Posted: 5/7/2014 4:13:39 PM EDT
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Wondering how I can use the points in the best way.
I don't carry a balance, but if I was to run all my monthly transactions through the card up to the limit and then pay it off, would I get the rewards or would I need to carry the balance to do so? |
| You get points for purchases, not for carrying balance. I used credit cards for as much as I can in life, as long as you pay it off, you get free protection on your purchases and you literally get paid to use it. Win-win as long as you are not a moron and dont spend more money than you have. |
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You get points for purchases, not for carrying balance. I used credit cards for as much as I can in life, as long as you pay it off, you get free protection on your purchases and you literally get paid to use it. Win-win as long as you are not a moron and dont spend more money than you have. Thanks for the response. Yeah why I don't carry a balance. Its my first cash/rewards card so I wanted to make sure. I really like the protection thing. I use my credit card as much as possible also. I figure the bank will fight harder to get their money than I can . 
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Make sure there are no convenience fees or surcharges on items you intend to pay with your CC - if I could pay my mortgage, car payment, and utilities on my cash back CC without fees, I would.
But I do charge everything else and get between 20 and 40 bucks a month in cash back. |
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Make sure there are no convenience fees or surcharges on items you intend to pay with your CC - if I could pay my mortgage, car payment, and utilities on my cash back CC without fees, I would. But I do charge everything else and get between 20 and 40 bucks a month in cash back. Good to know I appreciate it. 
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My wife and I have been doing this for 15 years and being a tightwad, I've done a lot of research. The simple fact is, after the congressional Credit Card Reform Act of 2009 the reward benefits severely dropped. I had a deal going for about 2 years with Chase that gave me 3% cash back on all purchases, 5% cashback on a few categories (that I was using a lot for business) and every time I got $100 in cashback built up, they would ad an extra $50 to it. My cashback for a couple years in a row was insane! It all crashed and burned after 2009. Now the best you can really hope for is 1% with a 3-5% in some bonus categories, and depending on what you spend your money on normally the bonus categories might help you out. Often they aren't a huge help. I've looked into the gas rewards, air miles, the whole shebang and from what I've seen and what we do, the best deal is just getting the cash back. I'm sure if you fly a lot there might be some decent cards for air miles but they've changed a lot of those cards to add restrictions that make them about the same as cash back. With our businesses and personal we managed to get back a couple thousand a year. I've seen some forums and blogs dedicated to whoring the cash back cards but it's never seemed worth it to me. Some of these people open up new cards to get the sign on bonus, then cancel as soon as they can. switch to cards that have a temporary bonus going on etc. It's a bit much unless you are charging serious money every month. We keep a personal Chase and Discover card and will switch between the two depending on who has what special going for the month or quarter. For instance, if Discover had 5% cash back for 3 months on fuel then we try to remember to use it for fuel etc. For our businesses, we just have one card and use it. Too difficult to do anything else. Pay the balance in full every single month and you will be golden! |
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I love to use Cash Back Credit Cards.
Chase and Discover have rotating categories that change every quarter for 5%, otherwise they pay 1% Capital One Quicksilver pays 1.5% on all purchases all of the time. AMEX Blue Cash pays something like 2% on fuel and 3% at grocery stores. There are some "Preferred" Cash Back Cards, they usually pay higher percentages, but they come with an annual fee. I could probably earn enough to overcome the fee and make it worth it, but on principle I refuse to pay any type of fee. As the first responder mentioned, don't EVER charge more than you can afford to pay off. Rewards cards typically carry higher interest rates than their non-rewards counter parts. |
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one piece of advise is do not pay untill the bililng cycle is closed for example
purchase something $1000 dollars dont log in and pay it. wait for the cycle to end and the bill shows up or you wont get the cash back. say you did the 1000 charge and paid 300 on the card the next day. at the end of your billing cycle you will only get credit for cash back on the 700 remaining. obviously once the bill shows up pay it in full and reap maxium rewards we put every thing on our discover with out paying convinece fees like morgates and average between 50-100 just depending on what is getting the 5% and how much we spent |
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one piece of advise is do not pay untill the bililng cycle is closed for example purchase something $1000 dollars dont log in and pay it. wait for the cycle to end and the bill shows up or you wont get the cash back. say you did the 1000 charge and paid 300 on the card the next day. at the end of your billing cycle you will only get credit for cash back on the 700 remaining. obviously once the bill shows up pay it in full and reap maxium rewards we put every thing on our discover with out paying convinece fees like morgates and average between 50-100 just depending on what is getting the 5% and how much we spent With my Discover and Capital One cards I routinely pay the amount off before my statement. I like to have a low balance due, if any, and it has not cost me any in regards to rewards. |
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Years ago (like 15+) the treasurer at our gun club had got what I believe was a GM card and at the time most folks who were takeing charge were not hitting him a surcharge. For several years he paid many of the bills of the club includeing property taxes with his card and after two or three years I believe he saved about 10K on a new chevy van that was supposed to cost 20K.
