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.

____________________

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.

Can you please let me know how to get a credit card issued on a European or UK bank?

Move to the country of choice for a short period of time, establish a residence (rental of course) deposit funds into a local bank account. Have your letter from your long term banker recommending you along with 6 months of statements on your checking and credit card showing an excellent pay history and a copy of your US utility bill and your local utility bill and a passport and you are in business. If this doesn't work for you then the Isle of Mann is open to US Citizens without living there.

I'm not, unless the poster lives across the street from a Costco and has the time to waste for those long lines ....

Must just be a YMMV thing. I have two Costcos near me. One can sometimes have a line, but the other one is always "in and out", and at least a dime cheaper than the cheapest gas in town.

completely disagree. Miles/Points = ultimate currency, whether for travel or not its your call....

Thanks for this thread, who knows, maybe miles/points is not the way to go anymore?:eek:

Huh?

All you need is a proof of residency in most European countries to get a credit card, depends by country and their credit verification systems.

Apparently! ... i applied for a Amex Dollar card, and that is what they asked for. My permanent recidency is not here so that was easy. All they need is proof of your income ... most of them are worried about your income than credit ratings.

This one is based around earning thankyou points. Would like to know what others are doing to max out thankyou points.

Here's what I do:

Restaurants:

Citi MtvU. 5 points per dollar.

Travel:

Citi PPE: 1 point per dollar + 1 point per mile flown = 2 points per dollar. Works for buying other flyer tickets.

Gas & Groceries:

Citi Driver's Edge: 6 points per dollar (for first year) + 1 point per mile driven = 12 points per dollar.

Movies & Books:

Citi MtvU. 5 points per dollar.

Everything Else:

Citi PPE: 1 point per dollar + 1 point per mile flown = 2 points per dollar.

I think we can safely leave it to the 'mods' to make the call. Well it is their job! :D

I share Dr. Bonds concern. Recently (in the last 3 months) this forum started to degenerate in my opinion. Several factors contributed to this:

1. Frequent posters seeking basic information that they easily get from the card issuers website
2. Constant bickering
3. Repeated questions that equate to "what is the best credit card in the whole wide world?"

There are a zillion cash back cards from banks, credit unions, etc. If the thread is not tied back to travel, then why is it on FlyerTalk at all?

A more interesting topic would be cash back vs. points. That is at least related to travel. However, it would essentially amount to calculating the value of your travel related rewards card and comparing to the value of the cash card.

As the OP, here's my reasoning. Having credit card use relate to travel does not necessarily mean getting FF and hotel points. It's also about what purchase decisions are made while traveling. When I am traveling I buy air tickets, rent cars, stay in hotels, pump gas, and go to restaurants. While making these purchases I like to optimize the activity. Few can argue that it is not a pleasing experience to stay at a hotel for a few days, walk away with a $1000 hotel bill you can expense along with $70 in cash rebates to put in your pocket--money you can use to take the family out for dinner (while getting yet another rebate) to catch up on some of the lost time away from them when you were traveling.

Sometimes (usually) I go after the cash. Sometimes I go after the miles. It all depends on the value I perceive the FF miles or points to have vs. cash at a particular moment, however, in many cases these decisions are made while traveling. The travel related points is simply another aspect to it all.

Separately, this thread is also a fork from this thread about the Amex Simply Cash Card in which a few of the posters commented that it would be nice to have a thread about optimizing travel spending.

So there you have it--my reasoning for starting a CC use (while traveling implied since this is a travel site) optimization thread.

American Express International Currency Cards are not representative of the requirements for obtaining a bank-issued European credit card, which require evidence of residency.

If your income is earned in dollars an International Dollar Card will not help you avoid foreign transaction fees, in fact the IDC charges more to convert to dollars than do USA issued American Express cards. An International Euro Currency Card will help avoid fees on transactions denominated in Euros (but not Pounds), provided you have a way to pay the bill in Euros.

This is not the way I read such questions. I think people are asking what's the best card for me?, but are not providing sufficient detail for an intelligent analysis with the result that formulaic responses are posted. Many similar threads are also started in MilesBuzz, and Flyertalk evidently does not have a practice of moving them here where members might read and learn from the parallel inquiries.

I think the other sources of degredation that you mentioned will be resolved now that we have active moderators ^ .

In another section you mentioned that your wallet containing ten cards had been stolen. I think that would be relevant to this topic, because it illustrates one of the tradeoffs when "optimizing" by using multiple cards.

wow...you guys sure do keep a lot of cards in your wallet....

All Personal Spending -- Chairman Card -- earned 4.5pts per $ spent 1st qtr alone....

All Business Spending -- CitiBusiness PremierPass card for the flight points of course...

