The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: Fireman on January 08, 2014, 05:35:42 PM
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I'd like to aggregate all the credit cards and rewards into one thread. For instance, if you find a good sign on bonus or rewards percentage, post it here, preferably with a link.
I just signed up for two new cards:
The Chase Freedom Signature had a $200 on $500 sign on bonus (now $100 on $500) with 5% cash back on rotating categories and 1% on everything else.
https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-cards/chase-freedom.aspx?fcsplit=1&iCELL=63KC&inkcashsplit=1&inkplussplit=2
The Discover IT card has a $150 on $750 sign on bonus and also has 5% cash back on rotating categories and 1% on everything else.
https://www.discovercard.com/cardmembersvcs/acqs/app/display?&pageFileId=listingsite&sc=KCV3&iq_id=a220088FOF518809696&pid=1032499&cmpgnid=ls-dca-flex-kcv3
Also, check out this thread about the difference between the Discover Card and the Discover IT card. I found this out after a quick call to discover.
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/discover-card-versus-discover-it/
I also intend to pick up the AMEX Blue Cash (or Blue Cash Preferred if I can justify the annual fee), the Capital One Quicksilver, and the Bank of America Cash Rewards Card.
https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/blue-cash-everyday
http://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/quicksilver-cash-rewards/
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/overview.go
What good cards have you found?
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BoA is doing a $100 credit for $500 on the Cash Rewards VISA https://consumer.bankofamerica.com/USCCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=VAB2E9 - that's 2% cashback on groceries, 3% on gas!
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In Canada, I just signed up for those two cards:
Amex Aeroplan Plus Gold Card
Annual Fee: first year’s annual fee is waived – a value of $120. Supplementary Cards: 2 free AeroplanPlus Gold Cards. $50 annually for additional AeroplanPlus Gold Cards
Earn 20,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles after you spend $500 in your first three months of Card membership
Earn 1 Aeroplan Mile for every $1 in Card purchases up to $10,000
Accelerate your earn rate to 1.25 Aeroplan Miles for every additional $1 in Card purchases over $10,000 annually
Earn Aeroplan Miles faster with two free Supplementary Cards – a $100 value ($50 for each additional Supplementary Cards)
You’ll also earn additional miles at Aeroplan Partners when you also provide your Aeroplan Number or present your Aeroplan
https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/en/content/aeroplan-gold-card/
TD Aeroplan Infinite Visa Card
Annual Fee: Annual $120 - Authorized Users $50
A Welcome Bonus of 15,000 Aeroplan Miles upon first purchase and for a limited time, a 2-for-1 flight reward
To earn 1.5 miles for every $1 you spend on gas, grocery and drug store purchases using your Card
To earn 1 mile for every $1 you spend on all other purchases using your Card
To earn miles twice when you pay with your TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and present your Aeroplan Membership Card at Aeroplan partner brands and online retailers through Aeroplan's eStore.
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/products-services/banking/credit-cards/view-all-cards/aeroplan-infinite-card.jsp
I hate to pay the annual fee for the TD card, but considering the welcome bonus and the 2-for-1 flight reward, it makes financial sense for me.
Also considering that I already have the CIBC Aerogold card with an annual fee of $120 which I use for everything from buying groceries to paying every single bill, and also because it is accepted in more places than the Amex, I plan to cancel the latter before its renewal is due.
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I got sick of the 1% cash back I've been getting with my current card, I've decided to give this bonus reward churning a try. The first card I signed up for is the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card (http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc/thankyou/Preferred/2013/Oct/external/default.htm?). I should be able to earn the 30,000 bonus points easily, with putting all my bills/spending on my card. After that it's the same old 1% on most things (although it has 2% dining/entertainment, those aren't categories I spend a lot of money on), so I'll be looking for a new bonus/rewards card then.
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What I plan to do in order to meet the spending thresholds (which, in light of my mustachian spending habits, would be difficult to do through my regular spending) is buy gift cards to stores where I will eventually be spending the money in any event (in my case, Costco and Amazon). It may take me many months (or even years) to use up the gift cards, but I think it's worth it to earn these generous rewards (which vastly outweigh the opportunity costs of tying up the funds in gift cards). Just make sure the gift cards do not expire, and keep them in a safe place (in the case of physical cards).
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What I plan to do in order to meet the spending thresholds (which, in light of my mustachian spending habits, would be difficult to do through my regular spending) is buy gift cards to stores where I will eventually be spending the money in any event (in my case, Costco and Amazon). It may take me many months (or even years) to use up the gift cards, but I think it's worth it to earn these generous rewards (which vastly outweigh the opportunity costs of tying up the funds in gift cards). Just make sure the gift cards do not expire, and keep them in a safe place (in the case of physical cards).
That's a good call. Also, off topic, but keep your eyes open for discounted gift cards for shops you do use.. I was lucky enough to get three Canadian Tire gift cards at 20% off, and a Shell card at ~50% discount. Not huge amounts, but for stuff I was already going to buy (petrol!) pretty damn good!
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Buying gift cards to meet the spending thresholds can be a good idea up to a point. I wouldn't do it if I didn't plan to use the gift cards within a few months, though. Say you get $100 cash back after buying $500 of gift cards. That's a 20% discount, which is nice. If the stock market goes up 30% between now and when you finally finish using the gift cards, it might not have been such a great deal after all.
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That's a valid point, and I guess I shouldn't be so cavalier about assuming the rewards will "vastly outweigh the opportunity costs" of tying up the funds. But given the magnitude of dollars at play (hundreds or low thousands, not tens of thousands), I would rather lock in the 20% reward now than miss out on it and hope for a better return in the stock market over the next year or so.
And the point about keeping an eye out for discounted gift cards to places you will be spending money anyway is a good one. For people with Amex cards, Amex's "My Offers" is a good source for that. They regularly offer statement credits for spending specified amounts in particular stores, which you can do by purchasing gift cards. One recent Amex offer in my area was for a supermarket I don't normally shop at, but I bought some gas station gift cards for an effective 33% discount.
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Take a look at Nerdwallet to find the best deals on cards. I switch all of my spending over to the newest card until I hit the spending minimum, then move to the next. My top few for the past year:
Sapphire Preferred, 50,000 point bonus (plus 20% more if you use their site to book travel). Has a fee that's waived the first year; I called before the year was up and changed it to a regular Sapphire account (no fee).
Amex Delta Gold, 45,000 miles (fee waived first year). I may kill this one at the end of the year; it doesn't have any significant anniversary bonus that tempts me.
Chase Marriott: 50,000 points (I think..already used 'em all), fee waived first year, free night's stay each year so I'll keep this one even with the fee. It's also a chip card with no foreign transaction fees (I travel internationally, so this makes it worth keeping also).
Amex Hilton: 50k points, no fee. Keeper.
Chase IHG: 60k points for $1k spend, fee waived first year. I have used this card for exactly two transactions and will kill it at the end of the year, but that was a nice bonus!
Just signed up for Citi American Airlines, 30k miles bonus, plus another 10k if you spend $5k within a year. Fee waived first year. Don't know if I'll bother to try and hit the $5k mark; I may just hit the low hanging fruit and move on.
Many of these were targeted bonuses (the generally advertised one is less). If you have excellent credit, Google a bit and you can usually find a targeted offer for more.
Edited to add: forgot the Citi Simplicity card, which gave me 21 months at 0% APR. That's where my house renovation costs are being parked right now.
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Just signed up for Citi American Airlines, 30k miles bonus, plus another 10k if you spend $5k within a year. Fee waived first year. Don't know if I'll bother to try and hit the $5k mark; I may just hit the low hanging fruit and move on.
Which AA card is this? There are 50k offers on Flyertalk. I haven't heard of one with the 10k bonus though.
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Many of these were targeted bonuses (the generally advertised one is less). If you have excellent credit, Google a bit and you can usually find a targeted offer for more.
What do you mean by targeted bonuses? Can you explain a bit further...?
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Which AA card is this? There are 50k offers on Flyertalk. I haven't heard of one with the 10k bonus though.
Citi American Airlines Mastercard. The 50k would be better; I didn't actually search around much for that one, maybe I should have.
What do you mean by targeted bonuses? Can you explain a bit further...?
Just like it sounds; the issuing bank will have a generally publicized offer (say, for 20,000 bonus points) but they'll offer more for established customers with good credit, or those who use an "affiliate" link to sign up (such as MMM has on this site).
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For current CIBC Aerogold customers: I just called to inquire about any point offers to keep current customers, and there are none. I told the agent I would like to cancel my card, and she replied that CIBC will waive my $120-annual fee for this year. She also said I could also apply for another CIBC Aerogold card (which comes with no fee for the first year and a welcome bonus of 15,000 Aeroplan miles, enough for a short-haul ticket which I currently need to buy every few weeks to go to work), or their new CIBC Aventura card, which offers a welcome bonus of 15,000 Aventura points (enough for one short-haul ticket as well) after the first purchase, and no fee for the first year.
If I apply for a second Aerogold card, and a new Aventura, this will mean two almost free tickets (minus some airport fees and taxes) that I will not have to pay, or about $900 in my pocket.
Aerogold: https://www.cibc.com/ca/visa/aerogold-visa-infinite-card.html#aerogoldVisaInfinite
Aventura: https://www.cibc.com/ca/visa/aventura-visa-infinite-card.html
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What do you mean by targeted bonuses? Can you explain a bit further...?
Just like it sounds; the issuing bank will have a generally publicized offer (say, for 20,000 bonus points) but they'll offer more for established customers with good credit, or those who use an "affiliate" link to sign up (such as MMM has on this site).
Thanks!
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We use four cards for all our purchases, all of which have no annual fees
Amazon Visa - 3% back on Amazon purchases (although only as credit)
American Express Everyday - 3% on groceries and department stores
American Express Costco - 3% on gas and restaurants
Capital One Quicksilver - 1.5% on everything
Those seem to cover all our bases.
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Take a look at Nerdwallet to find the best deals on cards. I switch all of my spending over to the newest card until I hit the spending minimum, then move to the next. My top few for the past year:
Sapphire Preferred, 50,000 point bonus (plus 20% more if you use their site to book travel). Has a fee that's waived the first year; I called before the year was up and changed it to a regular Sapphire account (no fee).
Amex Delta Gold, 45,000 miles (fee waived first year). I may kill this one at the end of the year; it doesn't have any significant anniversary bonus that tempts me.
