventually I'll replace the BofA Unlimited Cash with a 2% cashback card.

My goal is to get 5% cashback on everything I can, and I'll use as many cards as it takes :)   I get over $200 per year cash back using the U.S. Bank Cash+ card paying for utilities & internet.  To me $200 is worth it.  $200 here, $200 there, etc.. they all add up.  (Some people -- not me -- quit using TP to save $50 per year, so the $200 for one 5% cash back card could buy 4 frugal people toilet paper for a year!)

[jnw]

We have a nasty sales tax here, on groceries even!  Over 8.5%.  Really annoys me, so getting 5% cashback helps me psychologically lol.   Makes the sales tax effectively around 3.5% instead.

[jnw]

This is fine.  But I would never remember which card to use for what with this many cards and a rotating category card.  And you get a lot more points from signing bonuses.  We have a couple of everyday use cards and periodically get new cards for travel hacking.

Citi Custom Cash, U.S Bank Cash+ and Shop Your Way cards are easy to remember what they are used for b/c it never changes -- same thing year round.   But I understand what you are saying with respect to rotating categories.

Regarding sign up bonuses, what do you do when you need to take a break from churning?  i.e. When you get 6 hard inquiries on TransUnion and Experian and/or being at 5/24?    How many credit cards do you churn each year?   When churning, I do prioritize them over other cards, but like to have these 5% cards as backups for when I am not currently churning a card.  (I make most of my cash churning personal checking, business checking, brokerage & savings accounts though, compared to churning CC.)  [I do have a bit to learn about cc churning, and need to probably churn more business credit cards, like now I am at 4/24 and should do a  business credit card next I guess so I don't become 5/24. Thinking Citi Business CC since I only have 4 hard inquiries on Equifax, which Citi seems to solely use in my case.]

[simonsez]

Wells Fargo also has a 2% on everything with $0 annual fee Visa card.  Bonus $200 when you spend $500 in first 3 months.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/wells-fargo-active-cash

[Telecaster]

I think I'd need to see a major benefit to going from about 775 without thinking about it to 825 while managing a bunch of cards. 

I certain it can be done, because I've achieved it.   I do a bit of churning but typically no more than a couple cards open at a time.  I put as many expenses on my cards as I can, but I pay all my bills off every two weeks, so I have a perfect payment history and a history of actively using a lot of credit, but typically low balances at any one time.   I also have a HELOC which I use, but typically has very low balance and lots of available credit. 

[kpd905]

I just end up putting all expenses on the card we are hitting the minimum spend on, for the sign up bonus.  This ends up being 10-30+% back on all spending.  I've done the category thing in the past, but my wife would not want to juggle this many cards for everyday shopping.

[jnw]

I just end up putting all expenses on the card we are hitting the minimum spend on, for the sign up bonus.  This ends up being 10-30+% back on all spending.  I've done the category thing in the past, but my wife would not want to juggle this many cards for everyday shopping.

What's your churning strategy?  With the 5/24 rule this means only 2.5 credit cards per year on average, i.e. if you don't get any business cards?   I am 4/24 now and thinking about getting a business card next to preserve my 4/24 status for another credit card.  I need to churn business cards more.. this is the 2nd one in like 5 years.

[2sk22]

I feel a bit inadequate after reading this - I just use Chase Sapphire Reserve for everything :-)

[kpd905]

I just end up putting all expenses on the card we are hitting the minimum spend on, for the sign up bonus.  This ends up being 10-30+% back on all spending.  I've done the category thing in the past, but my wife would not want to juggle this many cards for everyday shopping.

What's your churning strategy?  With the 5/24 rule this means only 2.5 credit cards per year on average, i.e. if you don't get any business cards?   I am 4/24 now and thinking about getting a business card next to preserve my 4/24 status for another credit card.  I need to churn business cards more.. this is the 2nd one in like 5 years.

Two player mode means 5 cards per year before hitting 5/24, and then business cards to fill in the gaps.  I was over 5/24 for a while so did the following business cards in the last few years: Bank of America business advantage cash rewards, Us Bank triple cash (x 2), Barclays AAviator business (x2), Chase Southwest business card, Chase IHG business, US Bank Altitude Connect business

[jnw]

Thanks for that business card list :) I"ll journal it.

