What do you use a CC with rewards for?

[Lees3rwe]

Hey Everyone!

I'm curious... how many people use "rewards" type cc for groceries, gas, etc. and just pay them off every month instead of just using cash/checks/debit cards?

We are paying off our credit cards except for our Disney Rewards Visa. I would love to start using it for gas and groceries.

Tell me some other creative ways you earn points and how many you average a year!

 

[Cadets74]

We use our southwest credit cards for everything... Then I pay it off every month... In 3 years I had enough (albeit with 50,000 pats for signing up) to fly my family of 8 from Rochester ny to Orlando... I also took one out for my business and do the same,,, have enough to fly all 8 again!

 

[Lees3rwe]

I keep hearing about that card! I should look into that one.
Are they still offering the 50K points?
There are only 3 of us, so we should get multiple flights!

 

[TDSAXX]

I keep hearing about that card! I should look into that one.
Are they still offering the 50K points?
There are only 3 of us, so we should get multiple flights!

There's a whole thread on these cards. If you apply for both the personal and business card you will get 100,000 points. Earn another 10,000 points and you will qualify for Companion Pass.

 

[supersnoop]

Hey Everyone!

I'm curious... how many people use "rewards" type cc for groceries, gas, etc. and just pay them off every month instead of just using cash/checks/debit cards?

We are paying off our credit cards except for our Disney Rewards Visa. I would love to start using it for gas and groceries.

Tell me some other creative ways you earn points and how many you average a year!

I use the PenFed Cash Rewards card for all our fuel purchases. It earns 5% cash back, which posts as a credit on the monthly statement.

In general, you'll always get more value out of a cash-back card instead of the Disney card. If you get the Premier Disney card, which has an annual fee, and use it only on gas and groceries which earns 2%, and you spend more than $5,000 per year on those categories, it might be a better choice.

Airline and hotel credit cards can be worthwhile if you redeem the reward points for high-value travel.

 

[greentea]

Yes, I use a credit card for everything instead of my debit card. I always pay my balance right away. I do have a credit card that gives cash back rewards, but I would use a CC even without rewards because I feel safer.

Earlier this year, DH's credit card ended up with $400 in fraudulent charges on it, and it was very quick and easy to cancel the card and have the charges removed. If it would have been our debit card, our bank account would have been hit. The money would have been gone from our account and we would have had to wait for the bank to sort things out.

 

[kiramay]

We have Discover, Disney, and Citibank cash back card and pay them off every month. Each few months the bonus cash back changes, so we use the card that will get us the most back at that time.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We do ! We use the BMO Air Miles Mastercard which is a Canadian bank/loyalty program. We charge EVERYTHING including car/house insurance, groceries, gas, childcare, dinners out, charity donations, cell phone bills, etc.

I think we redeem for an average of $2000 worth of travel rewords a year - car rentals, vacation packages, disney tickets, CityPasses, Universal tickets, hotels etc.

 

[DisneyFoodieFan]

We use the Disney card and the Southwest card for everything possible, and we pay it off each month. Free flights for each trip and disney spending money, love it!

 

[maciec]

I have a Chase Sapphire and use it for every purchase I possiby can. I also have a Southwest Visa. I like that I can transfer the miles from my Sapphire to my Southwest account at a 1:1 ratio.

 

[Darcy03231]

We use our Southwest Visa for everything. We're in the middle of a home remodel and in the last two months we've accumulated enough points for 2 tickets to FL for our fall trip.

 

[QVCshopper]

We have a cc that gives 2% back on every purchase into a 529 plan at Fidelity. We've been able to save a nice chunk for college this way, in addition to our own savings for college.

We charge everything we can: house/car insurance, energy/gas bill, Comcast bill, sewer bill, all gas and groceries. Basically anything that doesn't require cash. We hardly ever use our debit card or cash--I sometimes go weeks at a time with the same $10 in my wallet.

 

[havaneselover]

I use Amex blue preferred at the grocery store (6%) and a capital one card (1.5%) most other places. Never carry a balance and put everything I can on it.

 

[Marionnette]

Chase Preferred Sapphire Visa - used for the recurring household bills. Points can be converted to points/miles in a variety of loyalty programs. Or we can use the points to "pay ourselves back" for any purchase made. Or we can request a check for any amount of $20+. (2,000 pts. = $20). Current plan is to use the points to pay for our rental car on our next trip.

Chase Southwest RR Visa- son #1 uses it for gas and college expenses. Points go into my RR account because it's my card and I just allow him to be an authorized user. Will probably change now that he has graduated and will begin a new job next month. He's going to want his own card. Points are used for domestic travel where SWA has non-stops from our airport. In the past, the RR points have been used for travel to Las Vegas and to Orlando.

