credit cards

blessed81 · March 2015

I notice a lot of you all have this whole credit card strategy going for point and I would love some of your strategies.

what type of perks do you all look for in credit cards? do you like the travel rewards or the cash back?

do you use a specific credit card for gas and all oher purchases?

I currently dont have a cc but I am actively looking, what cards are the best ones out there? Our credit is over 800 so we shouldnt have a problem getting approved.

MommyLiberty5013 · March 2015

I only care about cash back. We fly for free due to DH's job so we don't need travel/flight perks.

For CCs we also really just stick to VISA and MasterCard. They are accepted mostly everywhere, including abroad. Discover and Amex are rarely accepted out of the USA and many retail places or restaurants do not accept Discover or Amex either. I want a card I can use anytime, anywhere.

We pay as much as possible with the CCs - medical bills, all expenses, we even do our charitable/church giving on our CCs to get the cash back.

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2015

I look for cards that have points for things we use and like:

1. LLBean, my H likes their wrinkle free shirts and it's always good to throw a fresh one into the mix every few months. we live in the north, so we always have a need for winter gear (smartwool, boots) or recreations stuff. and the dog gets spoiled with their beds.

2. Banana Republic: I like banana for work attire, so it's always nice to have "free money" there.

3. TJMaxx: we live in an area where there is limited shopping for actual stores, really if I want to try something on my options are Kohls or TJMaxx, that's it. so it just makes sense to earn points where I shop most

4. Amazon, i mean, what can't you find on amazon?

5. Kohls...not really a points card, but they way the store runs their sales it doesn't really make sense to shop without a kohl's card (you always get at least 15% off your purchase)

The LLBean card is our bread and butter, if one of the other cards isn't offering more than 1% back we pay for things on the Bean card. Banana does 1% back, but will often offer bonuses (recently make 3 purchases outside the gap-family and get $10...I'm fairly certain I charged a grocery store trip, a coffee, and one other small thing and got $10 for buying things I would have bought anyways. Amazon does 2% on gas and restaurants, so we make those purchases on the amazon card. TJMaxx occasionall offers 3% on a variety of things (this month it's gas) so if we're buying something in that category we'll charge it to that card.

most the time I just let my rewards accumulate (except amazon, they make it so easy to just apply your rewards to a purchase you're making). I have to keep my eye on the LLBean/Banana/TJmax rewards as they often have expiration dates. when things have accumulated or are expiring soon H and I go "free shopping"

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2015

just to add, this thread prompted me to check my coupons on LLBean and Banana. LLBeans coupons expire a year after they are issued, I've earned $140 to LLBean since October. Banana Rewards expire 6 months after they're issued. Tjmaxx still mails the rewards coupons, I want to say they expire 6 months after they're issued.

hoffse · March 2015

We have a variety of cards for a variety of things. When you're just starting out, stick to one or two cards and get used to it before really diving in. If you don't use them properly, they can kick you in the butt with interest.

Some of my favorites:

-Fidelity AmEx - 2% cash back on everything. No limits, no categories, no annual fee. You need a Fidelity account to have one of these, but rewards are deposited monthly into your account as cash every $50 or more that you earn.

-Chase Ink (new for us) - 5 points at office supply stores (and a couple other categories), 60,000 point sign-up bonus if you spend $5,000 in the first three months. $95 annual fee. We've starting buying gift cards to stores where we spend a lot of money (Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon, BBB, etc.) and get 5 points per dollar on those gift cards. We're planning on using the points in Paris at one of the Hyatts there this summer and then again in Amsterdam next spring. You can transfer points to Hyatt (and other travel partners like United) for free nights/flights for a pretty low redemption rate.

-Pottery Barn - 10% back on all PB purchases. Comes as a PB gift card.

-Target redcard - 5% off on all Target purchases, at the cash register.