Yeah, if I could do 2 player mode I probably wouldn't even have to bother with 5% cashback cards.

[jnw]

Thought about it a bit more.  Focusing on 5% cashback instead of churning more cards is perhaps more appropriate for my situation.

I can't do 2 player mode, so still stuck with the 2.5 cards per year (on average), if I don't churn business cards.

It's hard for me to churn a business card because the spend requirements are really high at like $6000 in 3 months. I simply don't spend that much.  Pretty frugal here. Groceries are like $350 per month.  Utilities are around $300.   We never really eat out or spend on entertainment.  I spend about $80 every 3 months for auto fuel. Auto insurance is $30 per month, etc..

Even if I could do two player mode on credit cards, we just simply spend much at all.

Credit cards with the $200 sign up bonuses for small spend requirements suit me fine.  The rest is made up using as many 5%+ cards as possible for everything.

Though I am keeping my eye on Chase Sapphire Preferred.. It's been 5 years since I had that card and once it is available again for $800 bonus, I am gonna go for it.  (Then downgrade it to Chase Freedom Flex the following year to avoid annual fee.)  I'll go for any card that offers $700+ for $4000 spend in 3 months :)  Are there any others besides the Chase Sapphire Preferred?  I suppose once I have all the 5% cash back cards I'd need, I'll just focus on these super high sign up bonus offers, if there are enough cards which offer it.

EDIT: I need to watch out for new bank accounts I open to see if they can be funded by a credit card; that will help with spend requirements on perhaps a business credit card.

EDIT #2: Would be nice to have two or three Citi Custom Cash cards if its still possible.  So many great 5% categories.

[Tasse]

You can also go over 5/24 if you aren't targeting any Chase cards. Plenty of other issuers will still approve you.

[jnw]

You can also go over 5/24 if you aren't targeting any Chase cards. Plenty of other issuers will still approve you.

Thanks for this!

I know Capitol One won't as well. I was 5/24 and I tried to prequalify (no hard inquiry) and they denied me both times;  I then tried to prequalify 1 week after I was 4/24 and got it immediately.  So I guess they use 5/24 as well.

I am not sure about Citi but in the past I have been denied there several times.   At least Citi solely uses Equifax to help balance out the hard inquiries.

[kpd905]

@jnw A business card that fits your spend is the US Bank Triple Cash, which pays $500 after $4500 spend in 150 days: https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-credit-cards/business-triple-cash-back-credit-card.html

I may actually try opening it again, DoC has data points of people churning it.

[sonofsven]

@jnw A business card that fits your spend is the US Bank Triple Cash, which pays $500 after $4500 spend in 150 days: https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-credit-cards/business-triple-cash-back-credit-card.html

I may actually try opening it again, DoC has data points of people churning it.

I'm on my second triple cash, I'll post if I get the bonus again.

[kpd905]

I'm on my second triple cash, I'll post if I get the bonus again.

Did you apply with SSN or EIN?  First and 2nd time?

[frugalor]

I have a similar set up as OP.  I have Citi Costco card for 4% on gas from Costco.  And I get 2.625% back on BoA Unlimited cashback card since my IRA is with Merrilledge.

And besides credit cards, there are apps like swagbucks, shopkick etc you can get cashback on shopping.

[jnw]

I have a similar set up as OP.  I have Citi Costco card for 4% on gas from Costco.  And I get 2.625% back on BoA Unlimited cashback card since my IRA is with Merrilledge.

And besides credit cards, there are apps like swagbucks, shopkick etc you can get cashback on shopping.

Since I am on SSDI, I can't contribute to IRA but do the standard personal brokerage accounts work well with Merrilledge / Bank of America to get the 2.625% cashback?   It will be probably about 5 years before I can get $100k into VTI (or the like) ETF in a standard brokerage account -- I first want to get about $75k reserved for emergency/churning fund (money market, SGOV, churned bank/brokerage accounts, etc..) and I also want to pay off my $40k or so mortgage balance; I figure I can put $75k or so to good use by churning it getting 15% APR on average perhaps.   But in 5 years or so it'd be nice to get 2.625% cashback on that Unlimited card.   But only if the brokerage/etf fees aren't anymore than what Vanguard charges for VTI.  Otherwise it wouldn't really matter if I got 2.625% cashback over 1.5%.   The expense ratios have to be the same or better on the ETFs.. VTI, ITOT etc. and no other fees whatsoever.   Also, does BofA still charge the $3 ACH transfer out fee with BofA Preferred Rewards program? -- I recently churned a BofA checking account and had to make sure I only ACH pulled from it to avoid the $3 per ACH push fee (ridiculous fee if you ask me).

