svasandani
Oct 9, 09, 10:10 pm
For the last couple of years I have paid my property taxes using a CC even though the county charges a 2.14% convenience fee because I have felt the CC rewards I was getting was worth the fees I was paying. e.g. One year I got the 40K Citi AA bonus miles card (20K upfront, 10 K matched with $10K purchases for 2 years) which gave me a total of 40K earned miles over and above the initial 20K bonus for a total fee of $428. Another year I had a double purchase point retention promo on a Citi Premier pass card which effectively gave me 4TY points per dollar which was huge at the time when fixed point redemptions were available.
It is a diff story this year and can't seem to justify using CC to pay taxes. The options I have considered so far are:
1. Tried to get a retention offer on Citi PP and Citi AAdvantage - no bonuses offered at all.
2. Apply for a new Citi AAdvantage card. Even though I get a huge upfront bonus it does not help to pay taxes because Iwould get the bonus anyway and $2.14 for each mile is not a good return
3. Cash back cards like Schwab and Fidelity with 2% cash back but even that does not make sense - pay $214 fee and get $200 back
4. Existing Citi plat Amex (5/3 TY points variety) or $25K bonus Starpoint offer - These do make sense the only problem is the property tax site does not accept Amex.
The only one so far that I have come up with that makes sense is the travelocity MC with a 4% reward. The only hesitation is it is a relatively new card and reading other people's posts it seems it has bad customer service and little risky because nobody has redeemed anything until now so could caught in some fine print in the T&C at a later date. Also, I am already into many other programs that I will increase my overhead of tracking yet another point / mile program.
Let's use this thread to see if there are other great ideas to build up a good list of CC that offer rewards to make this a worthwhile deal.
Also, please refrain from posting retention / targeted offers since most people will not be able to make use of them.
It is a diff story this year and can't seem to justify using CC to pay taxes. The options I have considered so far are:
1. Tried to get a retention offer on Citi PP and Citi AAdvantage - no bonuses offered at all.
2. Apply for a new Citi AAdvantage card. Even though I get a huge upfront bonus it does not help to pay taxes because Iwould get the bonus anyway and $2.14 for each mile is not a good return
3. Cash back cards like Schwab and Fidelity with 2% cash back but even that does not make sense - pay $214 fee and get $200 back
4. Existing Citi plat Amex (5/3 TY points variety) or $25K bonus Starpoint offer - These do make sense the only problem is the property tax site does not accept Amex.
The only one so far that I have come up with that makes sense is the travelocity MC with a 4% reward. The only hesitation is it is a relatively new card and reading other people's posts it seems it has bad customer service and little risky because nobody has redeemed anything until now so could caught in some fine print in the T&C at a later date. Also, I am already into many other programs that I will increase my overhead of tracking yet another point / mile program.
Let's use this thread to see if there are other great ideas to build up a good list of CC that offer rewards to make this a worthwhile deal.
Also, please refrain from posting retention / targeted offers since most people will not be able to make use of them.