I've just started getting into travel cards, and there's definitely a learning curve to it. Chase cards that throw off "ultimate rewards" are probably the most flexible travel "currency," because you can transfer them to multiple travel partners. The Ink card is one of these. But I would only open these cards if you plan to travel a lot or if you have a lot of business travel expenses that can be reimbursed by your employer. I do think you need to be honest with yourself about your willingness and ability to travel enough to really get value of out travel points. For us, we plan to go to these places anyway so it makes sense to lower our out of pocket cost. True travel hackers seem to plan their trips around points. I personally don't understand the rationale behind that. They may be getting a good deal, but I bet they are also spending extra money to go to these random places. Our strategy has been to plan a trip we want to go on, budget for the cost, and then see where we can use points to save reasonably. Also? I'm not willing to super inconvenience us in order to use points. I'm not going to have 3 layovers on points when I can fly direct by paying. I'm also not going to stick us at a hotel that's inconvenient to transport hubs just to use points.

So this brings up something else - how easy is it for YOU to use points and how quickly you can burn them? CC points are a pretty sweet game, but the CC issuers can change the rules at any time. I think there's a lot of wisdom in "earning and burning" points. Hoarding them puts you at risk for a massive devaluation down the road. I've spent a long time researching reward cards for specific travel groups - Delta, United, Starwood, etc. - but we finally went with the Chase cards because they are more flexible. We simply don't travel enough to be able to burn points for a specific brand quickly. We do travel enough to burn Chase points quickly, since they can be transferred to multiple brands.

To summarize: think about what you guys do anyway, where you shop, and what your goals are. Then find a card or two that helps you maximize that. Do NOT change your spending habits, shopping habits, or long-term goals just for the sake of "points." Also remember - many points bloggers get paid when you apply for cards through their links. The cards that these bloggers endorse may or may not be the right fit for you. Evaluate your needs/goals before you read their blogs to learn about the game.

Sisugal · March 2015

I use a Visa for most monthly expenses (as well as auto payment of utilities, internet, cable & gym membership) I love the cash back.(and yes, I can get cash deposited into an account OR choose from a variety of gift cards. I always opt for the $$ in my account)

The big issue is that you can be tempted to overspend (easy to just put it on the credit card) so do set limits on yourself and abide by them.
Pay off the credit card IN FULL EVERY MONTH. If you cannot do that - STOP using the card.

My card is thru a main line bank. It has a moderate interest rate (but since I always pay in full - the interest never is paid).

Mustard76 · March 2015

We use a combination of yours, mine, and ours when it comes to credit cards. So for that reason, we use Chase freedom Visa cards. Through their Ultimate Rewards, you can transfer points from card to card and "gift" them back and forth. This way, no matter who is earning the points, we combine for the biggest reward every month. We redeem for cash back in increments of $50 (our choice, not their requirement) and if there are enough points left, I'll get a $5 Starbucks card or $10 to Best Buy. Those are the only other things I get, and only in those denominations. I mostly use the Starbucks cards as incentives for my staff at work and we saved Best Buy cards and bought one of our iPads in $10 gift cards. That was a hilarious checkout experience. Haha.

vlagrl29 · March 2015

I have an old navy card and I use it for the coupons to old navy and the gap for DD's clothes or workout gear for me. I also have a Victoria Secret card and use it for the free panties every month. Macy's is also for coupons, but that's about it for me.

JoanE2012 · March 2015

We have the United Mileage Plus card. We travel alot and live near a major hub, so that helps. We charge everything possible and pay it off. We've already flown to many places for free, including Hawaii last fall.

But like hoffse mentioned, we are always mindful of the miles and the fact that anything can change with the program at any time. We try not to hoard, though we are sitting on over 200k miles now and that's a little too much for comfort. We are now planning to go back to a different island in Hawaii this fall to use up a bunch of the miles!

cbee817 · March 2015

citibank cards- they're our oldest (have 4 between DH and me) and they get us 1 point for every dollar, 2 points on certain things that I can't really remember. Not great, but we usually use the points for gift cards.

capital one - 1.5% cash back. We wanted this because they don't have a foreign exchange fee like citibank does.. we live about 20 minutes from the Canadian border so we visit there often (also where our closet IKEA is). You can apply the cash back right to your balance which is nice.

banana republic luxe- 5 points for every $1 spent. 1000 points (or $200) = $10 rewards. We fly through this because DH wears their pants and shirts for work and the girls are in Old Navy clothes 90% of the time. Also good at Gap, we get free alterations, and free shipping on anything.

