Tag Archives: rewards

Chasing Rewards

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I have a lot of credit cards.  I use a lot of credit cards.  And I just applied for another credit card.  For a lot of people this is a recipe for disaster.  But for me it’s a money-saving technique.  Which I know sounds crazy.  But there is a method to my madness.

I am a credit card reward chaser.  I use the cards for convenience and for rewards.  And I pay them off in full every month to avoid paying interest.  Not everybody has this kind of control.  And if that’s you, just stop reading now.  But if you have the self-control to know that you will be able to pay the balance in full every month, keep reading.  Rewards are awesome!  And I have a system of using certain cards for certain things to leverage those rewards to my advantage.

I have a few cards that I keep for single purposes.  My Sheetz Visa, when combined with the My Sheetz card saves me 8 cents per gallon when I fill my gas tank at the gas station/convenience store that is pervasive throughout central Pennsylvania (and several other states).  So when I’m not in the neighborhood of the Bellefonte Rutters that seems to undercut everyone in the area on the price of gas, I use my Sheetz Visa.  And that’s the only thing I use it for.

I have another Visa that is tied to my favorite hotel chain.  I actually pay an annual fee for that card, but in exchange for that I get a certificate good for one night that year in the hotel chain.  I always come out ahead on that deal as I chase my favorite bluegrass bands around the east coast.  And I only ever use that card for hotel stays (where I earn extra rewards for more free nights) and for travel and meal expenses for business travel (to keep that all separate from my personal life expenses).  This card has been sitting very quietly for the time that the pandemic has raged through the world, but it’s ready to come back out sometime in the future.

I have yet another Visa tied to my favorite online retailer.  This card gives me 5% in store credit on every purchase I make.  Especially since the pandemic started, online shopping is a go-to for me, so this credit adds up pretty quickly.  It just makes sense for me.

And I just applied for a card branded by my cell phone provider.  This one is going to reduce my cell phone bill by $10 per line per month by tying my auto-billing to it.  And it’s also going to give me cell bill credit for using it in other places—the big one is 4% back on groceries.  That adds up quickly!

And of course, for all other purchases I have my go-to card which is a 2% cash back card I have through my credit union.  It’s a lot of cards.  With a lot of different purposes.  And I pay them all off in full every month.  The rewards are significant—by using my assorted cards for just about everything I buy, it adds up to quite a bit of money. BUT I PAY THEM ALL OFF IN FULL EVERY MONTH!  That’s the only way this works.  Otherwise you lose all of the benefit to interest.

Do you chase rewards?  If you are the kind of person who has the control to use credit cards for convenience rather than for credit, maybe you should.

 

Mistakes

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This shirt recently popped up in my Facebook feed.  And I love it!

Everybody makes mistakes.  And every single mistake is proof positive that you are putting forth effort.  You are taking risks.  And from great risks come great rewards.  And sometimes great disappointments.  But if you never take the risks, you are guaranteed not to achieve the rewards.

There are a lot of risks involved with money.  And you always hope they lead to reward.  Should I borrow money to buy a house?  Should I buy a used car instead of a new one?  Should I buy stock?  How much should I put into my 401K plan? Can I take the lower paying job that I’ll enjoy instead of the higher paying job that I’ll hate?  Will the store brand product work as well as the name brand?  If I join the warehouse club, will I get my money’s worth?  Should I buy the extended warranty?  If I go to law school will I get a great job?

Every time you spend money, there is some level of risk involved.  You can’t predict anything with certainty.  And you will make mistakes.  It’s inevitable.  But mistakes, while they may feel bad at the time, teach us things. And mistakes are proof that you are trying.  The person who never tries never makes mistakes.  But they also never move forward or learn or grow.

Mistakes are proof that you are trying.  So keep making mistakes.  Keep trying!

Boost Your Credit Card Rewards with Swipe

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This weekend I had the good fortune to meet the creator of an iPhone app that I am completely enamored with.  Swipe is kind of a curator for your rewards credit cards.  It tracks all of your cards and pairs them with the purchase you are making to assure that you are receiving the best rewards deal for that particular purchase.

Swipe Logo

I’m a big fan of leveraging credit card rewards.  Last year I received several hundred dollars in cash back from my credit cards by chasing the right rewards for the right purchases.  This app takes the guesswork out of that process (which is very helpful since one of my cards has higher rewards for categories that rotate from quarter to quarter).

I was lucky enough to have an in-person demonstration with the developer this weekend, but you can see a great demo of the app on the Swipe website.  I’m more than a little disappointed that this awesome app is not yet available for Android (I’m assured it’s coming in the future).  But for the iFolks out there…I think it’s awesome!