EDIT: If I recall correctly, $100k in investments at Merrill is the threshhold needed for the 2.625% cashback.

[jnw]

@jnw A business card that fits your spend is the US Bank Triple Cash, which pays $500 after $4500 spend in 150 days: https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-credit-cards/business-triple-cash-back-credit-card.html

I may actually try opening it again, DoC has data points of people churning it.

Thanks for this.  12% cashback, not bad!   Oh wow, I also just found out it is 0% APR for 15 months on purchases.  If I recall correctly, the balances on business credit cards don't get factored into revolving credit utilization score on personal credit report.   So this is very nice.  An interest free $4500 loan for 15 months :)   I can make that $4500 work to get me about 10-15% cash back on it as well, via churning.

[sonofsven]

I'm on my second triple cash, I'll post if I get the bonus again.

Did you apply with SSN or EIN?  First and 2nd time?

I don't remember every detail of the application, I apply for quite a few cards.
Generally I apply with a SS, but if there's a place for an EIN I use that, too.
I didn't do anything to try to spoof them.

[sonofsven]

@jnw A business card that fits your spend is the US Bank Triple Cash, which pays $500 after $4500 spend in 150 days: https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-credit-cards/business-triple-cash-back-credit-card.html

I may actually try opening it again, DoC has data points of people churning it.

Thanks for this.  12% cashback, not bad!   Oh wow, I also just found out it is 0% APR for 15 months on purchases.  If I recall correctly, the balances on business credit cards don't get factored into revolving credit utilization score on personal credit report.   So this is very nice.  An interest free $4500 loan for 15 months :)   I can make that $4500 work to get me about 15% cash back on it as well.

Just a data point: I wasn't offered a 0% for 15 months option on my second triple cash card.

[Saving in Austin]

I use AMEX and Capital One 2% cards as default.

I use Discover's 5% rotating quarterly calendar card (currently Amazon/Target) 3rd quarter was gas.

I use AMEX Blue Cash for 6% back on groceries/3% back on gas.

I am about to apply for 2 Chase Southwest credit cards - business card in October, then personal card in November - let the bonuses hit in January for 23 more months of Companion Pass.

[GilesMM]

I just end up putting all expenses on the card we are hitting the minimum spend on, for the sign up bonus.  This ends up being 10-30+% back on all spending.  I've done the category thing in the past, but my wife would not want to juggle this many cards for everyday shopping.

How can I get 30% cash back? I could use the money!

[jnw]

I just end up putting all expenses on the card we are hitting the minimum spend on, for the sign up bonus.  This ends up being 10-30+% back on all spending.  I've done the category thing in the past, but my wife would not want to juggle this many cards for everyday shopping.

How can I get 30% cash back? I could use the money!

Well, e.g., the $200 sign up bonus for $500 spend -- which many cards offer -- is 40% cash back.

[chaskavitch]

I use AMEX and Capital One 2% cards as default.

I use Discover's 5% rotating quarterly calendar card (currently Amazon/Target) 3rd quarter was gas.

I use AMEX Blue Cash for 6% back on groceries/3% back on gas.

Discover It matches all your cashback after the first year, so it's really 10% back on all of those categories, 2% back on all other purchases. 

You can have two open Discover cards at the same time, and you can apply for a new one of the same card once a year - I just get a new one every year to max out the 10% cash back.  Cancel card #1 after the cash back match hits at the end of the first 12 months, use card #2 for a year, apply for card #3 exactly 1 year after card #2 was issued, rinse and repeat. 

I get a referral bonus from my sister, who also has a Discover It card, and I end up with $700-$900 a year in cash back just from that one card.  I don't even use much of the Q2/Q3 categories (gas, restaurants, wholesale clubs, digital wallets), so that's mainly cash back from groceries in Q1 and Amazon.com/Target in Q4.

