What is Your Credit Card Rewards/Points/Cash Back Strategy? (get, year)
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They have been very aggressively targeting California flyers....all kinds of ridiculously low fares out of the major airports. Not sure what’s behind it.
It's a great deal. If their route map worked for my family, I would have opened cards for both me and my wife.
Yeah, their route map just happens to work for me, and the most convenient airport to me is a major airport for them. I like their bags fly free, no change fees, unassigned seating. Never had any problem with them, knock on wood.
anyone use a rewards programs points for hotel rooms? i am searching for rooms with my spg points and the only options for using points are the lowest level rooms. that may be ok if i am visiting a friend or family for a long weekend but if i want to use it for a nice vacation im not going to want the lowest level room overlooking the parking lot.
anyone use a rewards programs points for hotel rooms? i am searching for rooms with my spg points and the only options for using points are the lowest level rooms. that may be ok if i am visiting a friend or family for a long weekend but if i want to use it for a nice vacation im not going to want the lowest level room overlooking the parking lot.
There’s no cash and points or pay with points option with SPG for higher tier rooms?
We do a lot of 4+ night stays, so the biggest hotel money saver for us is the Citi Prestige 4th night benefit.
If there's a property you're eyeing, you can also contact the hotel directly and ask about paid upgrades on awatd stays. Some are glad to make those kinds of offers.
through googling i see that you can try calling but that is kind of annoying at this point. makes it more difficult to ensure the best value for my points.
Speaking of too good to be true, I see a couple of AA cards offering 60,000 each points, you
can link to them through the Mad Fientist blog. The Citi card requires a $3000 spend in 3 months, and the $95 fee is waived for the first year. The Barclays card requires a $1 spend and charges a $95 fee up front.
120,000 points is 2 round trips to Europe or 1.5 round trips to Australia, a value of $2-3K, all for $95 and a $3001 spend.
so i had my wife check on creditkarma to see where her credit stands so i can sign her up if a bonus looks sweet. her 2 numbers on credit karma are anywhere from 100 to 180 points higher than my two numbers. she is well above 800 and i am at 733/656. the 656 one has that $82 medical bill that i hadnt paid factored in and the 733 one doesnt. i believe my top issue (aside from that medical bill) is my high balance. i took out 35,000 on a 0% apr 0% balance transfer fee discover card and have just been paying the monthly payment. thats gonna hurt me for a while since im not going to pay it off early as im enjoying a 0% rate.
Credit card companies are really turning up the heat on one another, which is good news for us! If you are one of those, "I only use cash or debit card" people, you are really missing out. I've been into the credit card points game for a while now and have a strategy that I will share below. What is your strategy?
My Strategy:
Before I begin, I have to say that I often take advantage of big point bonuses for signing up for a card. I am not a churn and burn guy, but I will take a big sign up bonus and then downgrade the card if I don't use it often enough to make any annual fee worth while. If there is no annual fee and I don't use it, in the safe it goes. Right now I have about 15 credit cards with a total credit line of about $200,000. My most recent signup bonus was the Chase Saphire Reserve. I got 100,000 points after spending $3 (or $4?) k within the first three months. If you spend it on travel, that is $1,500 worth of points, plus $300 per calendar year in travel reimbursements for $450 per year. Crazy, I know. I only allow myself one fee based card at a time.
Ok, this is how I play my cards.
I register all my cards for Delta Dining and Yelp Cash Back. Many restaurants that take one also take the other, so you can double dip even before credit card points. A bunch of places around me currently offer 7% cash back through Yelp and 5 Delta miles per dollar spent and then you get the credit card points! That's triple dipping. For example, the other day I went to eat at a nearby restaurant that has both. I ended up getting the 7% back from Yelp, which gets credited to the credit card of my choice once a month. I then got 5 Delta points per dollar spent credited to my Delta account. All for doing nothing more than registering my cards with said programs.
Now for the cards:
1. Chase Sapphire Reserve. $450 annual fee. $300 cash back per calendar year for travel. Rental Car loss insurance. 3 points per dollar spent on travel and restaurants (very liberal program. restaurants include everything from coffee shops to fine dining), pays the $100 fee for Global Entry including TSA Pre-Check. If points are used for travel, you get a 50% bonus, so it is like getting 4.5 points per dollar spent on dining and travel. I use this card for all travel and restaurant purchases unless one of my category cards can beat it at the time. This card also has great travel insurance. It saved me $800 on a trip last month. They paid me back, very little questions asked.
2. Chase Freedom. No fee. 5% back on rotating categories. I use this card when the category at the time is something I spend money on like gas, groceries or restaurants. I then transfer those points to my Chase Sapphire Reserve to get the 50% bonus when spending the points on travel. That is like getting 7.5 points per dollar spent or 7.5% back!
3. Discover card. No fee. Similar to the above. It has rotating categories and I use it when the current category is something I actually buy. Also, I didn't use it for a few months and they reached out and said they would MATCH any cash back I earn over the next year at the end of the year. So really, that is like getting 10% cash back!
4. Chase Amazon Prime. No fee. 5% back on everything you buy on Amazon, including Amazon Fresh, delivery, etc. This one speaks for itself. It also gives 2% back on all restaurants and Drug stores, but I use my Reserve card for restaurants. I do use it in drug stores though.
5. American Express Cash Everyday. No fee. Gives 3% back on groceries and gas. I use this card for both. There is another version that gives 6% back, with a $90 fee, but I don't buy enough groceries to make it worth it so I stick with the no fee version.
6. BoA Amtrak Platinum. No fee. 2 Amtrak points per dollar spent on Amtrak or 1 Amtrak Point for any other dollar spent. I use Amtrak a lot to go between Boston, DC and here in NY. I use this card for anything I buy where extra points can't be gained. Like a liquor store. It may be only one point per dollar spent, but they are Amtrak points. I easily get 2 - 4 cents per point worth when using the points for Amtrak travel. So, I find it to be worth it more than 2% back cards.
That sums it up for me. Using the above strategy I get hundreds and even thousands back per year. Right now I have over $3,000 worth of points with Chase and hundreds with my other cards. First class, here I come!
What's your strategy?
I thought I had a good game plan with our credit card reward points but after reading your post I can tell I am so very small potatoes. How can a person afford an annual fee of $450 a year??? My husband and I are retired only making $20,000 a year. Good gravy Martha, to toss on purpose $450 a year makes me hyperventilate. LOL We do not travel nor do we want too.
The credit card I am mainly using gives reward points in such a small amount compared to what you describe. We get double points for groceries, double points for gas, and triple points at restaurants. In one month we accrued enough points to order a gift card for a free meal at a restaraunt. I was super excited about that.
But what this poster is talking about is completely over my head.
lots of people have the 450 dollar cards we have the chase sapphire reserve . we are retired too . but these cards are for travel . if you don't have the money to travel a lot these cards are not for you .
right off the bat they give you a 300 dollar credit for travel so we are starting at 150 bucks .
they just paid 100 bucks for my tsa precheck . i got 600 bucks in points for taking it and if i use those points for travel through chases portal i get a 50% boost .
i get 3x the points for restaurants and travel . the card saved me 150 bucks in travel insurance since it covers it .
i get 7% worth of points on the other chase cards that have the 5% catagories when i transfer them over and they get the 50% boost for travel .
quite frankly it was a no brainier .
we have over 2k in dollars for any trip we like at this point .
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