Unofficial Official Credit Card Usage Optimization Thread
 

How do you optimize your credit card spending to get optimal rewards? Here's what I do:

Restaurants:

Default Card:

Costco Small Business Amex card. 3% rebate.

Exceptions/Alternates:

Idine Restaurants: American Airlines Small Business Card: 20% cash rebate (double down with a coupon if you have one). 25% cash rebate when they run promotions. Both of these in addition to miles (I think 1 per $). Alternate--regular AA MC gives no cash but 10 miles per $ when elite at Idine restaurants.

Citibank Professional Card (MC) also gives 3% (in Thank You points). I prefer cash.

Travel:

Default Card:

Costco Small Business Amex card. 2% rebate. Marriot, Hyatt, JetBlue, Delta and some others also give an additional 2-5% through the Open Program.

Exceptions/Alternates:

American Airlines: I use the AA Small Biz card. Gives me two miles on AA purchases for $ spent.

Watch for deals on other co-branded cards like Starwood Amex, Hilton Amex, etc. When they have a deal that's too good to refuse and seems like it’s worth more than 2% cash I do it.

Overseas Travel:

Default Card: Capital One Go Cash card. Gives 1% back but more important does not charge fees for foriegn purchase currence conversion.


Gas & Groceries:

I still have one of the few Citibank Dividend Amex cards that still gives 5% up to $300/year for this.

Exceptions/Alternates:

I just applied for the Amex Simply Cash which does 5% on this and Wireless Services with no cap.

Wireless Services:

Default Card:

I just applied for Amex Simply Cash. 5% back--no cap.

Exceptions/Alternates:

Don't know of any.

Costco

Fidelity Amex card. Puts a flat 1.5% into my daughters' 529 account. That beats the 1% that the Costco cards rebates. Also being an Executive Member rebates me an additional 1% plus some other discounts.

Exceptions/Alternates:

Amex Platinum Cash Back. I used to use this before I got the Fidelity. It tiers up to 1.5% cash back. I calculated, based on my Costco spending, that I came out ahead with this vs. the 1% from the Costco card.

Everything Else:


Default Card:

Fidelity MC or Fidelity Amex. Both put 1.5% into my daughters' 529 accounts though I think newer MCs are only 1%.

Exceptions/Alternates:

On occasion I will get double miles or 5% rebate incentive for a set period of time one my other cards, at which time I temporarily shift my other spending there.

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I will come back and put in links to the cards if people think it will be useful. Let us know what' scheme you have come up with.

Citi Professional Cash Card

http://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/sh...I_PROFESSIONAL

For those not familiar, the OPEN savings apply only at three Marriott brands: Courtyard, Fairfield and Spring Hill.

Citibank also offers a cash-rewards version of the Professional card. It's called (appropriately enough) the Citibank Professional Cash card. Same perks (3% at restaurants, etc.) but paid in cash, not points.

I thought Citi "enhanced" all the Dividend cards to give only 2% since last October... certainly there are no more being advertised as 5% as of this year.

When the 5% runs out (Citi will "enhance" your card too, if it hasn't done so already), check out the Chase Freedom Card... you get 3% for gas/groceries and can choose cash or points. Bonus: if you accumulate $200 in rebates, you can cash them out for $250 (i.e. bonus $50 if you wait until $200 before cashing out).

According to the T&Cs of the SimplyCash card, you only get 5% for gas, not groceries... just for clarification.

Actually, being Executive gives you 2% on most purchases (gas, alcohol, tobacco, and some others are excluded from this additional rebate). Also note that it's not tied to any specific credit card and you have to spend more than $2500 a year on rebate-qualifying purchases to make it worth the additional $50 in member fees. Again just for clarification (just to make sure everyone has all the relevant info).

pushback, that's a good summary of which cards are good to use for optimum cashback. During Discover's 5% Get More programs, purchases should be shifted there (as you alluded to at the end of your post).

Other than that, all I have to add is that Amazon.com purchases should go on the Amazon.com Visa (from Chase) since that earns 3% in gift points. Anyone who buys clothes at Old Navy, Gap, or Banana Republic should get one of those store cards since they earn 5% in gift points (though the cards are useless anywhere else, of course).

Good catch on the Citi Professional 3% cash card. I will have to look into that. I originally got the Thank You version because they gave $150 worth of thank you points--then used the 0% BT to put into the market for nine months--worked out well.

I stand corrected. The Executive Costco membership kicks back 2% and yes, that is not tied to a specific credit card.

I still do get 5% on the Citi/Amex Dividend card. I got this card a few months before the killed the deal on the Dividend MC I had been carrying since 93 (when ALL purchases were 2% with no cap--and when my flight instructor with now credit card was using mine to order parts for his planes--sweet!). Citibank tells me it will likely be "enhanced" as well but for now its still 5% on gas and groceries. I'll use the Simply Cash one anyway when it comes.

I will look into that Chase card for groceries--thanks for the tip.

