Author Topic: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?  (Read 21929 times)

Gone Fishing

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How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« on: December 18, 2015, 01:01:10 PM »
This year was probably our best year ever, I'm interested to see what others have done!

trailrated

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2015, 01:04:12 PM »
between me and the lady friend about 150,000 southwest points through bonuses.

Luck12

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2015, 01:06:43 PM »
Not sure about just CC but between bank bonuses and credit card rewards, after-tax, after marginal cost total gain is about $3,200.   I even fucked up 3 bank bonus chances so I could've hit $4,000.  I did almost all of my work on this during work hours too. 

FenderBender

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2015, 01:14:18 PM »
i'm in key west now on points with wife and brought my mom and niece along - 4 nights at hyatt and 2 at sheraton all free.  airfare for wife and i free. 

summer 2015 - LV, NYC and trip to beach all free.  i liked the LV portion of this trip but i hated NYC - we did it for out of country friend of my wife visiting us.   I relax by the pool and send them on their way.

with only so much time off, i'm not concerned about accumulating more points than we can use... just enough to vacation for free.   i even got my rides through UBER for free and my rental cars. 

 

norabird

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2015, 01:17:24 PM »
Paid for my christmas travel from the east to the west coast! (Well, had to shell out $85....but this is 10x less what it would have been without points!)

iamlindoro

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2015, 01:20:01 PM »
Probably right around 500,000 points spent and re-earned this year in a number of programs.  Easily $10K worth of travel on the points spent.  Didn't churn quite as aggressively this year, but had a LOT of reimbursed office supply expenses on the Ink Bold (I bought all the office supplies and materials for a brand new startup for a full year), and almost maxed out the 5x bonus at no cost to me.

Next year, will only churn minimally since I'm expecting to get three more mortgages, but will have plenty of bonus spend so it should still be a good one.

Travis

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2015, 01:22:13 PM »
$500 cash back and 50,000 Chase points.  I'm looking to do at least twice this in 2016.

bacchi

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2015, 01:28:43 PM »
800,000 Marriott points. That's worth about $75.

SuperSecretName

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2015, 01:31:45 PM »
oodles.

multiples thousands per month.  It's been an amazing few years for us who know how to play the CC game.

trailrated

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2015, 01:32:53 PM »
800,000 Marriott points. That's worth about $75.

LOL!

BarkyardBQ

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2015, 01:35:58 PM »
About $700 cash back.

Paul der Krake

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2015, 01:38:50 PM »
About 5-8k worth of stuff, depending on how generously you value the points.

doggyfizzle

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2015, 01:42:27 PM »
110k Southwest RR points + SW Companion pass until Dec 2016
250K AAdvantage points
135k Membership Rewards Points
85k Chase UR Points
75k Starwood Points

Pretty good year, with minimal work other than using ChargeSmart/Plastiq a couple times for the mortgage and a few $500 Visa GCs liquidated as MOs.

Roboturner

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2015, 01:45:34 PM »
b/w gf and I,

Round-trip Denver-Florida (x2) on SW - Over thanksgiving no less
Round-trip Denver-Cabo (x1) - Gf to bachelorette party (for a particularly unmustachian couple)
about $250 in cash-back

we don't manufacture-spend though, just throw everything on CC's and pay off every month

all-in-all pretty ok as far as free stuff goes

sol

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2015, 02:04:27 PM »
About a thousand for regular cashback on our regular credit card, plus one $300 signing bonus for opening a checking account and leaving it open for six months.   Took maybe 90 minutes of work over the course of the year, mostly to open
the checking account.

Rubic

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #15 on: December 18, 2015, 02:16:39 PM »
Between $7-9K in a mixture of cash, miles, and points, depending on how you value points/miles.  This includes bank bonuses.  I'll probably cool off churning for a bit in 2016 to avoid some awkward conversations in recon.


PhrugalPhan

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #16 on: December 18, 2015, 02:27:38 PM »
About $700 in CC bonuses, my worst year in I don't know how long.  The sign up bonus offers are coming less frequently to my mailbox - I'm just not feeling the love any more.

That said, this is a good reminder - I need to sign up for another bonus offer tonight.  It came a few weeks ago and runs out the end of the year.

Does getting a free 3 night stay near an amusement park for me and my son count (when going to a time share presentation)?  I got out after only 2 hours shockingly - I think I learned how to tell them they had no prayer with me.

YK-Phil

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #17 on: December 18, 2015, 02:51:27 PM »
In Canada here, where we have much less options than in the USA.

Banking:
ATB bank: I opened a bank account ($350) and referred my wife ($150), who opened hers and got $350. Had to keep the accounts open for 3 months, at $5/month for fees, total fees $30. Net gain: $830. Accounts closed

Tangerine Bank: got $150 in referrals. Also got $150 for opening a no-fee checking account. Wife got $150 too.

