Credit card cash back rewards

[kiramay]

I just wanted to share one way we save for trips... I have a Discover, Citibank rewards MasterCard, Target redcard, and Disney rewards.

- Target obviously saves me 5% all the time. Great for Disney giftcards.
- Both discover and Citibank offer 5% back deals. For oct-dec it's online shopping, best buy, department stores, and toy stores. So when I shop there, I get 5% back.
-ebates offers 1-10% back online. For example, I'll go through ebates, go to Old Navy (get 2% back), use my discover (get 5% more back), and do Christmas shopping.
-Disney card for whatever else there is for Disney dollars.

So far this year I've got $400 in rewards saved up.

 

[tvguy]

I just wanted to share one way we save for trips... I have a Discover, Citibank rewards MasterCard, Target redcard, and Disney rewards.

- Target obviously saves me 5% all the time. Great for Disney giftcards.
- Both discover and Citibank offer 5% back deals. For oct-dec it's online shopping, best buy, department stores, and toy stores. So when I shop there, I get 5% back.
-ebates offers 1-10% back online. For example, I'll go through ebates, go to Old Navy (get 2% back), use my discover (get 5% more back), and do Christmas shopping.
-Disney card for whatever else there is for Disney dollars.

So far this year I've got $400 in rewards saved up.

I have a co-worker who was bragging about how many rewards she gets from buying gas with her credit card. I kind of deflated it all when I pointed out that the prices at the debit card/cash only gas stations charge about 7% less than the ones that take credit cards, and that she would be money ahead to not use the credit card.

 

[kiramay]

I have a co-worker who was bragging about how many rewards she gets from buying gas with her credit card. I kind of deflated it all when I pointed out that the prices at the debit card/cash only gas stations charge about 7% less than the ones that take credit cards, and that she would be money ahead to not use the credit card.

We don't have any gas stations that don't take credit cards! Lol

We use them for everything, and pay them off every month.

 

[pjlla]

I have a co-worker who was bragging about how many rewards she gets from buying gas with her credit card. I kind of deflated it all when I pointed out that the prices at the debit card/cash only gas stations charge about 7% less than the ones that take credit cards, and that she would be money ahead to not use the credit card.

It used to be that MOST gas stations charged less for cash, but not around here any more. They are all same price cash or credit. Maybe it's a regional thing...........P

 

[LMN]

yeah, unfortunately no gas stations in my area (Austin, TX) offer cheaper per gallon prices for paying with cash either. I say as long as you're paying off your credit card every month and can get a cheaper pricer by using that credit card, go for it!!

 

[julieanddanny]

I just wanted to share one way we save for trips... I have a Discover, Citibank rewards MasterCard, Target redcard, and Disney rewards.

- Target obviously saves me 5% all the time. Great for Disney giftcards.
- Both discover and Citibank offer 5% back deals. For oct-dec it's online shopping, best buy, department stores, and toy stores. So when I shop there, I get 5% back.
-ebates offers 1-10% back online. For example, I'll go through ebates, go to Old Navy (get 2% back), use my discover (get 5% more back), and do Christmas shopping.
-Disney card for whatever else there is for Disney dollars.

So far this year I've got $400 in rewards saved up.

Don't forget to go through ShopDiscover when shopping online with your Discover card! Might be better than ebates on some stores.

 

[kiramay]

Don't forget to go through ShopDiscover when shopping online with your Discover card! Might be better than ebates on some stores.

Thank you! I'll add that to my list!!

 

[DonnaL]

I don't think I've seen a gas station in my area charge different amounts for cash/credit in many years. I do remember it...just haven't seen it for years. And, we do the same as OP.....everything that can go on our Southwest Visa..does...that includes groceries, gas, some utility bills (the ones that don't charge a fee for using a cc), cell phone bill, car and house insurance...and gets paid off monthly to avoid any interest charges. We usually manage to get at the very least enough points for two round trip tix.....sometimes more...this past January we had enough points to pay for two round trip and one way of the third tix from Philadelphia to Orange County, CA on our first trip to Disneyland!

 

[kydisneyfans]

Around here Swifty gives a .02 discount off posted price for cash. My CC rewards for charging gas vs saving .30 and carrying around a wad of cash to get the .30 isn't worth it to me.

I have just under $1,000 in rewards checks from Chase on my desk for the Disney trip in 3 weeks. We also have enough gas points at Speedway for the initial fill and enough dollar off points at Kroger for 2 fillups while on the road. I'll only pay full price for fuel on site at Disney.

The Chase points have built since the first of the year. We charge everything, pay it off weekly, and enjoy the free cash.

 

[tvguy]

We don't have any gas stations that don't take credit cards! Lol

We use them for everything, and pay them off every month.

ARCO doesn't take credit cards. They are the 5th largest chain of gas stations in the nation. Don't know what state you are in or if you have ARCO there.

 

[tvguy]

It used to be that MOST gas stations charged less for cash, but not around here any more. They are all same price cash or credit. Maybe it's a regional thing...........P

Shell is really big on cash discounts here.

Chevron is kind of tricky. If you buy a Chevron gift card, which I think you have to buy with cash, and use the gift card to buy gas, you save 5 cents a gallon.

 

[dhardawa]

I have a co-worker who was bragging about how many rewards she gets from buying gas with her credit card. I kind of deflated it all when I pointed out that the prices at the debit card/cash only gas stations charge about 7% less than the ones that take credit cards, and that she would be money ahead to not use the credit card.

Wish we had that here. There's one that does 3 cents a gallon, but I get way better with my credit card.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

According to Wikipedia, Arco has 1100 stations in 5 states. So, I'm with the rest of the no cash discount for gas group.

I just did the Disney math on our upcoming trip. We are only taking $1000 out of our vacation fund for 7 nights @ POR mostly because of credit card rewards / benefits.

Current rack rate: $4,180

Free Dining Pin rate: $2,500
Disney Rewards: $1,300

OOP cost of trip: $1,200 (almost $3K less than rack rate!!)

For the $200 deposit we used our Disney Visa and spread it out over 6 months (no finance charges) so it came out of our regular monthly budget, not our vacation fund.

The other $1,000 we will pay with Target gift cards costing $950 instead of $1000. The $50 will go towards spending cash while we are there.

We will use rewards from another card to buy gas cards for our transportation costs.

I got a $100 rebate on some contacts I bought for DD and my husband is going to cash in his scrap metal he's been saving up. That should give us the rest of our spending cash we need. The kids have their own spending $ saved. So, we only really need $ for tips and any extra activities we decide to do.

We are planning a trip to SoCal / DL in the Spring so the budget for this one was small. I think we did well. We are going to sign up for Southwest rewards credit card for the CA trip. Hoping to keep that one to $3K OOP.

 

[MichelleVW]

I have a co-worker who was bragging about how many rewards she gets from buying gas with her credit card. I kind of deflated it all when I pointed out that the prices at the debit card/cash only gas stations charge about 7% less than the ones that take credit cards, and that she would be money ahead to not use the credit card.

No option for that in my area, not that I would want to carry around a wad of cash anyway. Give me the 2% cash back from my Disney Visa.

Don't forget to go through ShopDiscover when shopping online with your Discover card! Might be better than ebates on some stores.

I LOVE Shop Discover! Don't forget to go thru ShopDiscover if you travel. You can book things on Travelocity, Expedia etc and get 5% cash back! You can't get cash back on airfare alone, but if you do a package with airfare and a car you can get cash back. I booked airfare and a rental car in July for a weekend trip to Disney and Shop Discover gave me $40 in cash back!!