Money Matters
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how often do you cash in?

How often do you all cash in your cash back on your credit cards? Every month? Whenever the balance looks high? Whenever you need a little extra money? I'm curious because for at least one of my cards I can cash in the full amount straight to my savings account (the other is in $25 increments and only as a statement credit) and I'm wondering if I should be more diligent about moving it over into an interest bearing account (or the investment account). We literally buy everything possible on credit for the rewards so it gets a decent balance fairly quickly. 

Re: how often do you cash in?

  • Usually when it hits $20+

    We either put it towards my statement, buy a gift card, or get the cash for it


  • Whenever it's available.  And we just put it toward the balance.
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  • I'm pretty random about it.  I don't really want to bother with it until the cash out is at least $40.  Other than that, it is usually if I happen to be looking at the statement at the same time I actually feel motivated to call and put it toward my balance, lol.

    And that is what I always do with my cash backs.  I just put them against the balance.

  • I do it as soon as I'm able and it gets sent to a savings account.
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  • Oh geez you're all better than me. I sometimes wait until it's a few hundred dollars and I was thinking it was silly to transfer $25-50 at a time. I need to step it up!
  • I do a statement credit whenever it's available.  On mine, it's 3,000 points = $25 statement credit.  I only use it for groceries and gas, and never have more than a couple hundred on there anyway, so $25 makes a good dent in the monthly balance.  
  • I cash out every month. I always have it deposited into our account and either make a payment back to the card or toss it to mortgage principal. 
  • The cash value of my UR points is about $900 right now...

    But I use them for travel, so it's pretty sporadic.
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  • I think I'm going to start transferring it to savings every month when I pay the bill. If I don't have to I'd don't like putting it against the balance - I already budgeted for everything I bought so I would rather just put the bonus money straight to savings. I put our Ebates checks straight into savings too. 
  • I usually do it when it hits $100. I don't like leaving it (I suppose the card could cancel the rewards program at any time, so I want my money!).
  • Our joint card we wait until it is at about $100 and then transfer to savings.  I don't want to take a statement credit because that reduces the cash back earning on that statement.

    For my Discover Card I save it and usually use it for gift cards unless the balance is very high and then I'll make a transfer.  
    Because Discover gift cards get an extra $5 or $10 in value I find them to be a better deal than the cash back.  For example I just spent $45 on a $50 Groupon gift card that I used to buy our Chicago boat tour.  And the $20 for $25 at Bed Bath and Beyond is great when we need something from that store.
  • It depends- for CapitalOne cash back, I just fold it into each bill. Citicards and AmEx, we try to save to get $100 gift cards, but the points are also good on Amazon. We don't have any airfare ones yet and we're trying to cut back on cards right now.
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  • For my Chase Freedom, I typically cash in every 2-3 months. I choose to credit it toward my balance (so cash equivalent). 

    For my Capital One Venture One, I cash it in once it's over the minimum $20 credit and it's only toward travel expenses. But I don't use that card as much any more.

    I just got the Chase Sapphire Reserve and paid my grad school tuition with it today. So I should be getting the 100,000 points in the next few weeks. I probably won't cash that in until DH and I decide when and where to vacation. 

    DH on the other hand let's points accrue forever. He last cashed out his rewards to buy a PS4 on Black Friday and he about $380 in rewards at that time. He has about $790 in rewards for his Citi Thank You Card that is good toward travel. So we will probably cash that out with my rewards and have about $2,300 toward a vacation.
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  • julieanne912julieanne912 member
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    edited August 2016
    I forgot to mention, H is a points hoarder.  He has a Southwest card, and a Cabela's card, and he uses those for his business travel that he's reimbursed for, so he really racks them up.  At one point, he was up to like $1,300 in rewards at Cabela's, but I think we've used those up now.  He had over 400,000 points with Southwest, and he freaked out because we booked our Vegas trip and that made him drop below 400k... to like 380k or something LOL
  • I forgot to mention, H is a points hoarder.  He has a Southwest card, and a Cabela's card, and he uses those for his business travel that he's reimbursed for, so he really racks them up.  At one point, he was up to like $1,300 in rewards at Cabela's, but I think we've used those up now.  He had over 400,000 points with Southwest, and he freaked out because we booked our Vegas trip and that made him drop below 400k... to like 380k or something LOL
    I have a friend that used to travel 6 months out of the year for work and did the same thing! One time we went to visit them and their guest room was under renovation so he booked us at a really nice hotel nearby with his points - he said he had so many that he could never realistically use them all by himself and he felt bad that we couldn't stay with them! 
  • When we used to use credit for points I would cash out usually once a year to buy my flight to visit my BFF.
    My H would hoard his.  Before he closed out his Chase Freedom card he had $750 in rewards to cash out.  We put it toward debt.

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  • I forgot to mention, H is a points hoarder.  He has a Southwest card, and a Cabela's card, and he uses those for his business travel that he's reimbursed for, so he really racks them up.  At one point, he was up to like $1,300 in rewards at Cabela's, but I think we've used those up now.  He had over 400,000 points with Southwest, and he freaked out because we booked our Vegas trip and that made him drop below 400k... to like 380k or something LOL
    I have a friend that used to travel 6 months out of the year for work and did the same thing! One time we went to visit them and their guest room was under renovation so he booked us at a really nice hotel nearby with his points - he said he had so many that he could never realistically use them all by himself and he felt bad that we couldn't stay with them! 
    Yeah I'm not really sure what he's hoarding them for... I think he imagines us going on some big vacation in the future, but, we still wouldn't use up all the points to go anywhere that Southwest flies to! 
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