We just recently starting paying for everything all month long with a credit card and paying it off every month. All shopping, all bills, everything. We don't even use the debit card anymore except for ATM withdrawals. We use Capital One and they seem to have a pretty good rewards system. I know there are a lot of people here who do this. Any tips for a newbie? What do you use your points towards the most? Gift cards? Credit towards your account? Merchandise? Travel? How do you get the most bang for your buck?
I love my Amazon Visa. I would shop there anyway, but I accrue points which I can then turn into purchases.
I absolutely love the American Airlines Citicard and the Chase Continental card. All my personal and business expenses are charged and I don't remember the last time I paid for a flight.
Yes I use them - cash money. I max out my reward limit in a matter of months so I have multiple cards and switch out once a reward is maxed out.
I use Chase Sapphire and use the points for gift cards. Out of nowhere, they've sent me random $10 Home Depot gift cards for free. Pretty nice.
I always get the cash. Generally speaking, the number of points you have to add up to get a free flight is pretty close to the amount of cash you would get back anyway, so for me its definitely worth it to just get cash to spend on whatever I want. (really just to pay off my card) And yeah, I never carry a balance, I just pay it off every month.
Yeah, the gift cards are pretty sweet. With the points I have right now, I can either get $70 credit towards my balance...or more than twice that amount in gift cards. Why would anyone not get the GC's? What's in it for the credit card companies? Are they just banking on people using their cards more and forgetting to pay them off so they can charge more finance charges?
Cash for bars, dry cleaning, haircuts, late night pizza slices. Card for grocery, walgreens, and online purchases.
I use a Fidelity AMEX. This card pays 2% cash back on all purchases. When I researched it about a year ago it was the best rewards card I found. Most seemed to end up giving you 1% back (in the form of cash or other rewards) and this one was 2% in cash.
This is something I always wondered too. If a responsible person uses the card wisely and pays off their balance in full every month they can rack up a lot of rewards. It can cost the credit card company quite a bit in rewards. I guess they are banking on the notion that most people are irresponsible with their credit.
As playlife said, CC companies charge retailers 3% while returning 1% to you. it costs retailers money when you use a CC. btw, what rewards card are you using that is giving you twice the amount in GCs as opposed to cash? i use amazon visa and love it but all the GC are the same price as cash. so i would question why anyone would get a GC instead of cash. also with amazon visa, you get 2% back on gas and dining and 3% if you buy stuff at amazon. amazon purchases are effectively 11.25% if you live in Texas because they don't charge the 8.25% sales tax.
All my cards give me rewards. On stuff relating to the house, I use my Wells Fargo card that gives me 1% back on my mortgage. For most stuff I use my Discover which gives me cash back. For personal stuff, and places that don't take Discover, I use my Citi card which gives me points (my old one gave me cash back). I've always preferred getting cash back. I hate the points system, and I hate the fine print that comes with certificates. I plan to use the points for vacation at some point, but not sure when that will be feasible. Right now I'm just saving the cash on my Discover.
