chase rewards???

[poohbear15]

How are all of you getting so many rewards. I have had my card for YEARS and only have $250 towards our Dec trip. I would love tips on how to get more rewards.

 

[Peanut&Piglet'sMom]

Simple. We use our card for EVERYTHING!!!! And we pay it off each month.

We try to go every other year so our points really build up!!!

 

[pjlla]

We have a Chase Southwest Rewards card. We have had it for a few years and have earned at least 6 full roundtrip tickets during that time (some of it was for "bonus" Rewards that they occasionally offer). We try to faithfully pay it off in full every month and have found it to work well for us. I like flying SWA and they fly out of our little local airport, so it is a great deal for us. DD and I flew to St. Louis a few years ago for free, and I believe we had at least 3 1/2 free tickets last year that we used for our WDW trip. We have, sadly, also had tickets expire because we didn't get to using them, but if you call sometimes they will let you reinstate your expired Rewards for $50. Well worth it if it equals a roundtrip airline ticket!,....................P

 

[HappyHappy]

Automaticaly charged to cc every month: home heating oil budget payment, exterminator, cable, cell phone, several charities. Also: All food shopping and dining out, gas for cars,propane deliveries,all perscriptions, doctor's co-pays, farm supplies (this can add up), Club Penquin renewals for 5 grandkids (GMom's a softy), my internet shopping problem. If I can use a credit card to buy it, I do. As PP stated, this only works if you pay balance in full every month!! I look at my cc balance every day so that I stay in budget with no surprises. I find that if I schedule my payment on-line the day after my statement closes for the month, I never have to worry about late fees or interest Hope this helps.

 

[LastLookAtTheCastle]

We do the same thing... everything goes on the card. DH and I both travel for work, so that's like "free" dollars right there.

Just make sure to pay it off! We send a payment every Friday!

 

[shoney]

Charge everything!!! I even pay for 1 McD's happy meal with the card. No purchase is too small. Look to have your bills (phone, cable, oil, etc.) put on the card as well. You just have to pay it off at the end of the month. I haven't cashed in on the rewards in 2 and half years and I now have 1000 reward dollars. I am saving them up until I can pay for a trip.

A few years ago, my parents purchased a time share...18,000 and they put it on their card to get the points! Again, they had to pay it at the end of the month!

 

[Piecey]

Pretty much what everyone else said- put everything on it.

We just spent $9k on new HVAC stuff and our credit limit is only $3k...

So I told them part of the deal of choosing them was they let me pay in portions. So the day I made a $2500 payment to the HVAC people, I made a payment on the card.

Instant $90 DDR.

 

[ashleyd725@hotmail.c]

Sorry to hijack, but we had a Wamu card that is now Chase, does anyone know if we will get the same rewards as people with a regular chase card?

 

[Karenj2]

As everyone else said - we've got all our automatic payments on this card:
- cable/internet/phone
- charities (I write 1 separate check at the end of the year to make up for the % they lose by me using my rewards card - usually it's another month's worth)
- phone bill (cell & landline)

Plus, we also use this CC for everything (we don't carry cash)
- all groceries
- doctor's visits/medicine
- entertainment
- our trips!!
etc.

I've got a rather LARGE expense coming up, and our credit line is just not big enough - If I can, I'll have them split the bill between 2 CCs we carry (the non Disney one doesn't get used, but still has a high limit for some reason.)

It's been said already, but it can't be said enought - none of this is worth it if you don't pay off your bill in full each month!!

(I've got ~$250 saved up so far - I'll probably have a bit more before our trip in august!)

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Sorry to hijack, but we had a Wamu card that is now Chase, does anyone know if we will get the same rewards as people with a regular chase card?

Not all Chase cards have rewards. It would depend on the card you had.

 

[poohbear15]

I have the disney card. I seem to never get 5x or anything like that. We're going in Dec for 10 nights so I was hoping to have more than $300 to put towards it. We are in the process of refinancing and are only keeping our disney cards and our Royal cearibean ones so I'm hoping I can start charging and paying off in full.

 

[Minnie Lor]

I use mine for groceries, doctor visits, med's and pay off each month. I don't have the cell phone, cable, etc. charged to it and I still have $150 saved up in less than a year. We're a family of two so it can be done.

 

[Dani C]

I'm not sure what type of Chase card you have, but I wanted to add in that many Chase customers can also gain rewards through using their debit cards. The trick is that you have to run the transaction through as though it is a credit card transaction and sign for it. If you enter a PIN, it doesn't count.