Off-topic but I'm surprised you don't purchase your gas at Costco. While it doesn't qualify for the Executive 2% rebate, you'd still get the 1.5% from your Fidelity card, and I've found that Costco gas costs more than 3.5% less than even the cheapest competition (generally ARCO), so you end up better off with Costco even without the 5% card. (Have you tried using the Citi Dividend Amex for Costco gas? Does it count as a warehouse purchase, i.e. no 5% rebate, or do they count it as gas and hence give 5%?)

whoa.. the CitiBusiness AA gives 20% discount + the AA miles at Idine restaurants?? Do you have a link to that? I never heard of that.. but its a good thing :D

Pushback, Seems most of what you do is look for cash back which is more Fatwallet related and less Flyertalk appropriate.

When I was using the the MC version of the Dividend card I went to Safeway all the time for gas--they were about the same as Costco and gave another 3 cents off for members. If funny you ask about the Amex card at Costco because just yesterday I used the Amex Dividend card at Costco gas for the first time--I was wondering the same thing. We'll see what happens when my statement comes.

20% discount is actually the generic iDine program, but if you enroll directly there is a $49 holdback...

http://www.rewardsnetwork.com/program.jsp

When you enroll online with Rewards Network, you're given the option of registering for Cashback Rewards savings or airline miles in the frequent flyer programs of nine major airlines. To earn Cashback Rewards savings, the membership fee is $49, but, when you enroll online you'll pay nothing upfront. Instead, we will apply your first $49 in savings to the annual fee. After that, your savings will automatically be awarded to whatever registered credit or debit card you use to pay the bill at participating restaurants and hotels.

Citi previously offered the 20% discount with Diners Club Mastercard, but eliminated it mid 2006. I do not see any mention of it in the Citibusiness AAdvantage Mastercard program, perhaps I missed it, perhaps it is new, or perhaps it is soon to be replaced by the AAdvantage mileage version.

Note that you cannot earn in more than one iDine program with the same card. It's 20% discount -or- iDine miles from one airline, not both, although you would still earn one mile per dollar for the spend.

I have never paid any holdback with my AA Small Biz card.

deleted as irrelavant based on my subsequent post. :D

This thread is not necessarily about maximizing cashback... it's about maximizing rewards in general. The OP asked about the methods/cards people use to maximize their rewards, and the OP chose to post about cashback rewards, but that doesn't mean people can't post about maximizing their mileage rewards... for example, people can post which mileage-earning cards they prefer to use for various categories of purchases (analogous to the OP's post).

You're right that the current discussion has not been travel-related so far, but that doesn't mean it can't be. Nobody has chosen to post their mileage-earning card optimizations yet, however.

Of course, since travel and gasoline are both purchase categories that earn extra cashback on some cards, the discussion is therefore still (somewhat) travel-related even if it's about cashback cards and not mileage-earning cards. So there is still some (tenuous) connection anyway. And one can always argue that the money they save via the credit card cashback is money applied to future leisure travel. ;)

In any case, if you want to make this more travel-related, feel free to post your thoughts on optimal usage of mileage-earning cards... I'm sure there are plenty of people interested in such cards as well.

Understood, the cash reward option is bundled with your card. My point is that it is possible to have the 20% cash back feature with any card by enrolling directly with Rewards Network and forgoing the first $49 per year. This means it probably would not pay to carry the AA Business card exclusively for dining.

In any event, if you are an avid iDiner (which I am not) and earn 10 miles per dollar, that's greater value than a 20% discount.

Well I will be glad to tell you:

Every purchase I make is made with a credit card or I pretty much don't make it. I never carry cash. I have found that two cards do what I need for purchases. I carry many others but I will keep it to the ones that I use. At the beginning of each year I spend $50,001.00 on Merrill+ and then I get my AC membership and sometimes pull of a dual on CRC as well. I then switch all of my purchases to DL AX or AA MC where AX is not accepted. I maintain a Platinum for DL, CO & NW club access and Chairman for PP access and Centurion for what benefits are left. If I am in Europe I use a MC issued on a European bank and in the UK I use a credit card issued in the UK. For those other countries and some large purchases I use a Credit Union credit card for the 1% foreign fee. So there you have it in order.

1. MC Merrill+ to > $50k then
2. AX Delta Skymiles for all purchases
3. MC AAdvantage where AX is not accepted and I rotate annually to avoid the fee.
4. Maintain a Chairman for PP access.
5. Maintain a Centurion for benefits.
6. Maintain a AX Platinum for DL, CO & NW club access.
7. Euro Credit Card for countries using the Euro.
8. UK Credit Card for the UK.
9. A Credit Union Credit Card for any other country.

Just a note, I maintain many AX cards. DL Skymiles Gold, DL Skymiles Plat, DL Skymiles Business Gold, DL Skymiles Plat and several accounts of each so that I can rotate spending based on who is offering triple rewards.