Chase Marriott: 50,000 points (I think..already used 'em all), fee waived first year, free night's stay each year so I'll keep this one even with the fee. It's also a chip card with no foreign transaction fees (I travel internationally, so this makes it worth keeping also).
Amex Hilton: 50k points, no fee. Keeper.
Chase IHG: 60k points for $1k spend, fee waived first year. I have used this card for exactly two transactions and will kill it at the end of the year, but that was a nice bonus!
Just signed up for Citi American Airlines, 30k miles bonus, plus another 10k if you spend $5k within a year. Fee waived first year. Don't know if I'll bother to try and hit the $5k mark; I may just hit the low hanging fruit and move on.
Many of these were targeted bonuses (the generally advertised one is less). If you have excellent credit, Google a bit and you can usually find a targeted offer for more.
Edited to add: forgot the Citi Simplicity card, which gave me 21 months at 0% APR. That's where my house renovation costs are being parked right now.
Warning: Nerdwallet does not show the BEST credit card offers.
Chase IHG: 60k points for $1k spend, fee waived first year. I have used this card for exactly two transactions and will kill it at the end of the year, but that was a nice bonus!
There is a better 80k offer.
Just signed up for Citi American Airlines, 30k miles bonus, plus another 10k if you spend $5k within a year. Fee waived first year. Don't know if I'll bother to try and hit the $5k mark; I may just hit the low hanging fruit and move on.
There is a better 50k offer.
Chase Marriott: 50,000 points (I think..already used 'em all), fee waived first year, free night's stay each year so I'll keep this one even with the fee. It's also a chip card with no foreign transaction fees (I travel internationally, so this makes it worth keeping also).
There is a better 70k offer.
[Compared from here: http://www.welltraveledmile.com/whats-in-my-wallet/]
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That's a valid point, and I guess I shouldn't be so cavalier about assuming the rewards will "vastly outweigh the opportunity costs" of tying up the funds. But given the magnitude of dollars at play (hundreds or low thousands, not tens of thousands), I would rather lock in the 20% reward now than miss out on it and hope for a better return in the stock market over the next year or so.
And the point about keeping an eye out for discounted gift cards to places you will be spending money anyway is a good one. For people with Amex cards, Amex's "My Offers" is a good source for that. They regularly offer statement credits for spending specified amounts in particular stores, which you can do by purchasing gift cards. One recent Amex offer in my area was for a supermarket I don't normally shop at, but I bought some gas station gift cards for an effective 33% discount.
Just did something similar. Have one cc offering 5% cash back on drug store purchases, up to $1500 spending. I have some travel coming up that I need to pay for, so I bought 3 visa vanilla gift cards for $500 each (that was the limit per card). Even after the $4.95 purchase fee per card, I made an easy $60 for maybe 10 minutes of my time.
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I recently got the Discover IT with $150 back on the first $750 in three months. However, i'm having a hard time finding anything to buy. Groceries are mostly on the Target card, gas is on Chase until the end of March, and the only bills I can pay with a card are pretty small ones. My apartment complex does allow me to pay rent with a card but they charge a $19.99 fee. The way I see it though, if I make a one time rent charge, i'll easily cross the $750 threshold and get $150 back. Plus, i'll get 1% cash back on the actual purchase. So despite the charge, i'll still be up about $140.
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I recently got the Discover IT with $150 back on the first $750 in three months. However, i'm having a hard time finding anything to buy. Groceries are mostly on the Target card, gas is on Chase until the end of March, and the only bills I can pay with a card are pretty small ones. My apartment complex does allow me to pay rent with a card but they charge a $19.99 fee. The way I see it though, if I make a one time rent charge, i'll easily cross the $750 threshold and get $150 back. Plus, i'll get 1% cash back on the actual purchase. So despite the charge, i'll still be up about $140.
I'd look into setting up an Amazon Payments account. Send someone $750, have them cut you a check. Done.
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I've read a few things about Amazon Payments but i'm still...apprehensive about trying it. I also thought there were fees now.
Edit: I guess my ways has fees too. Heh.
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I've been doing it every month for a year, there are no fees as long as it is under $1000.
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So I just tried to sign up for Amazon Payments and they were unable to verify my account. After talking to customer service, they'll have someone verify blah blah blah. Should hear back in 2-3 days.
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Question: Looking on the BoA site, it says something like 'cashback may be taxable, form 1099 may be issued, BoA don't give tax advice' - do you declare/get taxed on cashback and/or cash bonuses..? What about non-cash rewards (gift cards? flights?)??
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Wasn't aware of that and have never received a 1099 for cash rewards on Discover or Navy Fed.
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Everything I've read has said the IRS considers credit card cash back to be a "discount" and thus not income that is subject to tax.
The corollary to this is that if you put deductible expenses on a rewards card, you should report the deduction after accounting for the value of any points you earned on that purchase, not before.
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How do those of you who are retired get new credit cards? At this point, we don't have any income to speak of, but we have money (cash, stocks outside of retirement, and of course retirement funds which we aren't touching now).
A couple years ago I was turned down for a credit card because I, personally, didn't have income and they wouldn't take my husband's income into consideration. From what I understand, the laws have changed and now household income is okay. But at this point in time, we don't have any w-2 coming in (just dividends). There are some tempting offers out there...
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Everything I've read has said the IRS considers credit card cash back to be a "discount" and thus not income that is subject to tax.
This is correct. I think any bonuses that you get for signing up for checking accounts are actually taxable though.
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Everything I've read has said the IRS considers credit card cash back to be a "discount" and thus not income that is subject to tax.
This is correct. I think any bonuses that you get for signing up for checking accounts are actually taxable though.
Hmm, but 'get $150 back when you spend $750' would NOT be taxable..? Cripes.
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For those of us in Canada, this link tells us what the Canada Revenue Agency is saying about loyalty points and other rewards programmes earned through employement:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/lylty/menu-eng.html
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According to Bankrate.com, the difference lies in weather it is a rebate or an award. If you had to make a purchase to receive the money, it's considered a rebate and is not taxable. If you got it with no financial outlay, then it is an award and taxable.
Getting $150 cash back on $750 in purchases is a rebate, no taxes!
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/credit-card-rewards-count-taxable-income.aspx
Edit: edit.
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For those of us in Canada, this link tells us what the Canada Revenue Agency is saying about loyalty points and other rewards programmes earned through employement:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/lylty/menu-eng.html
Interesting - so if I had a job (thankfully, I don't, ha ha), and I used my own credit card - a cash back card - the cashback would be taxable.
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Accidentally found another good card. There's a lengthy side thread about Disneyland and Disney resorts in the Overheard on Facebook thread.
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/overheard-on-facebook/msg203375/#msg203375
I've never been to any Disney park so I went to their website to check it out and stumbled onto this gem. $100 statement credit on your first purchase, "2% in reward dollars on card purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and most Disney locations [and] 1% on all your other card purchases." There's a no annual fee version but the rewards are reduced and the statement credit is only $50. The way I see it, you actually lose a dollar by picking the no annual fee card.
https://secure-disneyland.disney.go.com/disney-visa-card/dlr/incentive/?trackcode=JLQ&int_cmp=DLR_Homepage_DVIC_Save40Tile&appRedirect=http%3A%2F%2Fdisneyland.disney.go.com%2F
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I only see an option for a $50 Disney gift card (not a statement credit) for the no annual fee version. Do you have a direct link to the offer for the statement credit on the no annual fee card? Thanks.
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I tried the link above and it worked both times. I googled 'Disney Card' and found the one you were referring to, with the gift cards.
Try googling 'disney statement credit' and go to the first non-ad link. This is what I got:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsecure-disneyland.disney.go.com%2Fdisney-visa-card%2Fdlr%2Fincentive%2F&ei=d3DpUt-2LMjWkQekoICgDA&usg=AFQjCNF7rtWDQRNMwdtxoxousfyEgD4iDw&sig2=gXbV-PuTsmhqQlr_r4d2fQ&bvm=bv.60157871,d.eW0
and that took me to it as well.
Good luck!
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Should add the Barclay Arrival card- $400 bonus for spending $1000 in 90 days, ($444.44 if you redeem it against travel expenses on the card).
2.22% back on every purchase (when redeemed against travel). Really a great card even to hold on to. $89 annual fee is waived the first year.
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Should add the Barclay Arrival card- $400 bonus for spending $1000 in 90 days, ($444.44 if you redeem it against travel expenses on the card).
2.22% back on every purchase (when redeemed against travel). Really a great card even to hold on to. $89 annual fee is waived the first year.
The bonus is $200 statement credit or $444.44 toward travel.
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I recently got the Discover IT with $150 back on the first $750 in three months. However, i'm having a hard time finding anything to buy. Groceries are mostly on the Target card, gas is on Chase until the end of March, and the only bills I can pay with a card are pretty small ones. My apartment complex does allow me to pay rent with a card but they charge a $19.99 fee. The way I see it though, if I make a one time rent charge, i'll easily cross the $750 threshold and get $150 back. Plus, i'll get 1% cash back on the actual purchase. So despite the charge, i'll still be up about $140.
I'd look into setting up an Amazon Payments account. Send someone $750, have them cut you a check. Done.
Why don't you buy your gas with it? 5% cashback on Chase Freedom is less than your bonus based on my fuzzy, half assed end of the day math.
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Why don't you buy your gas with it? 5% cashback on Chase Freedom is less than your bonus based on my fuzzy, half assed end of the day math.
I'd rather get the 5% if I can. I actually keep a list of which card to use to maximize my benefit. I'm about $20 away from hitting the $500 mark on the Chase card and i've already 'switched' all my spending to the Discover IT card (except for gas). I finally got Amazon payments to validate my account and I sent a test $10 to ensure the whole process works. If it gets down to the wire on the IT card, i'll probably just go that route.
As a side note, one thing i've noticed with churning is that I could see myself buying things I don't necessarily need so I can meet the minimum....the Costco effect, if you will. Just means I have to double ask myself if I really need it!
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I tried the link above and it worked both times. I googled 'Disney Card' and found the one you were referring to, with the gift cards.
Thanks, but it seems like only the annual fee version of the card has the statement credit offer (the non-annual fee version only has the gift card offer).
The bonus is $200 statement credit or $444.44 toward travel.
Where does it say a $200 statement credit option is available? I read the fine print but I only see the travel reward mentioned.
