Maximizing credit card rewards

[99Saturn]

most used: Amex blue cash preferred
6% back at the grocery store(up to 6k)
3% on fuel
1% everywhere else
$95 annual fee
Dining only: Capital one Savor
4% on dining
amazon credit card for 5% back on amazon makes a big difference as well.

i never swipe my debit card. all bills that don’t have a credit card fee go to my AMEX and others are autopay from the bank account. had my amex for 4 months and i’m over $225 in rewards points. not a massive amount but every bit helps. no reason not to use credit cards. i pay them off twice a month and NEVER carry a balance. the only debt in my life is my home.

That would be great for a family or anyone who spends $$$$ on groceries- and who doesn’t?

Maybe it comes out a wash relative to us. Getting more on “everything else” - retired couple who uses cards for everything except cash discount.

Not really directed at either of you but for whoever its worth it to...you comments just made me think of it.

We use a Citi Custom Card for groceries 5% monthly in your highest spend category (capped at $500 spend a month in that category). So similar in the math is $6000 a year. I can't justify the $95 fee for $180 max in points versus the extra 3% on groceries versus the amex blue card, plus grocery stores at 5% are the rotating category on other cards at least 6 months out of the year.

Have an old Penfed card for gas that is 5% at the pump but when you cash in the points equates to ~4.2% IIRC. Think I am going to sign up for my own Citi Custom soon (current is the wife's) and just have one for gas and one for groceries.

 

[Pablo]

Yeah I would not own a fee card - my cards make sense for us. Definitely math it out and don’t be stopid just to get a card “rebate “

 

[PWMDMD]

Yeah I would not own a fee card - my cards make sense for us. Definitely math it out and don’t be stopid just to get a card “rebate “

I have an Amex plat and gold card and both easily pay their annual fee and then some. First thing I do is contact Amex around anniversary time and ask if there are any retention offers. Often they will give you a deal where if you spend X, they'll give you Y points. Sometimes this is worth half the annual fee. This can even be done over IM on the website. Then between the digital entertainment credit, restaurant credit, credit Dunkin's, Uber credit, $200 airline fee, and a few more I can't think of right now, you get close if not over the annual fee BEFORE you start counting any points.

 

[99Saturn]

I would never use a debit card at a store or especially a gas station. With a compromised card reader, if someone gets ahold of your debit account, it is much harder, if at all, to get your money back.

I have a separate card I use at gas stations and fast food, it's a sacrificial card so if it gets compromised, I don't have to re-enter new card credentials into all the autopay accounts.

Tip: I covered my name and CC #'s on the card with thin black tape so that a cashier cannot take a picture of it in a drive-through.

You guys are really optimizing CC use, and it's time for me to upgrade, if you were to start from scratch, what combo would you use?

I'm thinking of adding these to the mix:

- Amazon card due to the 5% cash back.
- Lowes card 5% discount.

How many cards are you willing to carry around, and use in a specific situation?

Purely for cash back and no annual fee, my lineup - only listing the categories I use them for, but most have lessor categories too:
Citi custom - 5% rotating categories (I use grocery stores)
Discover It, Chase Freedom - 5% rotating categories
Penfed Platinum Rewards - 5% on gas, as mentioned actual redemption is lower, probably will replace with a second citi custom
Amazon card 5% amazon
Capital One Savor 3% dining out
Amex Blue - 3% online shopping
US Bank Cash+ - 5% in two categories of your choosing - one of the options is utilities

Catch alls:
Citi Double Cash and Fidelity 2% catch all (Wells Fargo has one too)
Citi Rewards+ - round up to nearest 10 points (got to maximize those $1 transactions)
I buy the occasional prepaid card at a grocery store for categories I don't have covered

Deprioritized cards:
State Farm card that pays 3% back on insurance premiums, because I pay insurance premiums and medical bills with the prepaid cards.

 

[Pablo]

I started waiting until the last day for payment again and this happened.

hahahahahahahahahahahahaa

 

[BrendanC]

I started waiting until the last day for payment again and this happened.

View attachment 278096


























hahahahahahahahahahahahaa

it takes certain companies a few days before they actually show that you paid the balance so sometimes a balance is reported. this is why i have reminders to pay off halfway through the month then 3 days prior to my statement close date.

 

[Pablo]

it takes certain companies a few days before they actually show that you paid the balance so sometimes a balance is reported. this is why i have reminders to pay off halfway through the month then 3 days prior to my statement close date.

I was NOT being serious. Who the heck cares??

 

[BrendanC]

I was NOT being serious. Who the heck cares??

oh, my apologies. i care as i’m still younger and establishing credit.

 

[Pablo]

oh, my apologies. i care as i’m still younger and establishing credit.

