Using credit cards for the perks (miles, points, etc.)

[lurkernj]

From Chicago lowest point usage

27,500 points plus $125.00....each way.


I think if you don't pay a fee it's 40,000 each way.

Hmmm, curiousity got the best of me and I just looked at ORD to honolulu (and Maui for comparison), and I found tons of flights for 20,000 pts and $5 each way, even some direct flights in August, which are hard to come by. Where were you looking? I was on the united.com site, under mileageplus and clicked on "book with reward miles"

 

[alryan]

I had applied for one 2 or 3 yrs ago when they were giving the two free round trip flights, not points. I cancelled it when the annual fee came due. Last year DH and I each applied for the basic card, the $69 annual fee one, and we each got 50,000 miles. Later in the year, while still having the basic card, we both applied for the premier card, which is $99 annual fee. I fully did not expect to get approved, but we both did so now we have another 50,000 each. (we've used the points for 4 rt tickets to Disney, 4 rt tickets to vegas, and still have a ton left!)

Yes, I know about the credit hits, but we have no debt except our mortgage, which is almost paid off.

Thank you! Guess I could do the Premier one, although the 2K in the first three months may be a bit much for me. I'm in the same boat as you, no debt except the house. With no plans to borrow money again the credit hits don't bother me a bit!

Sorry to go OT, but thanks for the info!

 

[Pakey]

I am looking at United cards now, because I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. About how many points/miles does a trip to Hawaii cost? I find miles so confusing, Disney Dollars are so much easier.

I'm an American Airlines frequent flier and I just used 30,000 points each way (60,000 round trip) for each ticket to Hawaii for June. I had to fly on Wednesdays to find flights that were not blocked.

 

[rszdtrvl]

When you say 'more on it than you should' do you mean you blow your budget or you go over the limit of the card?

Still reading the responses, but wanted to say that I spend more than I have budgeted out. The card is paid off once a week. I have never spent more than the limit of the ccard, LOL. We have a very high credit limit!

And since I read responses, I want to say that I think I will stop by the bank and see if they have any checkbook registers that I can use specifically for the credit card. Or figure out some sort of spreadsheet online.

Thanks!!

 

[Brer Shay]

I use my credit card to pay for as much as possible to earn the perks, but found I would "forget" a couple of transactions each month. I now use a literal envelope system to track it. I stop by the ATM, get the cash out to cover the charge, then put the receipt and the money to cover it in the envelope. Pay it off once a month by depositing the cash. It keeps me more aware of the cash spending and I've not had any trouble with "forgetting" since going this route.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

OP, I charge EVERYTHING, even little $5 amounts. To keep track, I enter it into my regular checkbook and write: "Chase Subway" and then the amount. I circle "Chase" and the amount. Then at the end of every month (or when I do online bills) I checkmark the transaction (as if you're marking off from statement), and then rewrite just the amount in a new line but doing this for all of my Chase charges. I add it all back (so put it in deposit area) then schedule my payment and write it in normally. Wow, that comes out so confusingly I wish I could show you. Essentially that's how I keep track of the Amex, Kohls, Chase, SW, Citi, and so on. Probably didn't make sense.

So, let's say I had 3 Chase charges:
Chase Subway $7
Chase Rosauers $100
Chase Chevron $80

Pretend these are all written on lines in checkbook register with "Chase" and the amounts circled. (the circling helps me see they are credit card charges). At bill paying time I checkmark all 3 as if reconciling account and on next line in register I will have:
"7+100+80 Chase Charges" then the amount added back in deposit side so $187. Checkmark so it's reconciled. Then on next register line:
"Chase click-to-pay" with $187 scheduled for Chase which I do online. Honestly we are good about writing everything down and are usually pretty accurate with what's due. I have to do it this way because I have a lot of cards, which I do pay off every month but only way I could figure. Sorry if I couldn't explain well but you'll come up with a system.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

I also use my Chase Visa as a debit card in tat I only charge what I know I have in the budget. I charge everything on it. I only use that one card as opposed to store cards, etc. because the benefits are so good (it's a signature card), so it's easy to keep track. Then I have it linked to our online banking accounts and on my phone app. I check those accounts very regularly and pay down the bill a few times a month...very simple to transfer the money over after I've made some big purchases, always making sure it's paid in full by the end of the month.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

I use my credit card to pay for as much as possible to earn the perks, but found I would "forget" a couple of transactions each month. I now use a literal envelope system to track it. I stop by the ATM, get the cash out to cover the charge, then put the receipt and the money to cover it in the envelope. Pay it off once a month by depositing the cash. It keeps me more aware of the cash spending and I've not had any trouble with "forgetting" since going this route.

Be very careful with this if you are paying off more than a few thousand dollars a month. You can't deposit large amounts of cash (even though its the same money you took out) without a paper trail or you will risk getting audited by the IRS. They will assume you are running a cash business and not declaring the income.

I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but I would research it if you haven't already.

The other option is to take out the money and then get a money order when you go to pay the bill.

 

[Brer Shay]

Be very careful with this if you are paying off more than a few thousand dollars a month. You can't deposit large amounts of cash (even though its the same money you took out) without a paper trail or you will risk getting audited by the IRS. They will assume you are running a cash business and not declaring the income.