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Where does it say a $200 statement credit option is available? I read the fine print but I only see the travel reward mentioned.
It's a 40,000 mile bonus. Those miles can be redeemed at $0.01 per mile for travel purchases or $0.005 per mile for cash back. That wording might not be in the terms and conditions, but that's how redemption works for this card. I have it.
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It's a 40,000 mile bonus. Those miles can be redeemed at $0.01 per mile for travel purchases or $0.005 per mile for cash back. That wording might not be in the terms and conditions, but that's how redemption works for this card. I have it.
Thanks! I just signed up. Is it common for miles cards to work this way? I have been avoiding miles cards because I'm only interested in cash back, but if they can be redeemed for cash then I should look into them.
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It's a 40,000 mile bonus. Those miles can be redeemed at $0.01 per mile for travel purchases or $0.005 per mile for cash back. That wording might not be in the terms and conditions, but that's how redemption works for this card. I have it.
Thanks! I just signed up. Is it common for miles cards to work this way? I have been avoiding miles cards because I'm only interested in cash back, but if they can be redeemed for cash then I should look into them.
Depends. I think a lot of the airline branded ones actually give you miles, but "travel" cards, like ones from Capital One, or the Arrival card, just call them miles because it sounds cooler I think.
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It's a 40,000 mile bonus. Those miles can be redeemed at $0.01 per mile for travel purchases or $0.005 per mile for cash back. That wording might not be in the terms and conditions, but that's how redemption works for this card. I have it.
There's also a 10% bonus which gets applied every-time you redeem against travel expenses, so it's effectively 44,444 "miles" or basically $444.44 in reimbursed travel expenses. Good call on the half-rewards for statement credit, I had missed that. For me, I usually have some travel expense every few months so this card will work just fine as a 2.2% back card.
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American Express Blue Sky - no annual fee, 30,000 points (good for a $400 travel credit) with only $500 purchase in first three months. Also, 0% interest on purchases for first 15 months.
https://www295.americanexpress.com/cards/npz.do?pmccode=82#CARDS/82/1/0/0
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There's also a 10% bonus which gets applied every-time you redeem against travel expenses, so it's effectively 44,444 "miles" or basically $444.44 in reimbursed travel expenses. Good call on the half-rewards for statement credit, I had missed that. For me, I usually have some travel expense every few months so this card will work just fine as a 2.2% back card.
Agreed. I rent a car a few times a year and love using my "miles" to get the rental credited back to my card plus the 10% bonus. The annual fee isn't worth it if you don't redeem for travel purchases, but the fee is waived the first year, so it's still a good card for churning.
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When you cancel a card after the bonuses and free year runs out etc. can you get the sign up bonus again a few years later?
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When you cancel a card after the bonuses and free year runs out etc. can you get the sign up bonus again a few years later?
In my experience, the answer is yes. There are usually terms listed that indicate the offer is not valid for customers who have had the product in the last x months. This is not always the case, so check the terms.
Also, in many cases the better option is to move to a fee-free card, rather than canceling.
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That's a valid point, and I guess I shouldn't be so cavalier about assuming the rewards will "vastly outweigh the opportunity costs" of tying up the funds. But given the magnitude of dollars at play (hundreds or low thousands, not tens of thousands), I would rather lock in the 20% reward now than miss out on it and hope for a better return in the stock market over the next year or so.
And the point about keeping an eye out for discounted gift cards to places you will be spending money anyway is a good one. For people with Amex cards, Amex's "My Offers" is a good source for that. They regularly offer statement credits for spending specified amounts in particular stores, which you can do by purchasing gift cards. One recent Amex offer in my area was for a supermarket I don't normally shop at, but I bought some gas station gift cards for an effective 33% discount.
Just did something similar. Have one cc offering 5% cash back on drug store purchases, up to $1500 spending. I have some travel coming up that I need to pay for, so I bought 3 visa vanilla gift cards for $500 each (that was the limit per card). Even after the $4.95 purchase fee per card, I made an easy $60 for maybe 10 minutes of my time.
Wait, so there's nothing in the CC Agreement that says you can't buy gift cards towards the "minimum spent in X months for bonus cash"?? Neat. I just got the Sapphire Preferred, and wasn't sure I could hit the $3,000 in 90 days. This way, I can just put any shortfall on BJ's gift cards.
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[quote author=MustachianAccountant link=topic=12267.msg208857#msg208857 date=1391095356
Wait, so there's nothing in the CC Agreement that says you can't buy gift cards towards the "minimum spent in X months for bonus cash"?? Neat. I just got the Sapphire Preferred, and wasn't sure I could hit the $3,000 in 90 days. This way, I can just put any shortfall on BJ's gift cards.
[/quote]
Credit card companies usually get only a very limited amount of data on most of your purchases. They can't tell if a $100 CVS purchase was for bandaids or giftcards.
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[quote author=MustachianAccountant link=topic=12267.msg208857#msg208857 date=1391095356
Wait, so there's nothing in the CC Agreement that says you can't buy gift cards towards the "minimum spent in X months for bonus cash"?? Neat. I just got the Sapphire Preferred, and wasn't sure I could hit the $3,000 in 90 days. This way, I can just put any shortfall on BJ's gift cards.
Credit card companies usually get only a very limited amount of data on most of your purchases. They can't tell if a $100 CVS purchase was for bandaids or giftcards.
[/quote]
Careful though. There was a 5% cashback AARP Chase card a while back. A lot of people found themselves blacklisted for life from Chase for churning spending. I think it's fine to buy a few hundred dollars to meet a spending requirement, but I wouldn't personally do thousands for the rewards, at least not on a Chase car. Then again, lots of people do via the Chase Ink 5% cashback at Office Supply stores, but know there is some degree of risk.
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Careful though. There was a 5% cashback AARP Chase card a while back. A lot of people found themselves blacklisted for life from Chase for churning spending. I think it's fine to buy a few hundred dollars to meet a spending requirement, but I wouldn't personally do thousands for the rewards, at least not on a Chase car. Then again, lots of people do via the Chase Ink 5% cashback at Office Supply stores, but know there is some degree of risk.
I don't understand this; can you elaborate? I understand how "wash transactions" like paying yourself with Amazon Payments to meet spending thresholds can be considered non-kosher, but how does purchasing gift cards violate either the letter or the spirit of the terms of the reward offer?
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Careful though. There was a 5% cashback AARP Chase card a while back. A lot of people found themselves blacklisted for life from Chase for churning spending. I think it's fine to buy a few hundred dollars to meet a spending requirement, but I wouldn't personally do thousands for the rewards, at least not on a Chase car. Then again, lots of people do via the Chase Ink 5% cashback at Office Supply stores, but know there is some degree of risk.
I don't understand this; can you elaborate? I understand how "wash transactions" like paying yourself with Amazon Payments to meet spending thresholds can be considered non-kosher, but how does purchasing gift cards violate either the letter or the spirit of the terms of the reward offer?
*Shrug* I think it fell under the general "We reserve the right to suspend your account at our discretion at any time" type of disclaimer on any credit card. Basically, they were losing too much money.
ETA: I'm pretty sure using Chase on Amazon Payments will result in a cash advance fee. It varies by card issuer though. Chase is really stringent on lots of things, other companies not as much.
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More under rewards than sign-on bonus, but I just saw and ad for the BOA "Better Balance Rewards" Card. Basically it gives a $25 a quarter reward for paying your bill on time every month. I just read the fine print and I think the only restriction is that $0 payments don't count. So I think you just have to use the card once every month, put it on auto-pay and you get $100 dollars a year. No annual fee, so it's free money.
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ETA: I'm pretty sure using Chase on Amazon Payments will result in a cash advance fee. It varies by card issuer though. Chase is really stringent on lots of things, other companies not as much.
No, it won't.
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Re: BoA Better Balance Rewards
And actually you can get $120 a year if you have another bank account with them:
"If either the primary or joint applicant for this card has at least one checking, savings or retirement account with Bank of America N.A., a Cash Management Account®, Merrill Edge® or any other account with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated or U.S. Trust, the card account will receive a customer bonus of $5 for each quarter you qualify, for a total of $30 per quarter."
You could do a BoA savings account for free with a minimum $300 balance. Think of it as a 6.6% return on your $300?
It looks...it looks like you can just open a Merrill Lynch cash management account for $0 with no maintenance fees. And I can't immediately find any info about its getting closed for low-balance or non-activity, though it's certainly possible it's in there. Careful of the $49.50 transfer fee :)
One other thing to watch out for is that the payment has to be more than the minimum. I think with some banks if your total is less than $25 or something, the minimum payment is the total. So if you owe, like, $8, you just need to make sure you pay $8.01.
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ETA: I'm pretty sure using Chase on Amazon Payments will result in a cash advance fee. It varies by card issuer though. Chase is really stringent on lots of things, other companies not as much.
No, it won't.
No cash advance fee last fall when I was using AP to meet the minimum spending requirement on my Chase Sapphire Preferred.
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If you have more of points card (I have the Citi Thank You Rewards card) I would say look at how many points getting a statement credit or cash cost you vs. getting a gift card.
For example with Citi I can get a $50 gift card with around 1,500 points but if I want the same amount or credit in cash it might cost me 2,500 points. Sometime is more beneficial to get gift cards to places you are know you are going to use them at.
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For example with Citi I can get a $50 gift card with around 1,500 points but if I want the same amount or credit in cash it might cost me 2,500 points. Sometime is more beneficial to get gift cards to places you are know you are going to use them at.
What kind of gift card? As far as I'm aware, the $50 gift cards are 6,000 points and the $100 gift cards are 10,000 points (which equates to 1% rewards).
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For example with Citi I can get a $50 gift card with around 1,500 points but if I want the same amount or credit in cash it might cost me 2,500 points. Sometime is more beneficial to get gift cards to places you are know you are going to use them at.
What kind of gift card? As far as I'm aware, the $50 gift cards are 6,000 points and the $100 gift cards are 10,000 points (which equates to 1% rewards).
He's gotta be way off. I just cashed in my Citi ThankYou points, and the best deals were $50 gift cards/5000 points or $100 gift cards/10,000 points. $50 for 1,500 points would have gotten me $1300 in gift cards for how much I cashed in! Instead I only got $350.
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I'd also like to know if there's a car that has that favorable of a rate on gift cards.
My BofA Visa occasionally has "sales" so the cards are fewer points, but it's like 2,500 points for a card that would usually be 3,000.