The GM card program now has all sorts of limits and if you paid town taxes these days the surcharge would eat up all your discounts so this would not work as well today but whan the programs were new he worked all the deals in his favor. |
| It is hard for these programs to be worth the trouble unless you charge a lot. I have a business card that is used for business travel, fuel, etc. it routinely gets 20k+ per month charged to it and is always paid off each month. The rewards on it are pretty sweet. For a personal card unless you spend a ton it really doesn't add up to much. |
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With my Discover and Capital One cards I routinely pay the amount off before my statement. I like to have a low balance due, if any, and it has not cost me any in regards to rewards. Quoted:
Quoted:
one piece of advise is do not pay untill the bililng cycle is closed for example purchase something $1000 dollars dont log in and pay it. wait for the cycle to end and the bill shows up or you wont get the cash back. say you did the 1000 charge and paid 300 on the card the next day. at the end of your billing cycle you will only get credit for cash back on the 700 remaining. obviously once the bill shows up pay it in full and reap maxium rewards we put every thing on our discover with out paying convinece fees like morgates and average between 50-100 just depending on what is getting the 5% and how much we spent With my Discover and Capital One cards I routinely pay the amount off before my statement. I like to have a low balance due, if any, and it has not cost me any in regards to rewards. This. It's about total $$ charged per billing cycle. Doesn't matter if the balance is paid before the cycle ends, you'll still get the rewards. |
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capital one 1.5 is the best FREE card
they have a 2 percent with a 59 dollar yearly fee. you have to do the math yourself to make sure that extra .5 percent pays itself back or not. the catch is, you can't actually get cash back. you have to use it on something else. they do now have the charge eraser for travel stuff like hotels, car rentals and flying. so it works out for us. if you try to get cash, it is only worth 1 percent. |
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capital one 1.5 is the best FREE card they have a 2 percent with a 59 dollar yearly fee. you have to do the math yourself to make sure that extra .5 percent pays itself back or not. the catch is, you can't actually get cash back. you have to use it on something else. they do now have the charge eraser for travel stuff like hotels, car rentals and flying. so it works out for us. if you try to get cash, it is only worth 1 percent. I don't agree that is the BEST card for everyone. Chase Amazon card gives 3% back on Amazon.com purchases, 2% back on gas and groceries, and 1% back on everything else with no fees. Chase freedom gives 1% back on everything and 5% back on rotating categories every quarter. Again with no fees. |
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I don't agree that is the BEST card for everyone. Chase Amazon card gives 3% back on Amazon.com purchases, 2% back on gas and groceries, and 1% back on everything else with no fees. Chase freedom gives 1% back on everything and 5% back on rotating categories every quarter. Again with no fees. Quoted:
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capital one 1.5 is the best FREE card they have a 2 percent with a 59 dollar yearly fee. you have to do the math yourself to make sure that extra .5 percent pays itself back or not. the catch is, you can't actually get cash back. you have to use it on something else. they do now have the charge eraser for travel stuff like hotels, car rentals and flying. so it works out for us. if you try to get cash, it is only worth 1 percent. I don't agree that is the BEST card for everyone. Chase Amazon card gives 3% back on Amazon.com purchases, 2% back on gas and groceries, and 1% back on everything else with no fees. Chase freedom gives 1% back on everything and 5% back on rotating categories every quarter. Again with no fees. true, you have to look at your spending habits. since we break down all our spending, we know that 1 percent on everything is is the bulk of what we spend a year. so much so that the extra 1 or 2 percent don't make enough difference to go with those cards. but if you buy everything through amazon then that might be better for you. or I think fidelity also has a 2 percent card but all of it goes into a fidelity account. |
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one piece of advise is do not pay untill the bililng cycle is closed for example purchase something $1000 dollars dont log in and pay it. wait for the cycle to end and the bill shows up or you wont get the cash back. say you did the 1000 charge and paid 300 on the card the next day. at the end of your billing cycle you will only get credit for cash back on the 700 remaining. obviously once the bill shows up pay it in full and reap maxium rewards we put every thing on our discover with out paying convinece fees like morgates and average between 50-100 just depending on what is getting the 5% and how much we spent I get the cash back rewards as soon as the charge posts. |
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Whatever you do, when your 5% category is for an establishment that sells gift cards, GO BUY GIFT CARDS. I save 5% at pretty much any location I shop because of this. Sure I miss my awesome 5% Gas, Groceries, Pharmacies Chase card, but there is no rewinding time. Make due with what you've got.
And Amazon.com's credit card is absolutely worth it if you shop smart. |
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Whatever you do, when your 5% category is for an establishment that sells gift cards, GO BUY GIFT CARDS. AmEx Blue Cash 6% back for grocery stores is capped at $500 per month because of this. Still, it's worth it to buy Amazon.com gift cards at my local grocery store and use those for my Amazon purchases. |
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If you can get gift cards without a substantial origination fee, and you shop there anyway, then gift cards are a no-brainer.
Unless you were intending to spend that money at the place where the card is good, or it's a price-neutral scheme to shop there instead of somewhere else, though, it's often better to pass on most gift card offers. Make the deals and offers work FOR you - don't work for them. |
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This month Discover has 5% cash back for home improvement - I maxed out the benefit awhile ago, but I will probably just credit my account for it. The other thing I have done is use it to buy gift cards for places I shop, that is a very good return on investment at times.
-shooter |