cheapdad

Another tact is to get a 0% on purchases card and put it all on that and float it for 12 months at 0%. Combine with the gift card ideas above and you can save 10-20% and pay for it a year later.

toomanybooks

Yes, this would be my preferred strategy, coupled with that 10% coupon from the USPS idea.

Perhaps Hilton Surpass if you value HH Diamond. $40K spend in calendar 2012 gets you there, and 6 points per dollar on the Lowe's/Home Depot gift cards.

Other Amex cards are generous at the grocery, too.

pierre mclopez

Lowes offers a 10% discount up to $5000 purchase if you are "moving".

https://www.lowesmoving.com/register/step1.asp

drminn

Get a Chase Sapphire card (50K bonus points), buy Home depot gift cards through the ultimate rewards mall (5 points/$) and buy your materials with the gift cards. Should get you between 100K and 200K points alltogether.

8mpg

One up that by getting Chase Ink Bold and buying gift cards from Staples for 9x points for Lowes/Home Depot and combine it with the 10% movers coupon.

particlemn

I have found that Lowes and HD are pretty pricey when i comes to counters, cabinets and shower doors. We remodeled our bathroom and kitchen 18 months ago and threw recomendations from our contractor we found a 50% savings on granite, 40% on cabinets, and 35% off shower doors compared to Home depot and lowes quotes. we also think we got nicer stuff, althought they worked on check not credit cards so i got no miles for these purchases.

onthego15

My AMEX Blue Cash Preferred gives me 6% cash back on gift cards purchased at my local grocery store. Both Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards are available. I recently bought $300 in Lowe's gift cards to have my bathroom floor retiled.

ORDPLATAA

So, I have done a "major" and "minor" AOR in the past few months and have managed to get all of the signing bonuses through minimum/1st use spends. Now, we are faced with starting the purchasing for a bathroom remodel. I am trying to figure which card will give us the best bang for the buck based on this purchase. The choices available are:

SPG Amex
Virgin Atlantic AMEX
HHonors Reserve Visa
Marriott Premier Visa
Hyatt Visa Signature
Fairmont Visa Signature
AAdvantage Citi Business Visa
AAdvantage Citi Amex
AAdvantage Citi Visa (Gold)
Priority Club Visa Signature
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature

My gut says the SPG Amex or the Virgin Atlantic Amex. Or, should I roll the dice on another card that needs an $8-10K minimum spend in a short amount of time?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

samfelix

Chase sapphires show a 5x points using Ult Rewards portal for both Home Depot and Lowes. Trouble is a remodel might require more actual in-store purchases due to higher cost items or more custom fixtures. Perhaps you could find in-store but order online? 5x $8000 makes for a lot of UR points. 40,000 points with $3k min spend plus 40k more from portal use means a quick 80k.

echip

First, I would do the 2-browsers for Citi AAdvantage Amex and Visa.
Amex spending is $5K, plus Visa is $2.5k within 4 months.
If all is well, you'll get 100k bonus miles for 1 hard pull.

Another reason for doing this set first is because Citi AA is churnable, so 18 months later, rise and repeat. :-)

ednpub

Maybe even consider lowe's or home depot gift cards purchased from other stores where you earn large bonuses with your existing cards. I'm not sure, but there may be double dip opportunities this way by using the gift cards through a shopping portal.

dcpilgrim

I'd do a 3 card AoR and grab 2 AA's and SPG.

Also, along the lines of a couple other suggestions (portals + discount gift cards):

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/freque...ings-at-lowes/

emax48

Get an Ink card. Buy visa gc (or HD or Lowes if they have them) at office stores with Ink for 5x. Then buy your stuff with those.

Meeting the min spend nets you the bonus as well.

Also try double dip with the visa gcs through UR mall for HD and pick up in store. Gets you another 5x.

If there's something only available in store just order anything through portal and go to store and say you don't want it anymore and return for store credit. Don't refund to card or else they will take points back.

Up to 10x plus bonuses altogether.

jamboree

I need the forums help here.
I’m doing some home remodeling (more expensive then I’d like to mention).
My question is - How do I get the most return out of this experience.
One of the contractors has offered me a ~$700 discount to NOT use a credit card, however I’d like to increase my Frequent Flyer miles as much as possible. If you were in my shoes would you? A) use “cash”, B) use my go to credit card that provides 1 mile per $1 spent, C) signup for a new credit card, D) signup for multiple credit cards as this is going to be expensive, E) other options..

I'm expecting to spend upwards of $50k on this remodel - If I use my credit card (and it accepts all this) then I can get 50K FFmiles. the 1st contractor (costing $20k) has offered me a 3% (~$700) rebate if I use "cash". I haven't talked to the other contractors yet but I'm going to assume it the same.

Any help would be appreciated.

stinger101

Would he accept a bluebird check?