No worries, and don't worry if you aren't 850. I think there are no lower rates or anything when you break 700-750 or so

 

[BrendanC]

No worries, and don't worry if you aren't 850. I think there are no lower rates or anything when you break 700-750 or so

i established my first credit card in sumer of 2023. so my credit history isn’t great. i’m 100% on time and don’t carry any balance. before we bought our house i was at a 751. it dropped me to a 699 signing for the house. i worked it back to a 721 before opening two additional cards (my AMEX and amazon card). now im hovering at a 720 but it wont budge up or down now.

we pay 2x the principal per month on our house trying to knock down the mortatge. however, i dont know if this hurts me or not

 

[Pablo]

i established my first credit card in sumer of 2023. so my credit history isn’t great. i’m 100% on time and don’t carry any balance. before we bought our house i was at a 751. it dropped me to a 699 signing for the house. i worked it back to a 721 before opening two additional cards (my AMEX and amazon card). now im hovering at a 720 but it wont budge up or down now.

we pay 2x the principal per month on our house trying to knock down the mortatge. however, i dont know if this hurts me or not

Might eventually help as the principal shrinks. Good on you

 

[99Saturn]

i established my first credit card in sumer of 2023. so my credit history isn’t great. i’m 100% on time and don’t carry any balance. before we bought our house i was at a 751. it dropped me to a 699 signing for the house. i worked it back to a 721 before opening two additional cards (my AMEX and amazon card). now im hovering at a 720 but it wont budge up or down now.

we pay 2x the principal per month on our house trying to knock down the mortatge. however, i dont know if this hurts me or not

Amount of available credit used could be driving that, but time and payment history has an impact too. Only thing you can do for time is wait obviously - that will build you payment history and length of credit.

Like Pablo said after a certain number you’re not really getting any benefit. I wouldn’t be too concerned.

 

[Owen Lucas]

How many cards are you willing to carry around, and use in a specific situation?

Purely for cash back and no annual fee, my lineup - only listing the categories I use them for, but most have lessor categories too:
Citi custom - 5% rotating categories (I use grocery stores)
Discover It, Chase Freedom - 5% rotating categories
Penfed Platinum Rewards - 5% on gas, as mentioned actual redemption is lower, probably will replace with a second citi custom
Amazon card 5% amazon
Capital One Savor 3% dining out
Amex Blue - 3% online shopping
US Bank Cash+ - 5% in two categories of your choosing - one of the options is utilities

Catch alls:
Citi Double Cash and Fidelity 2% catch all (Wells Fargo has one too)
Citi Rewards+ - round up to nearest 10 points (got to maximize those $1 transactions)
I buy the occasional prepaid card at a grocery store for categories I don't have covered

Deprioritized cards:
State Farm card that pays 3% back on insurance premiums, because I pay insurance premiums and medical bills with the prepaid cards.

Great advice, I'll look into this lineup.

I don't carry all my cards with me, some are strictly online. I have a few card programmed into my phone, so I can also add to those easily.

 

[99Saturn]

How many cards are you willing to carry around, and use in a specific situation?

Purely for cash back and no annual fee, my lineup - only listing the categories I use them for, but most have lessor categories too:
Citi custom - 5% rotating categories (I use grocery stores)
Discover It, Chase Freedom - 5% rotating categories
Penfed Platinum Rewards - 5% on gas, as mentioned actual redemption is lower, probably will replace with a second citi custom
Amazon card 5% amazon
Capital One Savor 3% dining out
Amex Blue - 3% online shopping
US Bank Cash+ - 5% in two categories of your choosing - one of the options is utilities

Catch alls:
Citi Double Cash and Fidelity 2% catch all (Wells Fargo has one too)
Citi Rewards+ - round up to nearest 10 points (got to maximize those $1 transactions)
I buy the occasional prepaid card at a grocery store for categories I don't have covered

Deprioritized cards:
State Farm card that pays 3% back on insurance premiums, because I pay insurance premiums and medical bills with the prepaid cards.

I see that the Citi Rewards+ is being discontinued and converted to a Citi Strata Card. End of the small purchase card for me.

 

[cammyfive79]

15 or so years ago I went down this rabbit hole and had spreadsheets comparing annual fees to points to cash back vs what stores/restaurants we use, etc etc etc. Much like here, it was analogous to be obsessing over the slightest variation on a UOA and going nutty to have a perfect report. I left all of that - the obsession on churning credit cards and using such and such in very specific situations - brain damage behind.

I have 3 cards I actively use - Delta Skymiles AmEx, Navy Fed Visa Reward, Shell Gas Card. I don't organize my life where I do or don't do something simply because I do or don't have a card that will pay me 0.1% higher if I spend $XXXXX. There have been numerous studies done where folks inadvertently spend quite a bit more because they know they'll get more points/cash back. I was there....trust me. Simplifying it made me a lot happier in life. Well, losing a high paying job years ago and being in the corporate 10 rounds of interview machine after that will teach you a lot about simplifying. So now, Navy Fed is for every day use, AmEx for reimbursable business expenses and personal trips, Shell gas card for....well......gas for both of our cars as I also have Tmobile and there is a good discount per gallon when paired together. That's it. Every Navy Fed statement we PIF and get a little bit back in the way of rewards, but nothing other than nice little surprise. Same with AmEx, every year we get enough for some Delta tickets.

