What do you charge on your rewards cards?

[drinkme]

I was thinking of adding as many monthly bills to my rewards card as possible. This is my Southwest rewards card. I figure I need about 35,000 points to travel to Disney every year for me and my 2 kids. So, I'll need to charge $35,000 a year. I know you can't put mortgage payments on a card, but I couldn't even set my car payments up with using the card.

I have my cell phone set up, and my daughter's music lessons.

What else would there be?

 

[leebee]

Everything... food, gas, dance class tuition, restaurants, clothing purchases, my phone bill, copay at the doctor/dentist, payment plan at the hospital for large medical bills, my electric bill, oil, the cable bill... you name it, we charge it, and PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH. If you carry a balance, it's not worth doing. It does take some discipline, but I find it's actually easier to have everything on one card than to have several different store accounts, credit cards, etc. DD's college tuition can also go on the credit card bill, but there's a surcharge for doing this, and I haven't figured out whether the "points" from charging tuition are worth more than the service charge for doing so.

 

[sdzman]

We use our rewards card to pay:

groceries
gas
electric bill
auto insurance
cell phone
home phone / internet
satellite TV

Basically everything except our gas bill and mortgage is paid by our CC. Our electric co charges a small CC transaction fee but it's worth the reward points. I also use my card for my work expenses including travel/hotels/restaurants.....etc. The rewards add up quickly.

 

[platamama]

On every single merchant that will accept credit cards, I use credit cards. If you are planning on using your cash back to pay for travel, Capital One Venture gives you 2% back on every purchase. Not sure which Southwest Card you have, but you only get 2% on Southwest purchases and partners, not on every purchase. They both carry an annual fee (I think Cap One is less), but the Cap One Venture gets you more money back. If you use the cash back for non-travel expenses you only get 1%, but it sounds like you're trying to use it for travel so it should work out better for you.

 

[disneychrista]

The only things that aren't charged are those that can't be...mortgage, car insurance, public utilities. Everything else goes on the card.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

We pay everything we can and pay the bill off each month.

 

[coastiewifern]

surcharges on some utilities an college tuition make it not worth it for us. Mortgage and car loans won't allow it for us. Sports fees go on the card but all the tournaments we play I have to pay by check. We pay it off of course.

 

[stich1fan]

We charge everything too.

food
shopping
clothes
oil
electric
cable
car and house insurance
copays sometimes
netflix
cell phone
home phone

everything, I am sure I missed some regular things!

 

[DawnM]

We have a Fidelity American Express as it gives 2% on every purchase.

Groceries
Eating out
Car insurance (no added fees)
utilities (no added fee here)
gas
train pass
cell phone bill


Really, anything I can that doesn't charge an added fee. If there is a discount for cash, I pay cash.

Dawn

 

[girli565]

I use my Amex to pay almost everything that lets me pay with a credit card. Car Insurance, groceries, gas, phone bill, cell phone, Cable. I wish I could pay my rent and light bill but they want checking accounts and my car payments are taken from my direct deposit bi-weekly.