No-fee Credit cards:
Capital One: $75 Amazon credit signup bonus (through ratessupermarket.ca)
ScotiaBank Scene: $50 Amazon credit signup bonus (through ratessupermarket.ca)
ScotiaBank Visa: $75 Amazon credit signup bonus (through ratessupermarket.ca)
President's Choice: 50,000 pts, equivalent to $50, also came with a $75 Amazon credit signup bonus (through ratessupermarket.ca)

Fee credit cards (no fee for year 1)
RBC Avion: 30,000 pts (equals $300 in air tickets), also came with $150 Amazon credit
RBC Avion Business: 30,000 pts (equals $300 in air tickets).
Amex Aeroplan Gold: 25,000 Aeroplan pts, also came with $150 Amazon credit
Amex ScotiaBank: 30,000 Scotia pts (equals $300 in air tickets), also came with a $150 Amazon credit

I got a few other cards I can't remember, that came with Amazon credits between $20 and $50, I keep them in the safe place at home after getting the signup and/or threshold spending bonuses. I keep the no-fee cards but cancel the cards with an annual fee before year-end.

I am having problems getting the Amazon Visa credit card with no forex fees. I've been rejected 3 times now, not sure what is going on...

2Saving4Life

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #18 on: December 18, 2015, 03:04:54 PM »
$1200 Cash Back Capital One

120k  Chase UR Points

110k  American Airlines Miles

80k   SPG Points

53k  Citi Thank You Points

51k  Amex MR Points

51k British Airways Miles

46k Barclays Arrival Plus Points

35k United Airlines Miles

Gin1984

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #19 on: December 18, 2015, 03:09:44 PM »
$550 in cash and three nights in NYC. Then chase said no more to us.  So sad.

Paul der Krake

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #20 on: December 18, 2015, 04:08:24 PM »
$550 in cash and three nights in NYC. Then chase said no more to us.  So sad.
Don't worry, Chase has a limited memory and always comes back to her abusers, asking them to take her back.

sisto

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #21 on: December 18, 2015, 04:22:16 PM »
$986 plus some change in cash back rewards

themagicman

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #22 on: December 18, 2015, 04:26:01 PM »
$3,000 in cash and gift cards and a ~$18,000 all expense trip to Europe!

makincaid

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #23 on: December 18, 2015, 04:47:06 PM »
~200k airline miles (~50k each American Airlines, Delta, United, Chase UR) accumulated.

Used 36k miles to book a $60 round trip flight from Atlanta to Madrid, Spain (Yippee).

BigHaus89

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #24 on: December 18, 2015, 05:14:04 PM »
I probably did about $600 between $100 bonus offers and cashback from spending.

jawisco

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #25 on: December 18, 2015, 07:13:21 PM »
I earned approx 200,000 miles/points worth at least $3000 by my calculations.  Minimal effort expended. 

It can't go on like this forever, can it?

Stasher

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #26 on: December 18, 2015, 07:46:21 PM »
We utilize a few cards and use them exclusive, no debit or credit cards (we live in Canada)

I use my ScotiaBank Momentum Infinite cutback and just had my refund cheque deposited for $600
Wife uses our Canadian Tire Mastercard and we earned about $400 "CT Money" good for face value on all in store purchases
I use my Westjet MasterCard primarily for travel/business expense and earned about $1200 good for face value on all flights

I have looked into getting an Aeroplan card or another card but unsure what is the best next bonus to take advantage of. Never thought about taking advantage of the new bank account incentives like YYC-Phil did , well done.

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #27 on: December 19, 2015, 08:13:09 AM »
I think we average around $1000 cash back each year by trading in miles for travel purchases (that's about 100,000 miles which at 2X miles amounts to spending about 50K).  I am amazed at those of you that can get multiple thousands a year!  I guess we don't spend enough!  We put everything we can on the credit card in order to max our rewards.  In addition we have traded in some miles on American after it merged with USAir for some of the cost of tickets to Costa Rica next month.

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #28 on: December 19, 2015, 09:42:59 AM »
$696.45 after fees.  Straight cash. 


reader2580

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #29 on: December 19, 2015, 01:23:25 PM »
I'm finding there are few credit card offers I haven't already done.  I rarely stay in a hotel or fly on a plane so deals that only give points for hotels or flights I don't typically do.

I gave up on any sort of manufactured spending since all the easy free stuff got shut down.  I was only doing small potatoes like maybe $1000 a month max.

use2betrix

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2015, 02:13:14 PM »
Around $2000. Helps putting a whole wedding and nice engagement ring on the card though.

Abe

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #31 on: December 19, 2015, 02:29:33 PM »
Two round-trip tickets from Chicago to Florida, and a couple hundred in cash back. The tickets were after 3 years of using the card, showing how little we spend. Also some random seat upgrades; I can't really explain how those were awarded.