target - 5% cash back at the register- no brainer.

amex- this one is new. We got amazon prime free for 1 year, $175 worth of gift cards (we picked Home Depot), and 15 months interest free (put our sewer job on it at $8,200). Once this card is paid off, it'll become our grocery card since we get 2 points back on that.

jcrew - also has rewards that aren't as great as BR/Gap/ON. We mostly use it at the outlet since the regular store has gotten so expensive. DH also bought his wedding suit from there and a new one recently and got free alterations too.

dragonstarjk · March 2015

Like Hoffse, we have a variety of cards. I'd also recommend starting out slow so you don't get in over your heads when it comes to cards. It's taken me a lot of practice to know how to work it to my advantage

Here's the cards we have:

Cabelas Signature Visa-Black--H's number one hobby is hunting so he purchases a lot of things from Cabela's. Pros are--they are very generous w/ their points program. He earns hundreds of dollars every year by putting all of his purchases on this card. Cons--you can only use the points for Cabelas purchases. This isn't a problem for H, but unless you shop at Cabelas a lot I would not recommend it.

Citibank--I actually never use this card because it hasn't been competitive with my other cards. Usually once a year I will try to analyze all of the cards and determine which is earning me the most rewards for my spending amounts.

Amazon Chase Visa--I do a ton of shopping on Amazon. I used to use my Discover card, but you don't get any additional cash back for shopping on Amazon. That is why I've started using my Amazon card. I currently use it for all purchases so at the end of the year, I can compare it to Discover to see how it holds up.

Discover More--I think that's what it's called but it might have changed. 1% back on all purchases and 5% on special categories throughout the year. I used this card exclusively for a few years, but since getting the Amazon card I want to figure out which one earns more.

Alaska Airlines Signature Visa--This is the only card I have that has an annual fee. I am pretty adamant about not paying a fee to use a card, but I make an exception for this card because I get a companion ticket once per year for $99. The annual fee is $79, so I figure that means we get one ticket a year for $178. We don't live near a major (i.e. cheaper) airport, so that is a steal for airline tickets for us. Makes the annual fee worth it. I only use this card to book plane tickets and pay Alaska Airlines luggage fees, etc.

MasterCard--this is the card offered through our bank (where I work). I actually don't use this card, but I keep it because we sometimes have promotions at work where we can win bonus points. If you are not a cardholder, you can't win the prize!

Important to note: as I said, I insist on not paying an annual fee (unless the savings is greater than the fee). I prefer to earn cash back instead of travel awards because we don't do a ton of air travel. Most of the cards I have, such as Discover, can be used for either cash back or for gift cards, so I often get gift cards for hotels and/or restaurants to use when we travel.

hoffse · March 2015

Agreed about the annual fees. I probably would not start with a fee card (or if you do, make sure it's waived the first year to see if it makes sense paying for the second year). It takes some time to figure out your spending habits in order to evaluate whether the fees are worth it or not. Fee cards usually give you more points or a higher redemption rate. But you also have to spend enough on that card to make up the annual fee in order to come out ahead. You don't want to spend more than you do now, so it can take awhile to figure out.

We do pay a fee for the Ink card. I'm getting nearly 10% back at Home Depot, Amazon, Lowes, BBB, Macys, Banana/Gap/Old Navy, Best Buy, and every other place that Office Depot/Staples/Office Max sells gift cards to. In order to get that redemption rate, I have to redeem my points efficiently for travel. But so far, we've been able to do that. You are guaranteed at least 5% back with this card, but there is a free version that also guarantees 5%. So the paid version only makes sense if you are going to use it for travel and can squeeze those extra rewards out of it. While we are child-less, we travel enough to make the fee worthwhile. I imagine that after having kids we will probably not be traveling as often, and at that point we'll probably switch to the free version. Heck, 5% back still matches or beats most retailer cards, and that saves us from having to keep track of a credit card for each of these stores.