Discover does give about a 10% advantage for getting gift cards. $45 in cash back is good for a $50 gift card, so I've started getting Lowe's cards instead of spending the cash back dollar for dollar at Amazon.
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Re: BoA Better Balance Rewards
And actually you can get $120 a year if you have another bank account with them:
"If either the primary or joint applicant for this card has at least one checking, savings or retirement account with Bank of America N.A., a Cash Management Account®, Merrill Edge® or any other account with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated or U.S. Trust, the card account will receive a customer bonus of $5 for each quarter you qualify, for a total of $30 per quarter."
You could do a BoA savings account for free with a minimum $300 balance. Think of it as a 6.6% return on your $300?
It looks...it looks like you can just open a Merrill Lynch cash management account for $0 with no maintenance fees. And I can't immediately find any info about its getting closed for low-balance or non-activity, though it's certainly possible it's in there. Careful of the $49.50 transfer fee :)
One other thing to watch out for is that the payment has to be more than the minimum. I think with some banks if your total is less than $25 or something, the minimum payment is the total. So if you owe, like, $8, you just need to make sure you pay $8.01.
Correct, and with this card, the $25 is the usual minimum.
I only got the card at the end of January, so it wasn't in time for the first quarter(?) January credit bills were already set on 1/20 so gotta wait another 2(?) months (April?) until the next quarter starts. They don't tell you how they divide the quarters up, not even in the fine print...
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Sorry those were not to be exact numbers I was just giving them as an example that cash/statement credit is not always the best option if you can get gift cards you will use. I can get a $50 Panera card for 5,000 points which is approx. .01 per point while if you choose statement credit for $50 for 10,000 points which is approx. .005 per point.
For example with Citi I can get a $50 gift card with around 1,500 points but if I want the same amount or credit in cash it might cost me 2,500 points. Sometime is more beneficial to get gift cards to places you are know you are going to use them at.
What kind of gift card? As far as I'm aware, the $50 gift cards are 6,000 points and the $100 gift cards are 10,000 points (which equates to 1% rewards).
He's gotta be way off. I just cashed in my Citi ThankYou points, and the best deals were $50 gift cards/5000 points or $100 gift cards/10,000 points. $50 for 1,500 points would have gotten me $1300 in gift cards for how much I cashed in! Instead I only got $350.
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Sorry those were not to be exact numbers I was just giving them as an example that cash/statement credit is not always the best option if you can get gift cards you will use. I can get a $50 Panera card for 5,000 points which is approx. .01 per point while if you choose statement credit for $50 for 10,000 points which is approx. .005 per point.
I'm not a numbers guy (social science major here, probably one of about three on these forums), but even I know you need to be careful when throwing around claims about credit card bonuses. This stuff is important! ;)
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I've had the same Chase card for like 10 years and rarely ever "churned" in the past for bonus programs.
Recently got a mailer from Chase Freedom - Spend $500 get a $200 credit. I signed up, paid a $2K hospital bill, and essentially shaved 10% off the cost. Just got the reward today when the statement cycle ended. It feels good to game the system, even just a little.
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Careful though. There was a 5% cashback AARP Chase card a while back. A lot of people found themselves blacklisted for life from Chase for churning spending. I think it's fine to buy a few hundred dollars to meet a spending requirement, but I wouldn't personally do thousands for the rewards, at least not on a Chase car. Then again, lots of people do via the Chase Ink 5% cashback at Office Supply stores, but know there is some degree of risk.
There is a sweet spot, but $3000 of spending isn't going to raise any churning flags. At worst you'll just get a call from the fraud department to verify it's actually you making the purchase. People who get shut down usually run tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands through a card in a month.
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Didn't want to start another thread about churning.. this seems like a good one to bump..
This is a good article with some 'rules' to follow I found helpful.
http://vosa.com/credit-card-churning-for-rewards/
But I have a few questions I don't have answers for:
1. I signed up for AMEX Blue Preferred. The spend is $1000 in 3 months which is no problem. It has a 6% cash back on gas 3% on groceries. Problem is, if you are going to churn through cards.. do you have to just close it and find another card to use? Maybe I want to get some airline mileage but I might not can make the spend on the airline card if I'm paying for groceries and gas with the AMEX Blue card. Which is OK.. I'm just curious do people hang on to one card for perks and then go through different other cards for miles or points? Or if you basically have to let go of the 'perk' card once you got the sign up bonus on it ($100 + Free amazon prime account in this case).
2. How often do you end up opening and closing a card.. do you close as soon as you get the reward and then open another one? I read somewhere about using 3 months as a time to wait to open a new one. (I can alternate opening with spouse)
3. How many do you end up having open at a time? I don't know what closing one has on your credit score if any. It might be better to just keep say 3 open at any given time, or maybe having 6 open is better (for your credit rating)
4. If you close a card.. is there a time limit for when you can apply for it again and get some reward or do you think they remember you for life? I've had a southwest visa for many years.. it used to really rack up free flights fast but now it's not better than any other airline card. I would probably close it and open something else.. it would be great if you could open it again in say a year and get some bonus out of it again.
Maybe there is a more dedicated forum for churning.. if someone wants to reccomend one please do.
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Didn't want to start another thread about churning.. this seems like a good one to bump..
This is a good article with some 'rules' to follow I found helpful.
http://vosa.com/credit-card-churning-for-rewards/
But I have a few questions I don't have answers for:
1. I signed up for AMEX Blue Preferred. The spend is $1000 in 3 months which is no problem. It has a 6% cash back on gas 3% on groceries. Problem is, if you are going to churn through cards.. do you have to just close it and find another card to use? Maybe I want to get some airline mileage but I might not can make the spend on the airline card if I'm paying for groceries and gas with the AMEX Blue card. Which is OK.. I'm just curious do people hang on to one card for perks and then go through different other cards for miles or points? Or if you basically have to let go of the 'perk' card once you got the sign up bonus on it ($100 + Free amazon prime account in this case).
I started churning by getting a few cards that I use for my core spending which don't have annual fees. I use the Citi Forward, Chase Freedom, and PNC Cashbuilder whenever I'm not working on a signup bonus. Plus, my average age of accounts is always increasing by keeping these ones, which helps my credit score. The Amex Blue is a good one to hang on to for a lot people.
2. How often do you end up opening and closing a card.. do you close as soon as you get the reward and then open another one? I read somewhere about using 3 months as a time to wait to open a new one. (I can alternate opening with spouse)
I pretty much open a new card anytime there is a worthwhile signup bonus ($400+) and I'm done with the last one. But, I don't bother with any of the tricks to artificially inflate my spending (known as manufactured spend, you can google that for details), so I never really have more than one at once. Lots of people do one big application spree and get 3-4 at once, then get the bonuses, repeat, but I just don't have the time and energy to devote to man. spending so I stick w/one at a time.
3. How many do you end up having open at a time? I don't know what closing one has on your credit score if any. It might be better to just keep say 3 open at any given time, or maybe having 6 open is better (for your credit rating)
The biggest way this impacts your score, especially if you don't have a lot of credit history, is that it decreases your average age of accounts. I keep all the cards until just before the annual fee hits, then close them, except the 3 mentioned above.
4. If you close a card.. is there a time limit for when you can apply for it again and get some reward or do you think they remember you for life? I've had a southwest visa for many years.. it used to really rack up free flights fast but now it's not better than any other airline card. I would probably close it and open something else.. it would be great if you could open it again in say a year and get some bonus out of it again.
It varies A LOT by issuer, card, bank, etc. Often, when there is a new offer, you can read the thread on Fat Wallet Finance or Flyer Talk about the offer & find answers from others who have tried it already. Some cards have a Visa & MC version and a lot of times you can get the bonus on each one, for example. Other cards, you can just keep churning. I haven't run out of new cards to open yet, so I haven't tried that yet.
Maybe there is a more dedicated forum for churning.. if someone wants to reccomend one please do.
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Awesome, very helpful answers!
I'm ready to roll, I'll just leave my older cards open. My credit score is about 720 and my wife's is probably 730 or 740.
Hopefully they will go up some from the massive amounts of debt we are paying down each month.
Another question..
What can you typically NOT pay with a credit card?
I'm thinking mortgage payments probably can't come off of a card :)
Although I'm sure somewhere, someone has figured out a way to achieve that through manufactured spending as you say.
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I'm thinking mortgage payments probably can't come off of a card :)
Although I'm sure somewhere, someone has figured out a way to achieve that through manufactured spending as you say.
That's not very hard to serve (http://serve.com) up.
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I'm thinking mortgage payments probably can't come off of a card :)
Although I'm sure somewhere, someone has figured out a way to achieve that through manufactured spending as you say.
That's not very hard to serve (http://serve.com) up.
Was this a veiled way of saying mortgage payments can somehow be made via credit card using Amex Serve cards? If so, can you please elaborate for those of us (like me) not clever enough to figure out how? If anyone has come up with a way to make mortgage payments by credit card, I would be all ears.
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I am more confused than ever. So in layman's terms. For just cash back on pretty much everything what is the best card to start out with. I dont need airline miles!!! Just cash back. And guidelines i need to follow if I end up churning. Thanks for your patience. I have a card that basically doesnt do Jack for me right now.
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I'm thinking mortgage payments probably can't come off of a card :)
Although I'm sure somewhere, someone has figured out a way to achieve that through manufactured spending as you say.
That's not very hard to serve (http://serve.com) up.
Was this a veiled way of saying mortgage payments can somehow be made via credit card using Amex Serve cards? If so, can you please elaborate for those of us (like me) not clever enough to figure out how? If anyone has come up with a way to make mortgage payments by credit card, I would be all ears.
Serve has a bill pay function that allows you to pay just about person or business (so does Bluebird). Serve (unlike Bluebird) can be loaded fee-free with a credit card at CVS.
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I am more confused than ever. So in layman's terms. For just cash back on pretty much everything what is the best card to start out with. I dont need airline miles!!! Just cash back. And guidelines i need to follow if I end up churning. Thanks for your patience. I have a card that basically doesnt do Jack for me right now.
To start, I recommend either the Fidelity Visa (1.5% cash back) or Fidelity Amex (2% cash back). They're not hard to find, and you just need to open a Fidelity Cash account. They might even be offering a bonus right now.