It's like having 1 brand/viscosity oil for your fleet that performs well and you don't have to worry about.

 

[Pablo]

I know what you mean, I just pretty much use the Fidelity card except the few things the Costco card is better for. Farmer's stands and such get my cash.

 

[99Saturn]

15 or so years ago I went down this rabbit hole and had spreadsheets comparing annual fees to points to cash back vs what stores/restaurants we use, etc etc etc. Much like here, it was analogous to be obsessing over the slightest variation on a UOA and going nutty to have a perfect report. I left all of that - the obsession on churning credit cards and using such and such in very specific situations - brain damage behind.

I have 3 cards I actively use - Delta Skymiles AmEx, Navy Fed Visa Reward, Shell Gas Card. I don't organize my life where I do or don't do something simply because I do or don't have a card that will pay me 0.1% higher if I spend $XXXXX. There have been numerous studies done where folks inadvertently spend quite a bit more because they know they'll get more points/cash back. I was there....trust me. Simplifying it made me a lot happier in life. Well, losing a high paying job years ago and being in the corporate 10 rounds of interview machine after that will teach you a lot about simplifying. So now, Navy Fed is for every day use, AmEx for reimbursable business expenses and personal trips, Shell gas card for....well......gas for both of our cars as I also have Tmobile and there is a good discount per gallon when paired together. That's it. Every Navy Fed statement we PIF and get a little bit back in the way of rewards, but nothing other than nice little surprise. Same with AmEx, every year we get enough for some Delta tickets.

It's like having 1 brand/viscosity oil for your fleet that performs well and you don't have to worry about.

I don't really disagree, even though I fall into the bit more of an extreme camp (I do occasionally use a spreadsheet to track a category so I don't go over what earns cash back). The extra 2% - 4% isn't going to break the bank for me but I think of it as a fun hobby that creates pocket cash.

I 100% agree if it gets to the point where someone is spending just to get the cashback, they are making bad decisions.

 

[opus1]

And in case it hasn't been mentioned yet (not that I could see) - Goldman Sachs/Marcus is selling the GM Card business to Barclays. I received a couple of flyers last week and it looks like things will be changing, which stinks for me because I have been grandfathered in and have the original point accumulation structure where you earn up to $500/year, points start to expire after 7 years, but you could accumulate 3500 points as a $3500 rebate on one purchase. When I bought the Cobalt, I had 4 different rebates to use - GM Card, a national GM promotion, a Chicago area GM promotion, and a rebate through the Illinois Farm Bureau. And the system took them all. Before that I used the max earnings to buy my dear, departed Malibu. The nice part about that was that I was traveling for work, a lot, so I'd max out the earnings around May of the timeframe and most of those earnings were paid for due to the travel expense reimbursement.

From skimming the flyers it sounds like I'll be able to use points in other ways, but it seems like whenever a company changes the rules on you, it's not for your benefit...

Otherwise I have the standard mix everyone else seems to have, Discover, Chase Freedom, Citi. And one credit union-issued card that I use solely to pay my monthly cell phone bill - this gives me insurance coverage on the phone through the card vs. buying coverage from the carrier.

 

[Cropduster172]

I keep it simple.
Capital One Quicksilver for almost all purchases... groceries, gas, Home Depot stuff, Comcast bill, etc...1.5% on everything no annual fee.
But we've had a Wells Fargo Visa that offers almost nothing...some goofy gift points. Have had it for years. This thread has me thinking of abandoning it and going with the Wells Fargo Active Cash....2% on everything listed above...no fee either and WF is our bank so accounts would still be connected, although that's not an issue with auto bill payment. I have others too but I rarely use them. Amex, BoA, PayPal(for eBay purchases)pretty sure an Amazon one too but use the Quicksilver for all Amazon purchases.

 

[99Saturn]

I keep it simple.
Capital One Quicksilver for almost all purchases... groceries, gas, Home Depot stuff, Comcast bill, etc...1.5% on everything no annual fee.
But we've had a Wells Fargo Visa that offers almost nothing...some goofy gift points. Have had it for years. This thread has me thinking of abandoning it and going with the Wells Fargo Active Cash....2% on everything listed above...no fee either and WF is our bank so accounts would still be connected, although that's not an issue with auto bill payment. I have others too but I rarely use them. Amex, BoA, PayPal(for eBay purchases)pretty sure an Amazon one too but use the Quicksilver for all Amazon purchases.

The WF Active Cash is a good choice among the 2% off everything cards.