Chase Disney Visa - daughter uses this card for gas and medical school expenses. Again, this is my card and I manage the rewards. The points have been adding up since last fall, when I last redeemed them. Plans are to redeem again in October when we go for the F&W Festival. The rewards card should help to pay for our quest to "eat and drink our way around the World" Showcase.

HHonors AmEx - rarely used but has a healthy balance from when it was used more extensively. Points go right into the Hilton Honors program where they could be exchanged into a number of loyalty programs or for a limited selection of GCs. I could even exchange them for tickets to Disney or Universal. Their real value is whenever they are used for hotel stays. Lately, we have used the points when visiting my parents or when we head up to college to pick the boys up. Will probably use the remainder to book a hotel when we go apartment hunting for son #1 this month.

Citibank Thank You Mastercard - son #2 uses it for college expenses. My card, so it's my points. Points can be used to pay myself back using the points to pay for select charges such as groceries or gas, but it's an all-or-nothing deal where I must completely pay for a charge with points. Or I can use the points to shop on Amazon or to choose from a selection of GCs (but not Disney GCs). No current plans for using these points because the balance is so low. Previous points were used for Amazon purchases at Christmastime.

Diner's Club Mastercard - one of our business credit cards and the one used most often for business-related expenses. We rack up a lot of points every month because so much of the overhead is put on this card. We have plans to fly First Class to Europe next spring by using the points we have with this card. And we will still have a hefty amount of points left afterward. Points can also be used to "pay ourselves back" for any purchase, transferred into any of a number of loyalty programs or for a selection of GCs (none of which are Disney).

 

[donkeyandshrek]

Another points and miles gal!

Southwest Visa - My "go to" card when I'm not meeting a spending requirement on another. Use for everything and pay monthly. Have flown 3 to Orlando, 2 to Dallas, earned the companion pass thru the end of 2014 and have enough points to go almost anywhere. I use the shopping portal to earn bonus points.

Chase Freedom - use it for category bonuses. 5x is better than 1x even if math is not your thing.

Citi HHonors - earned the sign up bonus but haven't used the points yet and only use the card for 2x gas when 5x promos aren't happening

 

[bettymae1121]

We have a Starwood (Sheraton/Westin hotels) AMEX that we use for everything (and pay off in full monthly). We can stay for free at Swan/Dolphin and a few hotels near DLR, plus anywhere non-Disney we want to travel! I already get free airfare as a perk of my employment so between free air and free hotel, travel for our family is very affordable!

 

[The Pluto People]

We charge EVERYTHING we can on our Starwood American Express and pay it off monthly. Result: Free rooms at the Dolphin with our Starpoints!

 

[msmama]

The rewards cards only work if you pay it off every month. Even the greatest rewards are less than the interest you'd pay carrying a balance.

I use my Disney Visa (the premier one) for all 2% categories - gas, groceries and restaurants (and Disney of course). Everything else I put on my SW card.

The ONLY time I use my debit card is at the ATM and the cash I get there lasts me a long time. I generally only use cash for purchases under $10. Honestly, every time I use my debit or cash I think about the pennies I could be earning!

I write a few checks a month for services that don't take CC's (or charge a fee, like the water company) but other than that, CC's all the way.

 

[bjscheel]

DH and I each got SW cards so we had 100,000 pts. We closed his and are concentrating on using my card. DH is self employed driving a semi, so he charges about $4000-$5000/month on fuel which is paid off every month. He mostly puts it on the SW card, so we can fly free every year or two for sure.

Sometimes he puts it on his Capital One card, which used to pay 2% on fuel, now it has changed to 1.5% on everything. I just cashed out $555 on that- that's about a year's worth. Miles are great but I like getting the cash too, so I have him mix it up.

Every once in a while Discover will send us a special cash back offer, like $75 if you charge $1000, so I will have him do that.

I know there are cards with higher percent on fuel, but the ones I have looked at will only pay that percent on a limited amount, which DH would blow through in a week.

We do charge some regular expenses to cards, but the amounts we spend on that are pretty piddly compared to the fuel charging, so I don't worry about getting absolutely everything on a card.

Oh, we also have the Disney Visa. I put our package on that for the 6 months no interest, and get the $20 we earn there on a rewards card to spend at Disney. Other than that we don't use it.

 

[supersnoop]

We charge EVERYTHING we can on our Starwood American Express and pay it off monthly. Result: Free rooms at the Dolphin with our Starpoints!

The Starwood card is actually a rare case. You can transfer out to a few different airlines and get a 25% bonus when you transfer 20,000 points. It was a very popular card with American Airlines frequent fliers, since it is, effectively, a better reward than the AA cards.