I also use the Amex Blue Cash for 6% back on groceries.  It's nice that Discover has a groceries category, we usually run out of rewards space ($6k of purchases at grocery stores/year) on the Amex card with about 9 months of purchases, so it covers that gap.

[kpd905]

@GilesMM I was referring to the cards that @jnw mentioned, spend $500 and get $200 back.  Chase Freedom is probably the most popular, but I know Bank of America always has one.  I'm sure there are many more.

They aren't that useful unless you don't mind blowing past 5/24.

Surprisingly, my best % back may be the Barclays Wyndham card that I opened recently.  It gave 75,000 Wyndham points for only $1000 spend.  I redeemed 60,000 of those points for 4 nights in a 1 bedroom cabin outside Rocky Mountain National Park, booked through Vacasa (similar to Airbnb or VRBO).  This would have been $1100 cash, so I am at over 100% return on this card and still have points for one more night somewhere.

[jnw]

You can have two open Discover cards at the same time, and you can apply for a new one of the same card once a year - I just get a new one every year to max out the 10% cash back.  Cancel card #1 after the cash back match hits at the end of the first 12 months, use card #2 for a year, apply for card #3 exactly 1 year after card #2 was issued, rinse and repeat. 

I get a referral bonus from my sister, who also has a Discover It card, and I end up with $700-$900 a year in cash back just from that one card.  I don't even use much of the Q2/Q3 categories (gas, restaurants, wholesale clubs, digital wallets), so that's mainly cash back from groceries in Q1 and Amazon.com/Target in Q4.

Thanks for sharing this; didn't know you could get the card so often. Going to journal it now :)

Regarding grocery card, the Citi Custom Cash is hard to beat 5% cash back no annual fee :)  I spend about $200 per month at "grocery stores" and $200 per month at Walmart/Sam's for groceries.   So the Amex annual fee would kill me lol.   You can get multiple Citi Custom Cash cards as well I heard.. like one for groceries, one for say dining and another for say home improvement :)

EDIT: Btw I really made use of Q2 this year with Discover.  I spent the full $1500 at Sam's club for a few Sam's Club gift cards.  The gift cards can be used in Sam's Club, for auto fuel at Sam's Club gas station, as well as for Walmart.  If Discover It ever has a Walmart quarter again, I'll probably buy $1500 in Walmart gift cards as they can be used both at Sams and Walmart.  I only buy half my groceries at Aldi and my local discount grocer, for the other half Sams/Walmart has better deals; I have a price book and shop at about 5 different grocery stores each month.

EDIT #2: Auto fuel at Sam's club is already like a 10% discount compared to local competition.  Then I get 10% more discount since I bought the Sam's Club gift card with my Discover It in Q2.  20% overall discount compared to local competition .. very happy.

[bacchi]

@jnw A business card that fits your spend is the US Bank Triple Cash, which pays $500 after $4500 spend in 150 days: https://www.usbank.com/business-banking/business-credit-cards/business-triple-cash-back-credit-card.html

I may actually try opening it again, DoC has data points of people churning it.

I'm on my second triple cash, I'll post if I get the bonus again.

As a data point, I accidentally opened a second triple cash card within a week of the first and both gave me the bonus.

I did use an EIN for both.

Surprisingly, my best % back may be the Barclays Wyndham card that I opened recently.  It gave 75,000 Wyndham points for only $1000 spend.  I redeemed 60,000 of those points for 4 nights in a 1 bedroom cabin outside Rocky Mountain National Park, booked through Vacasa (similar to Airbnb or VRBO).  This would have been $1100 cash, so I am at over 100% return on this card and still have points for one more night somewhere.

I applied for that card but Barclays hates me. I did just get the Choice card and I'll probably use my points for road trip hotels while P2 uses their points for a few nights at a "Preferred" partner hotel.

[jnw]

So, I just noticed Doctor of Credit posted a new checking account bonus recently for a state that I live in.  $400 checking bonus.  The requirements are really easy, just a small deposit (non DD), along with several debit card transactions.

But one awesome thing you can do with this checking account is fund it with $3000 from a credit card.  There have been data points that people have funded this checking account with Chase Sapphire Preferred and it flagged as a purchase.