My guidelines:
1. Make sure I meet the spending requirement in time to get the bonus.
2. Any bonus that's not worth at least $200 isn't worth the hard inquiry on my credit report.
3. If I decide to apply for one card, I always find two or three others to apply for on the same day (minimize credit inquiries).
4. Never pay interest.
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Serve has a bill pay function that allows you to pay just about person or business (so does Bluebird). Serve (unlike Bluebird) can be loaded fee-free with a credit card at CVS.
Wow, thanks! I will have to look into that. One concern that immediately jumps to mind is the risk that the funding credit card company could look at the substance over the form of the transaction and charge a cash advance fee, but I will definitely research this. Thanks again...these forums keep proving to be a limitless fountain of knowledge!
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I am more confused than ever. So in layman's terms. For just cash back on pretty much everything what is the best card to start out with. I dont need airline miles!!! Just cash back. And guidelines i need to follow if I end up churning. Thanks for your patience. I have a card that basically doesnt do Jack for me right now.
I started off with amex blue card preferred. This was in MMM list on the home page. It's $100 sign up bonus, 6% back on groceries, 3% gas, 1% other things. You have to spend 1K in 3 months.
6% on groceries is pretty good + the sign up. You also get a free year of amazon prime, don't really order much from there these days so not sure it will be much benefit.
In a month or so I'll go for a second one with a big sign up bonus or miles. There are some web pages that are mentioned in this thread that should mention the current best card deals.
Yes, if that Serve card somehow can be used to pay mortgage that would be good to know.
I haven't googled it yet, so maybe it's not that hard to do but I have some other low hanging fruit I'll probably deal with before I try and get my mortgage to be paid on a CC just for rewards.
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Yes, if that Serve card somehow can be used to pay mortgage that would be good to know.
I haven't googled it yet, so maybe it's not that hard to do but I have some other low hanging fruit I'll probably deal with before I try and get my mortgage to be paid on a CC just for rewards.
Don't discount the benefit of the free float (usually at least 30 days) on your mortgage payment if paid through Serve funded with a credit card.
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Thanks Madage and Zachd,
The grocery savings and fuel do me know good. I have a discount card through sams club and Aldi's only takes cash or debit card and I am happy with my savings.
Gas I dont pay for the company does.
So i am looking for a credit card cash back on all purchases. I will look into the Fidelity.
Thanks again!
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
yea I dont want that then. Is there one that you might suggest?
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
yea I dont want that then. Is there one that you might suggest?
You want the Fidelity Cash (https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/fidelity-cash-management-account/overview) account. It's basically a fee-free checking account. It has online ACH transfers, free checks, etc. I keep mine open even though I no longer have a Fidelity credit card.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
yea I dont want that then. Is there one that you might suggest?
If you want a straight cash rewards card with no categories then i'd recommend the Capital One Quicksilver (http://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/quicksilver-cash-rewards/). If you're interested in rotating categories with cash back on everything else then the Discover IT (https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/index.html?ICMPGN=HDR_ALLPS_CC_IT) and Chase Freedom (https://creditcards.chase.com/freedom?jp_cmp=cc/freedom/off/na/multiple) are good bets. If you want a card that has categories that don't change then go with American Express Blue Cash or Blue Cash Preferred (https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/compare/blue-cash/25330).
If you decide to get the Discover IT card, i'd recommend checking out this thread (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/discover-card-versus-discover-it/) as it includes a link for a sign up bonus.
You can also check out Nerd Wallet (http://www.nerdwallet.com) for their recommendations and current offers.
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Which AA card is this? There are 50k offers on Flyertalk. I haven't heard of one with the 10k bonus though.
Citi American Airlines Mastercard. The 50k would be better; I didn't actually search around much for that one, maybe I should have.
There are lots of levels of the Citi Aadvantage MasterCard. We just did 2 of them.
Gold MasterCard - had special offer (mailer code) for 30K miles after spending $1K in 3 mos.
Platinum MasterCard - normal offer for 50K miles after spending $3K in 3 mos.
Both have additional bonuses (I think double the initial bonus) if you hit much larger spending levels within 12 mos. Those didn't seem worth it to us.
The various levels of Citi Aadvantage cards also have different levels of benefits in the Reduced Mileage program if that matters to you.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
yea I dont want that then. Is there one that you might suggest?
Good Links thanks!
If you want a straight cash rewards card with no categories then i'd recommend the Capital One Quicksilver (http://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/quicksilver-cash-rewards/). If you're interested in rotating categories with cash back on everything else then the Discover IT (https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/index.html?ICMPGN=HDR_ALLPS_CC_IT) and Chase Freedom (https://creditcards.chase.com/freedom?jp_cmp=cc/freedom/off/na/multiple) are good bets. If you want a card that has categories that don't change then go with American Express Blue Cash or Blue Cash Preferred (https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/compare/blue-cash/25330).
If you decide to get the Discover IT card, i'd recommend checking out this thread (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/discover-card-versus-discover-it/) as it includes a link for a sign up bonus.
You can also check out Nerd Wallet (http://www.nerdwallet.com) for their recommendations and current offers.
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Any offers worth over $400 right now that you know about and want to share? :)
Didn't want to start another thread about churning.. this seems like a good one to bump..
This is a good article with some 'rules' to follow I found helpful.
http://vosa.com/credit-card-churning-for-rewards/
But I have a few questions I don't have answers for:
1. I signed up for AMEX Blue Preferred. The spend is $1000 in 3 months which is no problem. It has a 6% cash back on gas 3% on groceries. Problem is, if you are going to churn through cards.. do you have to just close it and find another card to use? Maybe I want to get some airline mileage but I might not can make the spend on the airline card if I'm paying for groceries and gas with the AMEX Blue card. Which is OK.. I'm just curious do people hang on to one card for perks and then go through different other cards for miles or points? Or if you basically have to let go of the 'perk' card once you got the sign up bonus on it ($100 + Free amazon prime account in this case).
I started churning by getting a few cards that I use for my core spending which don't have annual fees. I use the Citi Forward, Chase Freedom, and PNC Cashbuilder whenever I'm not working on a signup bonus. Plus, my average age of accounts is always increasing by keeping these ones, which helps my credit score. The Amex Blue is a good one to hang on to for a lot people.
2. How often do you end up opening and closing a card.. do you close as soon as you get the reward and then open another one? I read somewhere about using 3 months as a time to wait to open a new one. (I can alternate opening with spouse)
I pretty much open a new card anytime there is a worthwhile signup bonus ($400+) and I'm done with the last one. But, I don't bother with any of the tricks to artificially inflate my spending (known as manufactured spend, you can google that for details), so I never really have more than one at once. Lots of people do one big application spree and get 3-4 at once, then get the bonuses, repeat, but I just don't have the time and energy to devote to man. spending so I stick w/one at a time.
3. How many do you end up having open at a time? I don't know what closing one has on your credit score if any. It might be better to just keep say 3 open at any given time, or maybe having 6 open is better (for your credit rating)
The biggest way this impacts your score, especially if you don't have a lot of credit history, is that it decreases your average age of accounts. I keep all the cards until just before the annual fee hits, then close them, except the 3 mentioned above.
4. If you close a card.. is there a time limit for when you can apply for it again and get some reward or do you think they remember you for life? I've had a southwest visa for many years.. it used to really rack up free flights fast but now it's not better than any other airline card. I would probably close it and open something else.. it would be great if you could open it again in say a year and get some bonus out of it again.
It varies A LOT by issuer, card, bank, etc. Often, when there is a new offer, you can read the thread on Fat Wallet Finance or Flyer Talk about the offer & find answers from others who have tried it already. Some cards have a Visa & MC version and a lot of times you can get the bonus on each one, for example. Other cards, you can just keep churning. I haven't run out of new cards to open yet, so I haven't tried that yet.
Maybe there is a more dedicated forum for churning.. if someone wants to reccomend one please do.
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Actually, I haven't personally started looking for a second card. I made a $1000 payment on the amex blue preferred and I want to make sure I get my $100 from them and my amazon prime account before I move on to open another card.
This churning obviously takes a lot of attention to detail. It's nice that CC web pages are easier to use now than they were 5 or so years ago. Setting up autopay and what not is easier now than before. Still, I'm planning to make a spreadsheet just to make sure I know what cards I have open and what their status is.
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Actually, I haven't personally started looking for a second card. I made a $1000 payment on the amex blue preferred and I want to make sure I get my $100 from them and my amazon prime account before I move on to open another card.
This churning obviously takes a lot of attention to detail. It's nice that CC web pages are easier to use now than they were 5 or so years ago. Setting up autopay and what not is easier now than before. Still, I'm planning to make a spreadsheet just to make sure I know what cards I have open and what their status is.
The idea of a spreadsheet or something similar with a couple of reminders/alerts on my iPhone is what I need to do. It was easy until a few months ago with just one card to pay, but I just got five credit/travel cards (TD Bank Aeroplan, CIBC Aventura, AMEX Aeroplan, CIBC Aerogold, BMO whatever) in the past three months (over 70,000 travel miles altogether and a bunch of other travel rewards which for me is equivalent to 5 return tickets worth $550 a piece that I must pay to go to work every month), and I am starting to lose track of my payment dates, etc. So far I have not missed any deadlines but I've had a few panic moments when I couldn't remember whether I paid one of the bills on time.
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Mint.com can be an invaluable resource for keeping track of multiple credit cards.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
yea I dont want that then. Is there one that you might suggest?
Capital One No hassle rewards 1.5% cash back on everything as a statement credit whenever you want
Barclaycard World Arrival MasterCard - effectively 2.222% cash back on everything*. The * is that you can only redeem for the best rate when you have travel purchases (hotel, car rental, plane tickets). If you never have travel purchases the rate is 1%.
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When these cards offer a higher rewards percentage if you spend it on travel, how does that work? Do you have to buy through their site and if so do you have the same vendor options? Are airways like Jetblue and Southwest represented? How about budget hotels and car rentals? And are the prices the same as you would get through orbtiz/hotwire, etc.? I often assume the greater redemption rate won't be worth the higher price.
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The Barclaycard is a statement credit for your travel so you buy your travel with the card and apply the credit to it. When you charge things to credit cards, there is an indicator of the industry or type of charge. So, air/cars/hotels will all indicate to the card company that they are travel purchases. With this type of card, you can use any airline, hotel, or car service (that I'm aware of). They *do* offer a service to book directly through them, so you can compare rates from what you would book to what they are offering but it is not required.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
But you can just withdraw the money, right?