I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but I would research it if you haven't already.

For particularly large purchases, I leave the $ in the bank - I don't think I'd forget a $500+ purchase. It's more for the $5-$100 purchases that can get overlooked. I did have it come back on me once when we refinanced our mortgage. They wanted to know why and from what source I kept making cash deposits. I had to write out an explanation, show my bank statements, credit card bill and corresponding bank deposits and payments, but it went through okay.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

For particularly large purchases, I leave the $ in the bank - I don't think I'd forget a $500+ purchase. It's more for the $5-$100 purchases that can get overlooked. I did have it come back on me once when we refinanced our mortgage. They wanted to know why and from what source I kept making cash deposits. I had to write out an explanation, show my bank statements, credit card bill and corresponding bank deposits and payments, but it went through okay.

Got it! Yes, I can see how you wouldn't be withdrawing a thousand dollars to redeposit to pay for airline tickets lol. Glad it worked out for the mortgage refi. I think it's a great method if you keep it at a certain amount.

 

[mrsklamc]

Out of Indy the best I could find was 40,000 miles one way plus $5. Still interesting though. Might be worth traveling to Chicago, depending on what parking costs at ORD.

 

[itdjbw]

I only have 2 cards so pretty easy to keep track of and make sure no interest is incurred.
I use my discover and then use the $$$ I accumulate to buy flights on any airline and my Delta miles I try to use only for long international flights - going to Venice in May and then flying back from Barcelona with a stop in Paris for 77.500 miles and $102 in taxes.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have the SWA visa & put everthing on it: gas, groceries, cable/phone/internet, cell phones, prescription & dr visit copays. You name it. I log on probably every other day, check our charges & make payments weekly. I wouldn't buy anything "extra" unless I knew I had $ set aside to pay it off. For example I needed tires in Jan which were around $800. I'm very careful to not just blindly charge away like I'm spending someone else's money. There's some room in our budget for little splurges but we don't go crazy with it.
We earn approx enough points to fly one way to MCO every other month. They really add up quickly. Also I use the RR shopping mall with online purchases. Just log on to your RR account and enter the desired website through SWA's and you earn more miles. Too bad Amazon.com isn't on the list. Kohl's only earns points if your coupon is for 15% max. We usually have 20 or 30% so I'd rather have the instant savings.

For a long while we also had a USAirways cc. I got rid of it when their service was awful for a while but lately they've been fine to fly on. Back then they would allow me to change the Dividend Miles account that the card would earn to. It was great to change it to whomever needed some activity on their DM account. It was on ds16, then much younger, for the longest time and when I tried to change to dh, I was scolded by the bank rep that I can't change that. So ds really caught up to dh & I, despite being a minor.
Long story short, we racked up enough miles that we could get 3 free RT flights to Barcelona for this summer's Med cruise. Only had to buy 1 seat which I put in my name (& charged on my SWA card!) so hopefully I'll have enough for a RT domestic flight by the end of summer.

I wish ds12's summer camp would accept a cc. I really dislike paying things by check/cash knowing it's not earning anything. Oh well....

OP, I would do it only if you're very disciplined in charging what you can definitely pay off monthly.

 

[Julia M]

OP, I charge EVERYTHING, even little $5 amounts. To keep track, I enter it into my regular checkbook and write: "Chase Subway" and then the amount. I circle "Chase" and the amount. Then at the end of every month (or when I do online bills) I checkmark the transaction (as if you're marking off from statement), and then rewrite just the amount in a new line but doing this for all of my Chase charges. I add it all back (so put it in deposit area) then schedule my payment and write it in normally. Wow, that comes out so confusingly I wish I could show you. Essentially that's how I keep track of the Amex, Kohls, Chase, SW, Citi, and so on. Probably didn't make sense.

So, let's say I had 3 Chase charges:
Chase Subway $7
Chase Rosauers $100
Chase Chevron $80

Pretend these are all written on lines in checkbook register with "Chase" and the amounts circled. (the circling helps me see they are credit card charges). At bill paying time I checkmark all 3 as if reconciling account and on next line in register I will have:
"7+100+80 Chase Charges" then the amount added back in deposit side so $187. Checkmark so it's reconciled. Then on next register line:
"Chase click-to-pay" with $187 scheduled for Chase which I do online. Honestly we are good about writing everything down and are usually pretty accurate with what's due. I have to do it this way because I have a lot of cards, which I do pay off every month but only way I could figure. Sorry if I couldn't explain well but you'll come up with a system.

I do something similar. When I charge something, I write it in my checkbook register: VISA Safeway or VISA Target. The thing I do different is actually transfer the money out of checking to a savings account. When the bill comes in, I pay it from the savings account. I transfer the money 1 or 2 times a week, depending on how many transactions I've made (and how busy I am!!!)

I like the money to be out of the account, to emphasize its been spent.

Julia

 

[aprilgail2]

When I go food shopping- if I charged140.00 I come home and log on my online banking and pay my credit card the amount I spent- if I am out shopping at various stores at the end of the day I add it up, log on to my online banking and pay the days worth of shopping. This way I never come up short at the end of the month!