So, since I am 4/24 and hard inquires are (5,3,5), and want to churn a business card next, I am now thinking of going with the Chase Ink Business Credit Card afterall.   I ruled it out a couple replies back to this thread b/c of the $6,000 spend requirement.  But if I can fund $3000 to this checking account with it, like the person did with CSR, then it would be really easy to churn this Chase business card for a $900 sign up bonus!  I also have property taxes of around $1000 due in december, so really I only need to spend another $2000 total in 90 days which I can totally do.

What do you think should I go for it?   A glorius combo deal that will get me $1300 with very little effort!  And since the first 12 months are 0% APR for purchases on this chase business credit card, it's a nice interest free loan which doesn't affect my personal revolving credit utilization.   I can hold until the $6000 cash for a good 11 months :)  Invest it churning other stuff or even just the federal money market or SGOV.  Making it more like a $1600 deal overall including interest from money market.

This would the holy grail of combo churns for me haha. 

[bacchi]

What do you think should I go for it?

As long as you're sure that it'll code as a purchase instead of a cash advance, I'd go for it.

[sonofsven]

So, I just noticed Doctor of Credit posted a new checking account bonus recently for a state that I live in.  $400 checking bonus.  The requirements are really easy, just a small deposit (non DD), along with several debit card transactions.

But one awesome thing you can do with this checking account is fund it with $3000 from a credit card.  There have been data points that people have funded this checking account with Chase Sapphire Preferred and it flagged as a purchase.

So, since I am 4/24 and hard inquires are (5,3,5), and want to churn a business card next, I am now thinking of going with the Chase Ink Business Credit Card afterall.   I ruled it out a couple replies back to this thread b/c of the $6,000 spend requirement.  But if I can fund this checking account with it, like the person did with CSR, then it would be really easy to churn this Chase business card for a $900 sign up bonus!  I also have property taxes of around $1000 due in december, so really I only need to spend another $2000 total in 90 days which I can totally do.

What do you think should I go for it?   A glorius combo deal that will get me $1300 with very little effort!  And since the first 12 months are 0% APR for purchases on this chase business credit card, it's a nice interest free loan which doesn't affect my personal revolving credit utilization.   I can hold until the $6000 cash for a good 11 months :)  Invest it churning other stuff or even just the federal money market or SGOV.  Making it more like a $1600 deal overall including interest from money market.

This would the holy grail of combo churns for me haha.

It sounds good. I've never done the "fund with cc" option, but I believe people set the cash advance limit on the card in question to zero, just in case.

[jnw]

What do you think should I go for it?

As long as you're sure that it'll code as a purchase instead of a cash advance, I'd go for it.

Can chase business credit cards be setup to set the Allowed Cash Advance amount to $0 ?  I did on my discover it card before funding another checking account $500 with it.

[kpd905]

Sounds like a good plan if you can drop the cash advance limit.  Some Googling suggests that Chase might let you drop it down to $100, but might not let it go to zero.

It might be useful to have a plan B for spending just in case the account funding doesn't code as a purchase.

[jnw]

Sounds like a good plan if you can drop the cash advance limit.  Some Googling suggests that Chase might let you drop it down to $100, but might not let it go to zero.

It might be useful to have a plan B for spending just in case the account funding doesn't code as a purchase.

I guess I should go with the Staples version of the ink card.. for 5% back there, in case I need to buy a bunch of visa gift cards to meet spend requirement?

[kpd905]

The Ink Cash, yeah that seems like a good backup plan.

[jnw]

Wow if this deal goes through, again it'd be minimum of $1600 with that $6000 invested in federal money market/SGOV.   But to be honest, I think I can get 10% APR back on that cash using it to churn savings accounts etc.. b/c right now I don't have enough cash for the $15k to $25k account churns.   So this combo deal really starts to approach $2000 :)

EDIT: Now I see what your saying about just churning credit cards instead of using them for 5% cashback.  $2,000 is a nice deal.  But it still nice to have these 5% cards to fallback on at those times where I can't churn anything for some reason.

