So let me get this straight....

[binny]

Im looking over our "rewards program" for our credit card and it explains that for *JUST* 5,000 points we too can have a$25. GC to Kmart.

Ok not bad but then I read the fine print.... one point per dollar spent.



ok So I spend $5,000. then I get $25. hmmmmmmm not sounding like such a great deal aftr all. ( we dont use CC's all that often it will take quite awhile to rack up that $5,000 )


So do you have an awards program that is like that?

 

[nativetxn]

Our American Express is like that. I use it all the time but we pay it off every month, so I might as well get the points

 

[NHAnn]

I have a program kind of like that on one visa card, you get a dollar for each point, and after so many thousands of points you get a discount or free airline ticket (with all kinds of restriction on booking the travel of course). I use the credit card instead of cash during the month (and pay the balance in full each month) for things like gas and eating out and other "usual" expenses and get the points because I would have spent the money anyway. The thing on programs like that is to not spend money that you wouldn't have normally spent anyway, just to get the reward.
My car dealer/servicer is offering a credit card that gives you 5% off auto service/repairs - plus "rebate dollars"...for every dollar you charge on the credit card (anywhere, not just at the dealer) you can earn a percentage of that dollar as a rebate on your next purchase of a car from them...........I haven't read all the fine print on that one so haven't applied for it...I don't have accounts with all the stores and stuff...just one visa and one mastercard and I'll probably keep it that way!

 

[YaYas_Mom]

I actually use it for my online business, so I'm constantly cycling money through there like crazy. This year alone I earned $25 to olive garden, $25 to chili's, $75 to old navy. If you can, try to hook up your mortgage to hit your credit card (if you have one) that will help a lot, especially if you pay it off at the end of the month, or at the same time it hits. No finance charges, but free money every month. Some cards rewards are better - I have a citibank and a wells fargo travel one. the citibank is much better than WF imho.

Jennifer

 

[binny]

oh thats a good idea I never thought of putting my mortgage on it! That would add up really fast!!

woooohoooo we'd be looking at $25 pretty quick lol.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I have it with American Express but we have been looking at a couple of other cards that look like they might be better deals.

My Quicken program downloads our transactions every day and I make an online payment to them every week to pay the balance on the card. That way I can make sure that we aren't spending more than what is in our checking account.

You would be surprised at how quick that $5,000 accumulates if you use it to pay for groceries, gasoline, etc. etc. etc. It's rather frightening.

We mostly use our rewards for airline miles.

 

[DocRafiki]

$25 per $5000? That's, what? 0.5%? Discover card at least gives you 1% cash back, so you'd double your "earnings."

I have yet to figure out what percentage is earned on my little Ford rebate card.

Which credit card have you found that gives you the biggest percentage rebate/discount/etc?

 

[Kermit]

We have a Hilton Honors American Express credit card that we really like. I'm not sure about the dollar/point exchange, but we seem to earn free nights very quickly. Hilton hotels include Hilton, Embassy Suites, and Hampton Inns (plus a few others that I'm not as familiar with), so there's always one in every town you want to vacation in. I like getting something like that rather than money because the amount of money I was getting with my Discover was so small that I was just depositing it into my checking account and spending it like "normal" money. With hotel nights, we get to do something that we wouldn't normally treat ourselves to quite as often.