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When these cards offer a higher rewards percentage if you spend it on travel, how does that work? Do you have to buy through their site and if so do you have the same vendor options? Are airways like Jetblue and Southwest represented? How about budget hotels and car rentals? And are the prices the same as you would get through orbtiz/hotwire, etc.? I often assume the greater redemption rate won't be worth the higher price.
I haven't used the rewards yet, but with the AmEx Blue Sky I recently acquired, you use the card for any travel purchase (flight, hotel, rental car), and then specify which of those travel purchases on your statement you want to use the rewards points to pay for, so it seems pretty flexible.
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Fidelity is nice with the 2% but there is a catch: instead of being able to use the money, it goes into a Fidelity investment account. I *would use this card to pay my rent each month since the 2% CB offsets the fee to use the credit card. Unfortunately, my complex takes everything but American Express.
But you can just withdraw the money, right?
Yep.
It's by far my favorite card for all around, general use. Sure some cards are better in specific categories or for specific time frames (ex: "5% cashback on restaurants this quarter"), but a 2% cashback on everything is pretty rad. I got my girlfriend a card that she uses so I get the cashback, and she just reimburses me every month. And although it gets automatically deposited to my Fidelity account, I can withdraw the money with no penalty. Just takes a couple days.
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Mustachians, I recently got two rewards cards (Hyatt Visa since I stay often here for work; bonus points and free night per year) and the American Express Blue Cash everyday card (I'll use it to pay my tax bill, and will pay this off in a period of 15 months due to 0% APR during that time).
This has me looking at my only other active credit card (American Express Delta Skymiles), and I realize it's utter crap. 1 mile per dollar (about 1%), and a $95 dollar annual fee. The only other good point is the first bag checked free (about $50), but I've been a Diamond member forever so it doesn't matter anyway.
I want to close this card, and transfer the credit line to the Blue Cash one (I already checked and I can do it) so I don't lose on overall credit utilization. The problem, however, is that this is my second longest card time-wise in my credit history. The rest of my credit history is pretty new.
Do you think the hit on my credit score will be felt given the reduction in overall account age? Should I just suck it up and keep paying the $95? Any other advantages to leaving it open that I'm not seeing?
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The problem, however, is that this is my second longest card time-wise in my credit history. The rest of my credit history is pretty new.
This may not be a problem. Check the "Member Since" date on your BCE card. American Express back-dates new card accounts to your first card account with them. Read more here (http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/amex-backdating/td-p/1367133).
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I have the Bank of America Cash Rewards card. It offers $100 if you spend $500 within the first three months. It gives 3% on gas, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else. No annual fees. You also receive an additional 10% on the rewards (3.3%, 2.2%, 1.1%) if you have them go into a Bank of America account.
This card works for me because I am a college student and I don't spend enough to reach some of the bigger reward companies.
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The problem, however, is that this is my second longest card time-wise in my credit history. The rest of my credit history is pretty new.
This may not be a problem. Check the "Member Since" date on your BCE card. American Express back-dates new card accounts to your first card account with them. Read more here (http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/amex-backdating/td-p/1367133).
Perfect, just what I needed to know.
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Any ideas for meeting the minimum required spending in order to reach the bonus target on new cards? I have to spend $3,000 in 3 months, that's way too much.
I was going to pay the rent, but the $45 fee to pay with a credit card is ridiculous. What about purchasing prepaid debit cards say, at Walmart? They don't charge you taxes for this, right?
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Any ideas for meeting the minimum required spending in order to reach the bonus target on new cards? I have to spend $3,000 in 3 months, that's way too much.
I was going to pay the rent, but the $45 fee to pay with a credit card is ridiculous. What about purchasing prepaid debit cards say, at Walmart? They don't charge you taxes for this, right?
What you should google is "manufactured spend." There is a whole forum dedicated to this topic here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending-719/
Quick summary though:
1. You can do up to $1000/month for free with Amazon Payments. Transfer $1000 to your spouse, then have them pay your bill.
2. Check out Loyal3. You can buy up to $10,000/month in stocks with a credit card without fees. Then sell the shares the next day and pay your bill
3. You can go the prepaid debit card route too but there are often fees if you don't pay attention, look into the Vanilla prepaid cards from Visa and Serve by American Express for some of the lower fee options.
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NFCU is offering 30,000 miles when you open a Flagship Rewards (https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/cards/creditcards/flagship.php) card and spend $3,000 in 90 days. There's a $45 annual fee but it's waived the first year.
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Hopefully there are no stupid questions.. but when you say 30,000 miles.. what does that actually mean?
Actual flight miles? On any airline? Etc? I've only ever had a southwest rewards card. They used to just give you free flights. Now they give you a discount.
I don't speak 'miles' in the language of rewards cards but I would like to learn!
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Hopefully there are no stupid questions.. but when you say 30,000 miles.. what does that actually mean?
Actual flight miles? On any airline? Etc? I've only ever had a southwest rewards card. They used to just give you free flights. Now they give you a discount.
I don't speak 'miles' in the language of rewards cards but I would like to learn!
Usually means a 1% reduction in ticket price. 30,000 miles would be around $300 off the price of a ticket with a specific airline.
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Hopefully there are no stupid questions.. but when you say 30,000 miles.. what does that actually mean?
Actual flight miles? On any airline? Etc? I've only ever had a southwest rewards card. They used to just give you free flights. Now they give you a discount.
I don't speak 'miles' in the language of rewards cards but I would like to learn!
They make it obscure for a reason. See, for example:
http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/the-value-of-frequent-flyer-mile-revisited.html?id=7050813
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Hopefully there are no stupid questions.. but when you say 30,000 miles.. what does that actually mean?
Actual flight miles? On any airline? Etc? I've only ever had a southwest rewards card. They used to just give you free flights. Now they give you a discount.
I don't speak 'miles' in the language of rewards cards but I would like to learn!
As far as the NFCU card goes, here is a PDF (https://www.navyfederal.org/forms/get_form.php?formID=823-CC) of the policy for that particular card. Looks like, among other things, you can get a $150 credit with those 30,000 points.
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For those of you who have asked about how churning affects credit scores, i'll share my experiences. Obviously, your mileage may vary.
My oldest account is from 2007 and my utilization is half a percent. I also have a house note and car note. I have no delinquencies and have paid every bill on time (early).
In November, my Equifax score was 762. After opening one new card in January, I checked through Discover and my Transunion score was 784. After a second card in January, Transunion increased to 794. I opened a third new card in March and the Experian score on my approval letter was 755 but my Transunion score, as of this morning, was 801.
I don't know how much the three correlate but I would postulate that the average is around 775. Add to that the ~500 dollars that i've made through churning and the cash rewards that I will continue to earn, and i'd call it a success.
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Good stuff Fireman. Your credit score will generally drop 3-5 points from a hard pull, but then I have found that it rebounds very quickly. In March 2013 my score was 761 which was given to me with my first Amex card. In November 2013, after applying for 10 credit cards, a car loan, and an apartment hard pull between March and November, my score was 787.
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Not necessarily for a company many of us will use but...Sony is offering a $100 statement credit after opening a new card and making one purchase. Looks like you could make a quick purchase and pay it off then once the statement credit arrives in 8-12 weeks, you could do a $100 Amazon payments charge and pocket it. Nothing says any purchases have to be made through Sony.com or at a Sony store.
Link here (https://store.sony.com/gsi/webstore/WFS/SNYNA-SNYUS-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewSonyCardApplicationForm-LandingPage).
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Just saw that the Lufthansa Miles and More 50k mile offer is back. Get 20k after first purchase, and 30k after $5k in spending within 90 days. $79 annual fee. Not bad for a round trip flight to Europe or 2 flights within the US.
http://www.welltraveledmile.com/barclays-lufthansa-miles-and-more-mastercard-50000-mile-offer-back-for-a-limited-time/
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Just revisiting this topic. I understand now how blue bird amex works to use points to pay your bills or mortgage.. but it looks like fewer places will let you purchase a vanilla reload card with a credit card. Is anyone currently using this method (you know a place that will sell the VR card and take credit card to purcahse it ) ? In Texas? In Austin?
Are there alternatives? I see mentions of buying gift cards with PINs and transfer to BB via Walmart ATM but details are vague.
I'm sure I can find some info if I keep searching google but maybe someone here already know plus the answer might benefit people here also.
Edit to make more clear. For sure if people were more clear in other forums I wouldn't probably have to ask!
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I see mentions of buying gift cards with PINs and transfer to BB via Walmart ATM but details are vague.
This is my method, although I use Serve instead of Bluebird; they're nearly the same product now. Some cashiers or money center employees check to make sure you're not using a gift card to load, which is why the money center ATM is my go-to. Don't bother with the "Bluebird" button on the ATM; choose the Walmart MoneyCard option. Make sure you set a PIN on your gift card (Visa GCs work best, I've found) before you go. The limit is $1,000 per day and $5,000 per month per Serve/BB card. Note that, due to GC fees, this really only make sense if you're getting a pretty good bonus rate for grocery stores or pharmacies.
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Hi,
I just signed up for an REI Visa. The sign up bonus is $100. There is no annual fee. The only requirement is that you have to use it within 90 days. No specified $ amount.
Gives 5% back on REI Purchases and 1% everywhere else. If added to your Membership discount of up to 10%, it is a good return for REI purchases.
Drawback is the rewards are only available once a year and only at REI.
Works for me but not everyone.
Thanks to whoever mentioned that the BofA Cash back card gives a bonus if you have the rewards deposited into an account. I will open a savings account there tomorrow.
I'm waiting for Charles Schwab to come up with a CC. They used to have one thru BofA but dropped it several years back. It was 2% everywhere and was good for those times that I only want to carry one CC or I'm sure it isn't one of the "catagories" that pay more on my Costco Amex.
Jan
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Looking for suggestions to help defray the cost of a family trip to Europe planned for summer 2015 - my in-law's 50th anniversary. Much of our lodging and some airfare will be covered by others, so I'm looking for a travel rewards card that could be used towards place tickets and car rental. I suppose fee-free international transactions would be helpful, too.
Like others in this forum, we don't spend a ton of money on a regular basis, so high spending requirements to get a bonus might not be suitable. . .
I'd appreciate any ideas!
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I just signed up for an REI Visa. The sign up bonus is $100. There is no annual fee. The only requirement is that you have to use it within 90 days. No specified $ amount.