EDIT #2:  Side note: The discover it cashback card further proves to be a nice card.  I got %40 cashback on $124 order today on Amazon by using 1 discover rewards point on the order -- a promotion Amazon is doing.  Then since Q4 is Amazon.com I got another 10% cashback.. so I got $135 of stuff (with taxes) around half off at around $71 total after all promotions and rebates.  Some stuff I bought: 32 rolls of 1000 sheet scott TP for 50 cents per roll instead of a dollar; 2 x 16gb SODIMM RAM for $30 -- $15 per module.  Kasa smart light switch for like $6.50.  2 x kasa smart plugs for around $3.50 each.  (All stuff I have needed and have been putting off the purchases.)
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amazon-get-30-off-150-on-amazon-when-using-1-discover-point/

[RetireOrDieTrying]

So I suppose this thread motivated me to evaluate the options based upon my typical spending. I already have the Discover It card and two Citi (all over 20 years old). Tonight I got the Blue Cash Preferred - my first new credit card in over two decades - and that's gonna be my go-to for groceries (6%) and fuel (3%), except on the quarters where Discover is running a special on fuel (5%).

Good discussion - thank y'all.

[jnw]

So I suppose this thread motivated me to evaluate the options based upon my typical spending. I already have the Discover It card and two Citi (all over 20 years old). Tonight I got the Blue Cash Preferred - my first new credit card in over two decades - and that's gonna be my go-to for groceries (6%) and fuel (3%), except on the quarters where Discover is running a special on fuel (5%).

Good discussion - thank y'all.

You can get the Citi Shop Your Way card next for the 5% year-round cash back on auto fuel :)   They also have some incredible monthly promotions -- which they email to you -- where you can get like 5 to 20+% cashback -- and no not the tacky overpriced niche department store deals either.. just regular purchases.

[jnw]

Sounds like a good plan if you can drop the cash advance limit.  Some Googling suggests that Chase might let you drop it down to $100, but might not let it go to zero.

It might be useful to have a plan B for spending just in case the account funding doesn't code as a purchase.

I've confirmed, via a couple reputable people, that the Chase Ink business credit cards work well for funding bank accounts and codes as a purchase. So this is good.

I am actually (6,4,6) on the hard inquiries until Oct 25, then I'll be (5,3,5).  Got an email from Chase today with an ad for chase ink business credit card for the $900 sign up bonus, and said I needed to sign up by Oct 8.  So I don't know if this $900 cash back deal expires then.   Anyone know if chase is sensitive to 6 hard inquiries on credit reports?   Again I am 4/24.  Should I go for it, with 6 hard inquiries, or just wait and settle for the $750 sign up bonus later?  The local, in state,  bank account deal for $400 sign up bonus, which allows one to fund $3000 with credit card expires at the end of the year -- so I have time with respect to that deal.

[jnw]

Applied for the Chase Ink Business Cash with 4/24 and (6,4,6) hard inquiries and the application was immediately accepted.

So I am gonna do this deal :)  Spend $6000 for $900 sign up bonus.   Hopefully I can fund the bank checking account with it -- $3000.  (A friendly acquaintance of mine also mentioned another bank I can use which allows one to fund up to $4000 on credit card.)

It has some pretty nice 5% categories as well: Office Supplies, Internet, Phone, Cable.  I could use to buy Visa cards at Staples when they have sales.  Also for my internet and phone; don't have cable.   Then instead of using US Bank Cash+ for Utils + Internet, I could instead get 5% cashback on both Utils and say Electronic Stores (best buy etc).

So here's my updated strategy image file:

[jnw]

The problem is, my family's annual grocery spending is about $12k

Have you optimized your grocery spending as much as possible?  Like I shop at a few different stores and buy stuff in bulk. I have a chest freezer for meats and try to buy a lot when there is an extremely good sale.  I keep a price book in a spreadsheet which I also use as a grocery checklist.   I make everything I can from scratch, b/c processed foods can be twice the cost or more.. sometimes 4 times more.

Just out of curiosity how many are in your family?  Just the two of us here and we are averaging about $400 per month.  We also eat a low carb diet so food costs a bit more since protein is more expensive than grains.

Would be great if you could say get it down to $800 per month :) [We were at $600 per month but with some careful tracking of spending we cut it down to around $400 about 9 months ago.]