Lanthiriel

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #32 on: December 19, 2015, 02:35:26 PM »
We just started churning in September, and turned out $1000 in cash back and three domestic plane tickets. We're playing it pretty mild cuz it freaks out my husband, so we're not manufacturing spending and everything is in my name.

seattlecyclone

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #33 on: December 19, 2015, 02:45:26 PM »
I didn't mess around with any signup bonuses or manufactured spend this year. I did accept a promo from Discover at the beginning of the year to spend $1,000 and get $100 cash back. All told we got a little over $600 cash back on $22k of spending, for 2.7% back overall. I'll take it!

MsFrugalista

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #34 on: December 19, 2015, 05:46:44 PM »
I have been doing credit card churning/bank bonuses since 2013, but I think this was the year that I really hit it hard. We bought a house last year and I was being conservative so it wouldn't impact our mortgage and refinancing (although, I found that it didn't really impact us much..). Anyway, this year between my partner and I, we accumulated the following:
  • $2,000 in bank bonuses
  • 750K in airline miles (across different airlines programs)
  • 450K in hotel points + 6 free nights (across different hotel programs)

We don't anticipating hitting it hard again next year, but this 'game' changes so much that anything is possible!

We sure did enjoy all the points and miles though: 7 trips in total in 2015 (15 hotel nights and 6 round trip tickets) and 4 round trip tickets for my parents to visit us twice last year to visit their grandson :) In addition, we booked a trip in 2016 for 7 nights and 2 round trip airfare to the French Polynesia. The FP trip is a splurge, somewhere I have been wanting to go to and when I found out it was feasible with miles and points, I thought why not? Credit card rewards has really made it possible for us to book this trip (and all others) at a fraction of the actual cost (which I would never have paid!).

zinethstache

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #35 on: December 20, 2015, 10:40:49 AM »
Around $800 on our cash rewards card and $500 with our local CU rewards card.

We also checked on our Airlines card we no longer use, we need to get to using those miles up we have over 500k there.

Teacherstache

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #36 on: December 21, 2015, 11:12:53 AM »
Around $750. We don't play credit cards games or do manufactured spending. We also don't do any miles rewards. We do try to put as much as possible on our cards each month and always pay them off in full. We only have 3 total credit cards, one of which was opened this year and the sign-up bonus was $250 of the $750. I anticipate about $500 for next year.

TheAnonOne

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #37 on: December 21, 2015, 11:44:09 AM »
We did a first class trip to Maui staying at the Andaz ($600 a night)

This trip was about $10,000 if bought. Though, had we paid, it would have had been coach and a lesser hotel but still around $4,000.


We also are getting the SW companion pass in JAN, we still have enough AA miles to go to the EU.....

Vanguards and Lentils

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #38 on: December 21, 2015, 12:08:24 PM »
I look forward to doing this more in the future, but here's what I was able to do this year on my grad student stipend, with very low spending. I can't get many travel rewards because I don't fly often.

2015 Total: $698 in rewards and signup/referral bonuses:

$124 from Citi double cash - 2% cash back
$108 from Capital One quicksilver - $100 signup bonus + 1.5% cash back
$107 from Chase Freedom - 2 x $50 for referring friends (when they had the $200 back on $500 spend offer) + cash back
$100 from BoA Better Balance Rewards card - 4 x $25 quarterly bonus for paying a bill on time
$100 in Amazon credit from Discover IT chrome - signup bonus
$85 from Amex Blue Sky - statement credits from redeeming 6 different amex offers
$51 from Capital One VentureOne - statement credits applied to travel expenses
$23 from Amazon.com Store Card - 5% cash back on amazon

Some of the amex offers were very useful. I plan to get another one of their cards to hopefully multiply the offers I am able to redeem.

I also recently subscribed to reddit.com/r/churning because they are way more on top of this than I am.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 12:30:56 PM by supermatthew »

mistershankly

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #39 on: December 21, 2015, 01:11:43 PM »
Wow!  Some really insightful information on this thread.  I'm fairly new to the points and rewards game.  Is there a site or other resource any of you use to learn of ways to maximize earning/using rewards?

Turnbull

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #40 on: December 21, 2015, 01:57:17 PM »
Wow!  Some really insightful information on this thread.  I'm fairly new to the points and rewards game.  Is there a site or other resource any of you use to learn of ways to maximize earning/using rewards?

Find Brad and Alexi around here somewhere and take their class.   Check out TravelMiles101.com.