Gives 5% back on REI Purchases and 1% everywhere else. If added to your Membership discount of up to 10%, it is a good return for REI purchases.
Drawback is the rewards are only available once a year and only at REI.
Works for me but not everyone.
It's actually a little more flexible than that. Unless I am 'misremembering' something, this is my experience with this card for the last 6 years.
The card gives you the 1% or 5% back for purchases. It has been my experience that those can be used for store credit anytime after that month's statement is settled (you don't have to wait until the annual dividends are issued). I may be wrong about this point, but I am pretty sure I have done this on a number of occasions.
At the end of the year, any cash back rewards that you haven't used are added to your annual member dividend (which is 10% back on all most purchases). The dividend is issued in March of each year and can be used immediately in the store, or after July 1 can be redeemed for cash or check instead.
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Looking for suggestions to help defray the cost of a family trip to Europe planned for summer 2015 - my in-law's 50th anniversary. Much of our lodging and some airfare will be covered by others, so I'm looking for a travel rewards card that could be used towards place tickets and car rental. I suppose fee-free international transactions would be helpful, too.
Like others in this forum, we don't spend a ton of money on a regular basis, so high spending requirements to get a bonus might not be suitable. . .
I'd appreciate any ideas!
I'm a big fan of the Barclaycard World Arrival Card for your situation. It gives you 2.22% on all purchases as a statement rebate towards travel purchases. It also gives you $400 in cash back if you spend $3000 in the first month.
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Looking for suggestions to help defray the cost of a family trip to Europe planned for summer 2015 - my in-law's 50th anniversary. Much of our lodging and some airfare will be covered by others, so I'm looking for a travel rewards card that could be used towards place tickets and car rental. I suppose fee-free international transactions would be helpful, too.
Like others in this forum, we don't spend a ton of money on a regular basis, so high spending requirements to get a bonus might not be suitable. . .
I'd appreciate any ideas!
I'm a big fan of the Barclaycard World Arrival Card for your situation. It gives you 2.22% on all purchases as a statement rebate towards travel purchases. It also gives you $400 in cash back if you spend $3000 in the first month.
Definitely go with the Barclaycard Arrival Card (http://www.barclaycardarrival.com/premium-travel/default_promo/?campaignId=1729&od=bcarrival&cellNumber=47&referrerid=BCSBA1013HPG). However, nawhite gave you some misinformation. When you spend $3,000 in 90 days, you will receive 40,000 miles that can be redeemed as $400 towards a travel statement credit (not straight cash back). If you want actual cash back it turns into a 1% card as you will receive $0.005 (half a cent) per mile. Additionally, when you do use the rewards as a travel statement credit, you receive a 10% credit back to your miles bank.
This card gets great reviews because you aren't locked into one airline or travel site. You can use the miles as a statement credit towards any travel purchase including airlines, rental cars, and discount travel sites. I just picked this one up and am working on the sign up bonus for a trip I plan to take later this year.
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Chase Sapphire was giving 40,000 mile bonus for $3000 spend in 90 days and also 5000 miles bonus for adding another person to the card.
That's the one I'm working on now. I'll probably do barclay after that.
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I used to have with Chase Sapphire Preferred, but recently downgraded to the no fee version. It just didn't make sense after I got the Barclaycard Arrival, which gives 2% on everything. However, once the Arrival's annual fee comes up, I will also downgrade that to the no fee version. At that point, I will probably get the Fidelity AMEX, which also gives 2% on everything with no annual fee. My other keeper cards are Chase Freedom (no fee, 5% rotating), Costco AMEX (no fee with paid Costco membership, 3% gas), and Capital One Quicksilver (no fee, 1.5% everywhere, I'll use this where AMEX is not accepted).
Once I stopped dining out and buying gas so much, the cards with special categories didn't matter as much. I definitely can't justify an annual fee anymore. It takes a lot of spending just to cover the fee, and even then, you're still behind compared to a no fee card.
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Anyone sign up for either of the Wells Fargo-Amex Propel cards? The travel version has 40,000 points for spending $3,000 in 90 days. That's $400 in travel rewards. There are rewards from 3 percent down to 1 percent, but I don't have the details right now. It has a high fee, but it's no fee for the first year and you should be able to cancel or downgrade. There's a 365 version that has 20,000 in points and is not travel oriented.
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Anyone sign up for either of the Wells Fargo-Amex Propel cards? The travel version has 40,000 points for spending $3,000 in 90 days. That's $400 in travel rewards. There are rewards from 3 percent down to 1 percent, but I don't have the details right now. It has a high fee, but it's no fee for the first year and you should be able to cancel or downgrade. There's a 365 version that has 20,000 in points and is not travel oriented.
I did, but I'm still working towards meeting the spending threshold. I had also signed up for a Wells Fargo Home Rebate Visa Signature Card through a personalized $100 bonus offer that was mailed to me, which I have already earned. Even though the terms say the cash back bonuses on that card are payable in the form of a rebate against the outstanding principal balance of your Wells Fargo home mortgage, it seems to be redeemable as a regular cash back award creditable towards any account you have with Wells Fargo (including the credit card account itself, or other credit cards or checking accounts you have with Wells Fargo).
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I had also signed up for a Wells Fargo Home Rebate Visa Signature Card through a personalized $100 bonus offer that was mailed to me, which I have already earned. Even though the terms say the cash back bonuses on that card are payable in the form of a rebate against the outstanding principal balance of your Wells Fargo home mortgage, it seems to be redeemable as a regular cash back award creditable towards any account you have with Wells Fargo (including the credit card account itself, or other credit cards or checking accounts you have with Wells Fargo).
The rebate can also be redeemed as a check mailed to you.
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I used to have with Chase Sapphire Preferred, but recently downgraded to the no fee version. It just didn't make sense after I got the Barclaycard Arrival, which gives 2% on everything. However, once the Arrival's annual fee comes up, I will also downgrade that to the no fee version. At that point, I will probably get the Fidelity AMEX, which also gives 2% on everything with no annual fee. My other keeper cards are Chase Freedom (no fee, 5% rotating), Costco AMEX (no fee with paid Costco membership, 3% gas), and Capital One Quicksilver (no fee, 1.5% everywhere, I'll use this where AMEX is not accepted).
Once I stopped dining out and buying gas so much, the cards with special categories didn't matter as much. I definitely can't justify an annual fee anymore. It takes a lot of spending just to cover the fee, and even then, you're still behind compared to a no fee card.
I will probably downgrade as well - I've actually had the Chase Freedom for several years, so getting rid of the Sapphire with the shorter history will be the smart thing to do. Unfortunately, it looks like the 5% rotating categories coincide with the same categories as my Discover.
I also wonder if the activity on my credit profile raised a flag with my existing credit card carriers, because I suddenly got an offer for an upgrade to 2% back on groceries and 3% back on gas with the BofA Mastercard I've had since 1999. When I called they asked why I hadn't been using the card, and reiterated that it was a 7.9% FIXED APR (not that it matters). Have never had this happen before, so it seems like a bit of a coincidence having just opened a few new cards in the last couple months.
If you have Wells Fargo accounts, you can just set it up to automatically dump the rewards $ into your account whenever you reach $25. As far as I can tell, the redemption rate for cash is the same as for any gift cards or whatever, with WF.
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I opened a new BankAmericard Visa for the $100 reward for spending $500 and the CSR upgraded the existing card from 1999 when I called to activate the new card. The 2 percent back on groceries is nice, better than the 1 percent most cards give. It's definitely hard to turn down free money.
All the card companies are trying to grow their credit card businesses. Credit limits are going up as well. Fewer defaults and more optimistic consumers are good for their business.
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Looks like the Chase Freedom spend $500 in first 3 months for $200 cash back deal is here again. Plus a $25 bonus for adding an authorized user.
Source: Slickdeals (http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/121556/chase---chase-freedom-credit-card-spend-500-in-first-3-months-and)
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Maybe we should have a separate thread for bank account (rather than credit card) bonuses, but figured I would post this here anyway. I usually avoid bank account bonuses in favor of credit card bonuses because (1) they are generally not as lucrative and (2) unlike credit card rewards, they are taxed, but there are some low hanging fruit that I think are worth going after. For example, my wife and I both signed up for the Santander Extra 20 checking account when it came out. If you set up direct deposit into the account and make two online bill payments a month, you earn $20. So that's an easy $40 per month (for a couple) that can be earned indefinitely. Bank account bonuses also have the benefit of no hard pull against your credit history.
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I will probably downgrade as well - I've actually had the Chase Freedom for several years, so getting rid of the Sapphire with the shorter history will be the smart thing to do.
Canceling a new card will not raise your average age of accounts, the account will stay on your credit file for 10 years even when closed.
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Found a way to double dip with Lowe's and it's worked at multiple locations both at the self checkout and regular registers. When you go to pay, slide your Lowe's card first and then when it asks you to confirm the total, select 'No.' Then slide your rewards card (which happens to be 5% this month) and finish the transaction. This gets you a 5% discount at the register plus cash back on your rewards card.
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Found a way to double dip with Lowe's and it's worked at multiple locations both at the self checkout and regular registers. When you go to pay, slide your Lowe's card first and then when it asks you to confirm the total, select 'No.' Then slide your rewards card (which happens to be 5% this month) and finish the transaction. This gets you a 5% discount at the register plus cash back on your rewards card.
Sounds like a programming bug. Take advantage while we still can!
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If anyone wants a referral for the $200 Chase Freedom offer or $400 Sapphire Preferred offer, PM me.
Also, I found this card:
PNC Bank Credit Card
$100 cash back for spending $1k in 3 months
After that, up to 1.75% cash back
https://www.pnc.com/webapp/unsec/Blank.do?siteArea=/pnccorp/PNC/Home/Personal/Credit+Cards/Credit+Card+Premium+Offers+A
Pretty nice; the only better card I can think of for cash back is the Fidelity Amex, and not everyone accepts Amex.
To get the full 1.75%, there are either spending requirements, or "money in the bank" requirements; most mustachians shouldn't have a problem meeting the latter.
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Found a way to double dip with Lowe's and it's worked at multiple locations both at the self checkout and regular registers. When you go to pay, slide your Lowe's card first and then when it asks you to confirm the total, select 'No.' Then slide your rewards card (which happens to be 5% this month) and finish the transaction. This gets you a 5% discount at the register plus cash back on your rewards card.