 

[DLgal]

I just have to point out here, if there are a couple of months where you have to pay interest, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean you "failed" and you "negate all the benefits of the rewards."

We have AMEX Gold card (primary use card) and both have Premier SW Visa cards. We use both, and pay off both almost in full every month. Sometimes, we have some carry over and have to pay it off a couple of weeks or a month later. We might pay $20-40 in interest charges, maybe 2 or 3 times a year TOTAL among all our credit cards. But, the amount of money in "rewards" that we earn is FAR higher than that. Our AMEX nets us about the equivalent of $1000 per year in rewards (we only use it to purchase airfare). Our SW Visas have already netted us over 6 round trip tickets that would have cost well over $1200 in total. I've paid some money to these two card companies in interest, but they've paid me WAY more back.

And, just FYI, Credit Card companies hate customers that they never make money off of. When you pay them a little bit of money here and there on interest, you "magically" get graced with lowered APR rates, no fee/no interest balance transfers, special offers, etc.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but I put my car insurance on my CC. and pay it off right away.

 

[mrsklamc]

It's been awhile since I checked, but we have State Farm and the last I checked they charged a convenience fee or something of that nature.

 

[hsmamato2]

I just have to point out here, if there are a couple of months where you have to pay interest, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean you "failed" and you "negate all the benefits of the rewards."

We have AMEX Gold card (primary use card) and both have Premier SW Visa cards. Sometimes, we have some carry over and have to pay it off a couple of weeks or a month later. We might pay $20-40 in interest charges, maybe 2 or 3 times a year TOTAL among all our credit cards. But, the amount of money in "rewards" that we earn is FAR higher than that. Our AMEX nets us about the equivalent of $1000 per year in rewards (we only use it to purchase airfare). Our SW Visas have already netted us over 6 round trip tickets that would have cost well over $1200 in total. I've paid some money to these two card companies in interest, but they've paid me WAY more back.

And, just FYI, Credit Card companies hate customers that they never make money off of. When you pay them a little bit of money here and there on interest, you "magically" get graced with lowered APR rates, no fee/no interest balance transfers, special offers, etc.

Maybe so...but just imagine how much better your returns would be if you hadn't paid that out....I get what you're saying,but the genreal Rule is "DON'T PAY INTEREST" for good reason.... most people pay it monthly. and cc companies still send offer after offer, and we don't pay interest. so that last bit is untrue. (they're always hopeful we'll get in too deep lol)
What Op is asking about I think is getting bonus sign ups....those huge amounts of points up front when opening a card.... ALso,another 'reality check' is how much one pays in annual fees for the reward cards. I pay some annual fees,for a card that is worth getting/keeping. But for you,pp, you've paid 500.00 into getting your rewards,signiifcantly diminishing your reward. still a reward, but what I said is true, paying fees on top of the annual fee is wasting your time and money.
BTW, agree with others here, I love the SWA card

 

[DLgal]

Maybe so...but just imagine how much better your returns would be if you hadn't paid that out....I get what you're saying,but the genreal Rule is "DON'T PAY INTEREST" for good reason.... most people pay it monthly. and cc companies still send offer after offer, and we don't pay interest. so that last bit is untrue. (they're always hopeful we'll get in too deep lol)
What Op is asking about I think is getting bonus sign ups....those huge amounts of points up front when opening a card.... ALso,another 'reality check' is how much one pays in annual fees for the reward cards. I pay some annual fees,for a card that is worth getting/keeping. But for you,pp, you've paid 500.00 into getting your rewards,signiifcantly diminishing your reward. still a reward, but what I said is true, paying fees on top of the annual fee is wasting your time and money.
BTW, agree with others here, I love the SWA card

My annual fee for AMEX is $150. We net at least $850 in rewards per year (we earn approx. 100,000 points per year, which is $1000 in airfare, which is ALL we ever use it for). The other points conversions (for hotels and merchandise) are not a good value, so I never use them for that.

The annual fees for the SW Visa are $99 each. However, they give us bonus points on our anniversary equivalent to $106 (or something) in airfare. 6,000 bonus points on each card, each year. So, really, there's no net output of fees for the SW Visa, as we fly them often and can always use the points for airfare.

I pay out maybe $250 a year in fees total, not anywhere near $500.

I always get great offers, it's true. But, I only get the REALLY great offers on the cards where I have paid a little bit of money in interest over the years. I get NO FEE balance transfers with LONG payback periods (18 months), etc. On the other cards, where I never carry over balances, my offers always include fees (3%) and much shorter 0% time periods.

I've been "working the system" since I was in college. I've always been smart about it, and the perks I've gotten over the past 16 years have FAR surpassed any $ output on my part. I haven't paid full price for a plane ticket in I don't know how long. I always have some points available I can use.

I agree that people who pay monthly interest with "rewards" cards are not being smart, but there is a gray area between NEVER PAY INTEREST EVER and PAY INTEREST EVERY MONTH.

It's kind of like the Credit Cards are Evil mentality vs. Credit Cards are free money mentality. Gray areas exist.