We took the class in September and started getting cards in October. This is what we've done so far:

50k AmEx MR points
180k Chase UR points
50k Southwest points
150k Hilton points

Right now we're finishing up two other cards that will give us 60k more Hilton points and 25k Starwood points. I feel like an idiot for paying for travel all these years but I'm planning on making up for it in a big way.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 02:00:30 PM by Turnbull »

GodlessCommie

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #41 on: December 21, 2015, 01:58:27 PM »
$2,175 in cash on sign-up offers, plus at least 2% on all CC spend.

No manufactured spending, just shifted normal expenses from card to card.

MasterStache

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #42 on: December 21, 2015, 02:04:57 PM »
Didn't start until June
$600 cash back
6 Nights at Hyatt all inclusive Jamaica - paid with free nights and points
Roundtrip Airfare for family of 4 - paid for with over 100K in Southwest points

Basically our entire vacation next year is paid for with CC rewards.

Gin1984

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #43 on: December 21, 2015, 02:06:28 PM »
Wow!  Some really insightful information on this thread.  I'm fairly new to the points and rewards game.  Is there a site or other resource any of you use to learn of ways to maximize earning/using rewards?

Find Brad and Alexi around here somewhere and take their class.   Check out TravelMiles101.com.

We took the class in September and started getting cards in October. This is what we've done so far:

50k AmEx MR points
180k Chase UR points
50k Southwest points
150k Hilton points

Right now we're finishing up two other cards that will give us 60k more Hilton points and 25k Starwood points. I feel like an idiot for paying for travel all these years but I'm planning on making up for it in a big way.
Are you planning on spending those directly or transfering them to another?

Turnbull

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #44 on: December 21, 2015, 04:41:53 PM »
I'm not sure what we're going to do with them. We live near a Southwest hub so we probably wouldn't transfer them to another airline. We may get $500 worth of Airbnb gift cards or the $500 REI gift card since the garage sale is coming up. Not bad for only $1k spend!

Tetsuya Hondo

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #45 on: December 21, 2015, 05:23:21 PM »
If I may humbly ask, would y'all mind mentioning what card you used and what the tangible outcomes were? A number of you didn't but it's really helpful to see what real world experiences have been with different cards. And "points" can vary in meaning between cards.

I got $850 cash from an AMEX Blue Cash card on an old grandfathered plan with no fees.

Turnbull

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #46 on: December 21, 2015, 06:42:53 PM »
If I may humbly ask, would y'all mind mentioning what card you used and what the tangible outcomes were? A number of you didn't but it's really helpful to see what real world experiences have been with different cards. And "points" can vary in meaning between cards.

I got $850 cash from an AMEX Blue Cash card on an old grandfathered plan with no fees.

You're right in that there is a huge difference in the value of a point. We recently transferred 5k Chase UR points to Hyatt's program and got a nice room for a quick business trip to Atlanta. It was a 650 sq ft two room suite that was really nice. A comparable room would have cost about 30k Hilton points.

We got our Chase points from the Sapphire and Ink cards.

act0fgod

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #47 on: December 21, 2015, 07:10:14 PM »
I'm interested in hearing what cards people used and how they used their points as well. 

Wife and I both got Amex 50k points this year.  Trying to figure out how to utilize the Amex points is a real pain (pricing points out with different partners is time consuming and I'm not sure if it's entirely accurate).

Also signed up for the Southwest 50k premier and plus and will transfer Marriott points to get the 110k for the companion pass. Using these points is pretty straight forward, which I like.

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #48 on: December 21, 2015, 07:14:29 PM »
If I may humbly ask, would y'all mind mentioning what card you used and what the tangible outcomes were? A number of you didn't but it's really helpful to see what real world experiences have been with different cards. And "points" can vary in meaning between cards.

I got $850 cash from an AMEX Blue Cash card on an old grandfathered plan with no fees.

I use a Citi Double Cash and AMEX Blue Cash Preferred.  Gas (3%) and groceries (6%) go on the AMEX and everything else (2%) on the Citi.  The only catches for the AMEX are a $6000 annual grocery limit and a $75 annual fee.

If you are still using the old AMEX Blue Cash, chances are you will do better with my combo.  I used to use the AMEX you have exclusively but I am doing better now.  The only way it might not work is if a lot of your spending is groceries.

kpd905

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Re: How much did you do in credit card rewards/bonuses this year?
« Reply #49 on: December 21, 2015, 08:32:45 PM »
$3733 this year worth of flights, hotels, car rentals and statement credits, plus another $1900 in checking account bonuses.  We only went on one big trip this year.  In 2016 we are going to do 3 different one week vacations, so we will probably have $6,000+ in redemptions.  We are sitting on probably close to a million points/miles right now.

When I keep track of valuations, I just search flights for that day and choose the cheapest one and use that amount.  If I fly business class, I do not consider that getting $1,000+ value for the flight, I just count it as $400 or whatever the economy option would have cost.

In 2014 we had $6100 in redemptions, and $5500 in 2013.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2015, 05:49:21 AM by kpd905 »