Mustard76 · March 2015

@hoffse, I know the Ink card is a business card, not consumer. I'm curious how that affects your splitting of purchases. Has that been an issue for you?

hoffse · March 2015

Mustard76 said:@hoffse, I know the Ink card is a business card, not consumer. I'm curious how that affects your splitting of purchases. Has that been an issue for you?

Nah, we mix personal and business expenses with it. We do use it for all of our business expenses - both our reimburseable expenses for our jobs and H's side business. Our business expenses make up more than half of our spending with it, because we both have a lot of reimburseables. But I mean, we do spend a few hundred per month on HD gift cards also.

Chase gets paid every time we swipe the card. They don't seem to care that we mix in some personal spending with it. Why would they? More $$ for them.

For H's side business, we also keep receipts for tax purposes. So from a record-keeping standpoint, mixing in personal spending hasn't been hard for us to track either.

hoffse · March 2015

Mustard76 said:
@hoffse, I know the Ink card is a business card, not consumer. I'm curious how that affects your splitting of purchases. Has that been an issue for you?

I'll also add - in an effort not to overspend, we usually spend a little less on gift cards than we think we will need. We pay the balance at Home Depot or wherever with our Fidelity card. It's usually not very much, but it ensures that we aren't overspending on gift cards just for the sake of points.

We also buy them for purchases we KNOW we will make. I don't carry around random $50 Old Navy gift cards. But if I know I'm going shopping for jeans at Old Navy, I'll pick up a gift card first and get the points.

I think if most of our spending was on clothes or totally random shopping, it would be harder to be precise with the gift card thing. House projects cost so much money though, that we have to price everything out before we ever start a given project. We're about to re-do the doors in our house. It's going to be $600-$700. I'll get gift cards for $600 and pay the difference with the Fidelity card.

Things like wedding and baby gifts are also easy to price out in advance.

csuave · March 2015

We use two different cards for our family expenses:

Target red card for store use only: The store use only card didn't get hacked, fyi. We use this for target shopping to get 5% off and for free shipping at target.com

Chase Freedom (Visa): We put everything else on this. We earn 1% back on all purchases and each quarter they have 5% back opportunties. Jan-Mar is an extra 5% back on groceries so we are going to earn a lot. We buy gas cards and gift cards at the grocery store. Like others have said the gift cards are best to buy right before a planned purchase, like a trip to the pet store.

For my personal use I have 2:

Capital One Venture (Visa): I use this for travel because it has no currency exchange fee. It earns the equivalent of 1.5% cash back so I am going to consider moving it to a family credit card and using it instead of the Chase for any expenses we have that are not in the 5% bonus category. We put cable and internet on credit card autopay and it would make sense to earn 1.5% on this instead of the standard 1% with Chase Freedom.

Discover It. It used to be the Discover More but I called and had it changed to the It since the It has more benefits but at no cost. It is very similar to the Chase Freedom with quarterly 5% earning opportunities. Also like Chase Freedom you can do online shopping by logging into the credit card site first and then connecting with Macys.com or kohls.com to earn extra cashback (kind of works like ebates but with cashback bonus). These bonuses vary by card, but I think Discover has better travel bonuses.

A couple of advantages with Discover that I haven't seen on many (or any) other cards. You can get cash at the grocery store or Walmart, just tack it on to your purchase. If you don't have a convenient ATM this can be beneficial. The best perk of Discover that I have seen is when redeeming cashback bonus for gift cards. Many places like Bed Bath and Beyond, American Eagle, and Buca Di Beppo have $25 gift cards for $20. Cheryls cookies and others are $30 for $20, etc. I saved up a bunch of cashback bonus and when we got married redeemed it for $25 for $20 Shutterfly cards to use on the photo books we made, easily saving an extra $30-40 on our books.

All of the above cards have no annual fee.

als1982 · March 2015

We don't bother with store cards. Here's what is currently in our wallet or stored away in our safe:

Our primary is Barclay Arrival Plus, which nets 2 point per dollar spent, and redemption of 1.1 dollars for every 100 points. The catch for that good rate is that it's only on travel redemption, and not straight cash back. But I've noticed that travel is defined very loosely and things like train tickets and cabs count in addition to cruise, hotel and flight purchases. Annual fee is waived the first year and signup bonus currently equates to $400.