For the Disney Rewards Visa card, try to pay all your monthly bills and buy your regular groceries, etc. using the card and then use a check or automatic payment from your checking account to pay the bill in full each month. This will earn you lots of reward dollars without all those nasty little fees.

 

[spima3]

It's been said already, but it can't be said enought - none of this is worth it if you don't pay off your bill in full each month!!
QUOTE]

So True!
I do the same with our rewards card, but last month, I "thought" I had scheduled an on-line payment, but when I went to check on a charge, I found it had not been paid! I couldn't believe it.
Totally defeats the purpose of having the card.....$39 late fee plus interest.

A friend suggested calling them and asking them to waive the fees, but with the way things are today, I doubt they'll go for it.

 

[nowellsl]

Pretty much what everyone else said- put everything on it.

We just spent $9k on new HVAC stuff and our credit limit is only $3k...

So I told them part of the deal of choosing them was they let me pay in portions. So the day I made a $2500 payment to the HVAC people, I made a payment on the card.

Instant $90 DDR.

How are you getting $90? Is this a special? Mine only pays 1% which would be $25 on a charge of $2,500.

 

[magik]

I generally never have more than $100-$200 to use each year, and I charge *everything* I can on it. The only things I don't charge are things that will charge me a convenience fee that is more than what I would earn in rewards. I always sign up for the 5x rewards when I can, but I never seem to hit the threshold to earn the extra rewards.

I charge my grad school tuition which gives me $25 each semester, so that's helping some. When I bought new windows and siding, even though I had the cash, I charged it and then paid it off immediately. I probably have a new AC in my future, and I'll be charging that too if I can.

I only do this though because I know I have the money to pay it off every month and not pay interest. And even charging everything I can, the only things that make it add up "fast" are my tuition and one-time large expenditures (the windows, etc).

 

[shoney]

It's been said already, but it can't be said enought - none of this is worth it if you don't pay off your bill in full each month!!
QUOTE]

So True!
I do the same with our rewards card, but last month, I "thought" I had scheduled an on-line payment, but when I went to check on a charge, I found it had not been paid! I couldn't believe it.
Totally defeats the purpose of having the card.....$39 late fee plus interest.

A friend suggested calling them and asking them to waive the fees, but with the way things are today, I doubt they'll go for it.

I had it happen recently too. I had the bill being paid on a Sunday and my bank didn't do it until Monday...oops...didn't check that. So one day late and late fee and interest...I called them. They were very willing to take off the late fee, but couldn't do anything with the interest. I paid off anything remaining on the card immediatel..mid-cycle..to avoid any more interest payments.

 

[Lexie]

How are you getting $90? Is this a special? Mine only pays 1% which would be $25 on a charge of $2,500.

She said the charge for the HVAC system was $9000, but because her credit limit was only $3000 she had to make a deal to pay the installer $2500 at a time. So once it's all paid she have 90 points since 1% of 9K is 90!

We did the same thing after our car that was in a wreck. We had a $3K credit limit too and the repairs were for $5K.

 

[nowellsl]

She said the charge for the HVAC system was $9000, but because her credit limit was only $3000 she had to make a deal to pay the installer $2500 at a time. So once it's all paid she have 90 points since 1% of 9K is 90!

We did the same thing after our car that was in a wreck. We had a $3K credit limit too and the repairs were for $5K.

Thanks, I'm a little slow this morning

 

[pjlla]

I also charged DD's braces. Sadly, I was going to put half on my Chase card and half on Discover. It wasn't until I was there to pay that I found out that they don't take Discover.... and I didn't have a large enough line of credit to pay totally with the Chase card. I ended up paying everything I could with the Chase card and the remainder in cash. I should have thought to pay half, go home, pay off the card, and return in a few days to pay off the other half. Live and learn.

A few weeks ago my grocery store was having a special.... buy $300 in store gift cards, get $30 extra for free. I bought the gift cards with my Chase card.... so I got the free $30 PLUS Rapid Rewards!! I was able to do this twice during the promotion! (I could have bought more, but I didn't want to have more cards than I would use up in a few weeks.) I'm trying to get MUCH smarter about doing things like this. If we go out to dinner, sometimes I try to buy a restaurant gift card (with my Chase Southwest Airlines card) at the grocery store for where ever we are going. That way, I get Irving gas savings for using my grocery store card and I haven't really spent more than I would have in the first place at the restaurant. .........................P