Leveraging Credit Card Rewards

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Credit cards

One of my new years’ resolutions this year was to maximize my credit card rewards.  Not by buying more stuff.  But by being careful about what card I use for what purpose.  For a long time I’ve been using one card that offers me 5% rewards on certain categories that revolve each quarter, and 1% rewards on all other purchases.  But I also have another card that offers me 2% rewards on all purchases, regardless of the category.  And I have an Amazon Visa card that gives me 3% rewards on all of my Amazon purchases, 2% on certain categories, and 1% on everything else.  Plus every time I fill my gas tank at Sheetz I toy with the idea of getting their credit card that would give me an extra 5 cents off every gallon of gas I buy and 5% rewards on the things I buy in their store.  Who knew that the world of credit card rewards–just the cards hanging out in my wallet–could be so complicated?!?

My biggest rewards on my existing cards come from the 5% categories on my old tried and true card.  This quarter those categories include groceries (which I buy all the time), movie theaters (which I do rarely) and Starbucks (which I do almost never).  So I’m using that card for groceries exclusively (next quarter when it flips over from groceries to restaurants, I’ll readjust).  My next biggest reward comes from the Amazon card used at Amazon.com.  I admit that I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon.  So I have that card set up as my go-to card on that web site.  And I don’t use it for anything else.  For absolutely everything else I’ve been using the card that gives me 2% back on every purchase.

It is kind of a lot to keep track of.  Where am I?  What card do I need to use?  But I’m hoping it will pay off for me.  Last year I earned about $600 in cash back rewards…just by buying things I would normally buy and using a rewards credit card to do so.  I’m hoping to exceed that this year…and to spend less money doing so.  We’ll see how well I do with that.

Of course this whole thing would be a moot point if I were not paying my bill in full every month.  Accruing interest would wipe out any savings I would get from rewards.  But I use my credit cards not for credit, but for convenience.

Do you use credit cards for regular expenses but pay them off in full every month?  If so, is your credit card giving you rewards?  If not, you should possibly consider getting a card that does.  If your card is giving you rewards, are they as much as you could be getting?

Good news and bad news from my credit card company

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I received two different notifications from my credit card providers this week.  One made me happy.  The other made me a bit frustrated.

The one that made me happy indicated that my Visa card provider was sending me a new card because my existing card was a part of the Home Depot data breach.  So why does this make me happy?  Because I knew I had used my Visa at Home Depot during the affected time period.  I wasn’t exactly sure what my next step should be.  And lo and behold….my card provider was proactive and took care of it for me.  That’s a sign that my credit card company is a good one.  And that makes me happy.

The notification that frustrated me was in regard to my Subaru Rewards Mastercard.  I rarely use this card.  I have it for exactly one reason:  Sam’s Club doesn’t accept Visa.  So most of the time I use the Visa card I talked about earlier.  But at Sam’s Club I needed to have either a Discover or a Mastercard.  I did a little research about what card would give me the best rewards deal, and decided on the Subaru Mastercard.  3% of all of my purchases goes into a rewards account, and when that account reaches $100, I get a $100 gift certificate good for sales or service at any Subaru dealership.  Since I own an aging Subaru Forester, this seemed like a good choice.  But the frustrating communication I received recently said that my card provider is ending their partnership with Subaru and I should expect this card to be replaced by a cash back rewards Visa.  The exact same Visa that I use already.  And that won’t be accepted by the one store where I use the Mastercard.  Frustrating.  And to top it off, I was at $82 on my rewards total, leaving me a small window of time in which to either charge $600 worth of stuff or just give up and lose the rewards I’ve been accumulating.  Frustrating!

As fate would have it, I needed to buy new tires for my car, which turned out to be a $500 expense at Sam’s Club.  So I think I’ll use the Mastercard for groceries this week and meet my required spending to actually receive my gift certificate.  But I still needed to address the issue of future shopping.  I need a new Mastercard.

MasterCard_Icon__500px__Copyright___2007_Titan_Icons

I use credit cards for convenience, not for credit.  I pay these cards off in full at the end of every month.  But to get the most “bang” for my card usage, I like to make sure I’m earning some kind of rewards with my credit cards.  Luckily there are websites designed exactly for the purpose of finding your best rewards fit.  NerdWallet, CreditCards.com, and CardHub are all decent sites to help you find the best card for you, and they helped me find the new card that I needed.

Now I’m not saying that everyone should go out and apply for a credit card.  But it is nice knowing that there are resources available to help you find the one that’s the best fit for you.