We also have a Chase Southwest, which H uses for his business travel. H travels for work on average once every two months, so not a ton but enough to hit A-List status annually and Companion Pass when we use this as our primary. This card has an annual fee, but nets double points on hotel stays in addition to Southwest flights.

I spend quite a bit for work and use a Chase United. It has an annual fee, but comes with two business class lounge passes a year and free checked bags. We usually take one big international vacation a year and fly a United partner so this makes it worth it (we're trying Lufhansa for the first time in May! and have enjoyed flying other partner carriers like Air Canada, and Air New Zealand, which are FAR better than United).

We also maintain a fee free Capital One for longevity, which has a decent earn rate for a fee free card. We put all our wedding expenses here and ended up making well over $1,000 before we even got into the strategy of points and miles.

I've tried hotel cards, but those don't seem to net the free rooms close to the rate that airline or cash cards earn.

And don't forget to always sign-up for your primary card's dining club (we end up with a few thousand miles a year just by registering our cards and eating at places we go to anyways - especially H's work dinners while on business trips), and definitely shop through their portals whenever you're buying online. Evreward.com is a great place to check to see if an online retailer offers miles or points through a portal, and which portals they are a part of. (Although don't count on the accuracy of their earn rate.)

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2015

formerlyGDaisy09 said:
I look for cards that have points for things we use and like:

1. LLBean, my H likes their wrinkle free shirts and it's always good to throw a fresh one into the mix every few months. we live in the north, so we always have a need for winter gear (smartwool, boots) or recreations stuff. and the dog gets spoiled with their beds.

2. Banana Republic: I like banana for work attire, so it's always nice to have "free money" there.

3. TJMaxx: we live in an area where there is limited shopping for actual stores, really if I want to try something on my options are Kohls or TJMaxx, that's it. so it just makes sense to earn points where I shop most

4. Amazon, i mean, what can't you find on amazon?

5. Kohls...not really a points card, but they way the store runs their sales it doesn't really make sense to shop without a kohl's card (you always get at least 15% off your purchase)

The LLBean card is our bread and butter, if one of the other cards isn't offering more than 1% back we pay for things on the Bean card. Banana does 1% back, but will often offer bonuses (recently make 3 purchases outside the gap-family and get $10...I'm fairly certain I charged a grocery store trip, a coffee, and one other small thing and got $10 for buying things I would have bought anyways. Amazon does 2% on gas and restaurants, so we make those purchases on the amazon card. TJMaxx occasionall offers 3% on a variety of things (this month it's gas) so if we're buying something in that category we'll charge it to that card.

most the time I just let my rewards accumulate (except amazon, they make it so easy to just apply your rewards to a purchase you're making). I have to keep my eye on the LLBean/Banana/TJmax rewards as they often have expiration dates. when things have accumulated or are expiring soon H and I go "free shopping"

I should add, that all the store cards are really the store card ++. LLBean is a visa card (barclays), TJMaxx is a master card, Banana is a Visa, Amazon is a Visa. I wouldn't bother with them if they were the store cards that could only be used in the corresponding store.

short+sassy · March 2015

csuave said:
A couple of advantages with Discover that I haven't seen on many (or any) other cards. You can get cash at the grocery store or Walmart, just tack it on to your purchase. If you don't have a convenient ATM this can be beneficial. The best perk of Discover that I have seen is when redeeming cashback bonus for gift cards. Many places like Bed Bath and Beyond, American Eagle, and Buca Di Beppo have $25 gift cards for $20. Cheryls cookies and others are $30 for $20, etc. I saved up a bunch of cashback bonus and when we got married redeemed it for $25 for $20 Shutterfly cards to use on the photo books we made, easily saving an extra $30-40 on our books.
All of the above cards have no annual fee.

I have a Sam's Club card...though I haven't had a membership in over a year, lol. But it can at least also be used at Walmart. It has an option just like you are talking about. I can withdraw up to $60/purchase and up to $180/per statement period, when I make a purchase at Walmart with no "cash advance" transaction fee. They basically treat it like part of my purchase. It's been really convenient a few times when I was shopping at Walmart anyway and running low on cash.

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