Hmmmmm......I was thinking of buying some Visa gift cards at Lowes to get the 5% off, this might be a good idea to get 10% off?
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Found a way to double dip with Lowe's and it's worked at multiple locations both at the self checkout and regular registers. When you go to pay, slide your Lowe's card first and then when it asks you to confirm the total, select 'No.' Then slide your rewards card (which happens to be 5% this month) and finish the transaction. This gets you a 5% discount at the register plus cash back on your rewards card.
Hmmmmm......I was thinking of buying some Visa gift cards at Lowes to get the 5% off, this might be a good idea to get 10% off?
I'm pretty sure the Lowe's credit card doesn't give a discount on gift cards.
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This all seems extremely confusing to me, we don't have a CC, what is a great ONE to get a nice bonus and a nice %back on all purchases?
Thanks
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This all seems extremely confusing to me, we don't have a CC, what is a great ONE to get a nice bonus and a nice %back on all purchases?
"Best" is subjective. If you want 2% cash back on all purchases, with no annual fee, get the Fidelity Amex card. This card, however, does not offer a bonus. Fidelity also offers a Visa card with 1.5% cash back on all purchases (2% after $15,000 annual spending).
The Chase Freedom is a 1% card with 5% rotating quarterly categories. This card is currently offering $200 cash back after spending $500 in the first three months. I think this is one of the best bonuses available for a no annual fee card. Most of the really big bonuses are for cards that have annual fees, which are usually waived for the first year, but then you need to remember to call in to ask them to waive the fee the next year or downgrade to a no-fee card.
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Data point: 3 years ago started CC reward game in earnest, FICO at 807. 3 years and well over 30 credit cards later (more than half have been cancelled) my FICO score sits at 817 (free score supplied by Barclays).
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Just revisiting this topic. I understand now how blue bird amex works to use points to pay your bills or mortgage.. but it looks like fewer places will let you purchase a vanilla reload card with a credit card. Is anyone currently using this method (you know a place that will sell the VR card and take credit card to purcahse it ) ? In Texas? In Austin?
Are there alternatives? I see mentions of buying gift cards with PINs and transfer to BB via Walmart ATM but details are vague.
I'm sure I can find some info if I keep searching google but maybe someone here already know plus the answer might benefit people here also.
Edit to make more clear. For sure if people were more clear in other forums I wouldn't probably have to ask!
You may have figured this out already, since your post is from a month ago, but I've been credit card churning to pay my loans through some loops (EvolveMoney) (some may consider this risky, but it was a great idea for my circumstance). Anyways, I'm in South Texas and I've had great luck with Valero Cornerstores, I've already bought about 4k in GCs. There are plenty around me, and some don't allow it, but most if you buy a 1 500$ GC just ask for ID.
I cannot speak on the BlueBird side though. GL with Churning, just do your research and be responsible =]
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Received a targeted offer in the mail from Astoria Bank today promising an offer "just for me," but there's no code and it appears to be open to anyone.
It's a $250 checking account opening bonus, one of the rare ones that does not require direct deposit. It requires (1) either (a) direct deposits of at least $250 for three months or (b) three online bill payments per month of $25 each for three months, and (2) maintaining an average monthly balance of $2500 (if you choose the Simple+ account). There are probably state residency limitations on opening an account with Astoria, but I couldn't find them after a quick search (but this will definitely work for anyone in New York).
Just signed up for both me and my wife, so that will be an easy $500. Unfortunately, unlike credit card rewards, bank rewards like this one are taxable.
Here's the link:
www.astoriadifference.com
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Received a targeted offer in the mail from Astoria Bank today promising an offer "just for me," but there's no code and it appears to be open to anyone.
It's a $250 checking account opening bonus, one of the rare ones that does not require direct deposit. It requires (1) either (a) direct deposits of at least $250 for three months or (b) three online bill payments per month of $25 each for three months, and (2) maintaining an average monthly balance of $2500 (if you choose the Simple+ account). There are probably state residency limitations on opening an account with Astoria, but I couldn't find them after a quick search (but this will definitely work for anyone in New York).
Just signed up for both me and my wife, so that will be an easy $500. Unfortunately, unlike credit card rewards, bank rewards like this one are taxable.
Here's the link:
www.astoriadifference.com
Can you open this account with a credit card online?
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Can you open this account with a credit card online?
You can open the account online but you can't fund the opening deposit with a credit card, if that's what you mean. I'm always wary of doing that anyway (even for purposes of hitting minimum spend thresholds), because you never know when it will be treated as a cash advance.
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Nothing to add, just want to follow the thread. Lots of good ideas in here.
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Navy Federal recently changed the rewards on the Cash Rewards Visa. Previously, spenders received 1% for the first $10,000 and 1.5% after that. Now it's 1.5% for all purchases. A quick call let me know that this change is permanent.
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Not sure if this fits here, but we opened a Chase Sapphire account for the rewards and we started using that as our primary card and stopped using our Discover. After 2 months of that, Discover offered $500 cash if I spent $3K a month for 6 months (on top of the regular bonuses and 5% categories). Once we hit $3k each month we switch back to our Chase card (my wife charges her corporate travel and gets reimbursed). Not sure if they did that because my usage dropped off a cliff for a couple months but it could be a good way to rotate back and forth.
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BB&T has a rewards credit card that offers 3% cash back on all purchases for the first 90 days and then turns into a 1% card thereafter. No sign on bonus but a great rewards rate for those months when you don't use the 5% categories. Find it here (http://www.bbt.com/bbtdotcom/banking/credit-cards/spectrum.page).
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I find this site helpful - it aggregates a lot of current CC offers in one place by type of reward (cash back, travel points, etc.): http://www.creditcards.com/cash-back.php
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Does anyone know if the send/receive limit on Amazon Payments is $1,000 combined? After I send $1000, it appears that I am then unable to receive any payments from other parties. Not sure I understand why receiving would be limited what I am sending.
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FWIW, after about 6 months of credit-card signing bonus shenanigans (ie get card, hit spending/pay off card, collect $, stop using card) I've started getting denied for new cards and my credit score dropped about 60 points (which isn't relevant to me since I don't anticipate ever needing a big loan for anything again). I've done 6 cards worth of bonuses in that time, with zero churning (ie all legit spending).
Any thoughts on whether I should start canceling cards (my plan was to wait until just under 1 year to keep the account duration from getting super short)? Am I screwing something up here?
-W
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FWIW, after about 6 months of credit-card signing bonus shenanigans (ie get card, hit spending/pay off card, collect $, stop using card) I've started getting denied for new cards and my credit score dropped about 60 points (which isn't relevant to me since I don't anticipate ever needing a big loan for anything again). I've done 6 cards worth of bonuses in that time, with zero churning (ie all legit spending).
Any thoughts on whether I should start canceling cards (my plan was to wait until just under 1 year to keep the account duration from getting super short)? Am I screwing something up here?
-W
Yes you should start cancelling the cards you are no longer using. The reason you are starting to get denied is probably one of A) You have an available credit which is more than your annual income and the credit card companies don't want you to be on the hook for that much in case you decide to run them all up and then declare bankruptcy and/or B) because your available credit is so high, your normal spending is only like 2% of your available instead of the 10-30% that is usually recommended. Its also possible that C) your credit took 6 inquiries in 6 months (one per sign up) which is usually a big red flag and only time will fix it. More than 4 inquiries per year (one card per quarter) is usually where you get in to trouble.
Cancelling cards should bring your total available credit back down which should fix both A and B. For C, you just need to wait it out. Inquiries disappear after a year.
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A great everyday card for me (and I assume for many Mustachians) is the Sallie Mae Mastercard. Sign up bonus of $25 for just using it in first 90 days, nothing to write home about. But what it does offer is:
5% back on first $250 in groceries every month
5% back on first $250 in gas every month
5% back on first $750 in bookstores every month (Amazon is apparently coded as a bookstore. I'm not sure if merchants on Amazon are coded this way, but if not, you could probably buy an Amazon gift card to get 5%, and then apply the gift card to an Amazon merchant purchase. I just got approved for this credit card so I haven't figured this out yet but I eagerly await my new CC =) )
1% on everything else
Rewards can be redeemed as a statement credit or towards your Sallie Mae student loan balance, if you have one.
A great card for those of you who like to travel and have sufficiently high net worth is the Bank of America Travel Rewards card. I have no personal experience with this card, but I've read about it from other places. It functions like Barclay's travel rewards card ( I forget the exact name) where if you make a purchase with a merchant whose merchant code fits a travel category, as determined by BoA, you can apply your points to the travel purchase as a statement credit. Apparently their definition of travel is pretty broad - I believe it includes airfare, hotels, resorts, cruises, rental cars, and some others.
No annual fee
Baseline reward is 1.5 points per dollar spent.
If you reserve travel through their portal, you get 3 points per dollar spent (except the extra 1.5 points per dollar spent on airfare is capped on the first $6000/yr)
When redeemed against travel expenses, the value of a point is 1 cent. If redeemed as strictly cash, the value of a point is 0.6 cents.
Now why did I say for those who have sufficiently high net worth? Well, if you have at least $20k, $50k, or $100k combined with BoA or Merrill Edge (this part is critical, since it will let you keep that large amount of money invested), then you can get a bonus on your rewards of 25%, 50%, or 75% by enrolling in the Preferred Rewards program (apparently you will need to have an average balance at the thresholds for at least three months before you can enroll). So, your maximum baseline reward now becomes 2.625 points per dollar spent. And if you book through their travel portal, you get 5.25 points per dollar spent. And as long as you always redeem against travel expenses, you've now used your Mustachian habits of saving money to create a 2.625% cash back on everything card, and 5.25% cash back on travel booked through BoA's portal.
Incidentally, these 25%, 50%, and 75% bonuses can also apply to the BoA 3-2-1 cash rewards card (gas, groceries, everything else) to get up to 5.25% on gas, 3.5% on groceries, and 1.75% everything else.
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A recent post in another thread about Discover's cashback checking account reminded me about a $50 bonus that I signed up for a little while back. If you are an existing Discover Card customer, you can get a $50 bonus for simply opening a Discover cashback checking account (which has an opening deposit minimum of $25). No other requirements to earn the bonus, and no pesky fees on the account. Offer expires 10/31/14. Here's the link:
https://www.discover.com/online-banking/checking-lp-lng-01/?src=S00000AZS&cde=S00000AZS