I then carry:

Chase Priority Club Card -- free version -- to earn 3pts/$ at all PC hotels

Getting soon:

B of A Premeir Signature Visa -- just to have a SIG VISA for the benefits....

I do not know how you guys jugglle all those payment deadlines...I have enough headaches of my own than to worry about those issues...

Pretty much every issuer now has the ability to change your billing/due date. All mine are set to be due the same time of the month my mortgage is due. No juggling.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, mia.

For those concerned with the direction of the forum, we are reading all the posts and assisting member with searches on information that's already been covered.

If anyone sees a post that doesn't fit the forum, please feel free to use the Report Bad Post feature to call our attention to it.

Please try to refrain from ostracizing members for off-topic posts or items that have already been covered. We'll jump in to help keep things on track where we can.

Again, thanks for the vote of confidence, mia!^

In my case, while I have something like 6 or 7 active cards, I don't end up using each one every month... it all depends on what I'm buying. But as for juggling due dates, I use Yodlee MoneyCenter. If you bank with Bank of America, Fidelity, HSBC, etc. then you've seen their licensed versions of Yodlee's product... I just use it direct from the source. It's a great timesaver. (Search the forums for "yodlee" for more info, or just visit the site!) No, I do not get a kickback. :)

MIA...you are correct, it did not feel "optimal" when I was on hold reporting stolen cards. The good news is that I carry a few different cards and my passport in my briefcase. The other side is juggling all of the payment dates when you are on the road.

Anyway, I carry the following cards:

• Merrill+ - I usually spend $20k for AA status matching. This year I will go to $50k to see what the Merrill+3 concierge is like.
• DL AMEX Platinum - $25k in spending this year to get 10k extra qualifying miles.
• Diners Club - Car rentals only.
• Citi AA World MC - Which I pretty much only use online through the AA shopping mall. It will go away this year and get replaced with a free Citi AMEX.
• Citigroup Chairman - All other spending, plus any plane tickets.
• Fidelity AMEX Platinum - I carry this just for ATM access to my Fidelity Account, AAA-like auto service benefits, and CO/NW club access. However, I do not spend much on the card.
• Chevron Card - My very 1st credit card. I have to use it every now and then or they close the account and force me to re-verify with a credit check
• Capital One - Foreign currency transactions
• Discover Card - Just as old as my Chevron Card, I take advantage of the 5% cash back on rare occasion
• Citi ThankYou Debit Card - For the rare occasion when I am forced to make a debit purchase. At least I get points for it.

I will start carrying just 4 cards: DL Amex Platinum, Merrill+ Visa, Citi Chairman, and Fidelity AMEX Platinum. (I think that I should carry at least one Visa, MC, and AMEX.) The rest I can keep in my briefcase.

In my situation I believe that the 4 cards above offer the best strategy for benefits and rewards for me. In my situation benefits like airline club access, personal assistance, rental insurance, etc. have high value so I keep AMEX Platinum, Citi Chairman, and Diners Club. The benefits outweigh the fees. (Chairman pays for itself with $6,500 - 20k in spending, depending on your spending profile). I have also carried the HHonors AMEX which give great value per $ on restaurant, grocery, gas, wireless, etc.

How does it work? Does fidelity give you back the ATM charges (and no interest)? It will be great if you could tell me the type of fidelity account that has this feature.

And where will you be leaving that brief case? :D

1. The Fidelity AMEX Platinum card works like a debit card. The fees are:

- AMEX charges $1.50
- Fidelity reimburses for ATM owner fees for Premium $500k or Private Access $1mm up to $75 per year.

2. There is no interest, the money is removed from your account just like a debit card.
3. "Credit Card" purchases are debited from your account at the end-of-month
4. The annual fee for Fidelity AMEX Platinum was $320, the Gold card was free.
5. The minimum is $5k in a regular Fidelity account.
6. Supposedly the cards are not available now. However, some FTers have had luck applying for them. Use the following link:

https://scs.fidelity.com/customeronly/amexonly.shtml

I like it because:

a. I get an AMEX Platinum for $320 per year
b. I keep my cash in a federal tax-free account until the moment it is withdrawn
c. I do not have to worry about paying the bill. It is debited at the end of the month
d. There is no record of the account on my credit report
e. I do not have to carry a separate ATM card.

For my spending profile, I come close to maximizing my rewards with:

1. Citi Driver's Edge for 6% at Gas, Drug Stores, and Grocery Stores, plus the Drive Rewards program pays 1 cent per mile driven (which can double your 6% earnings to 12% in these categories).

2. Citi Professional for 3% at restaurants, vehicle rentals, home improvement, and office supplies.

3. Fidelity Signature Rewards Visa for 1.5% back on everything else.

That's actually the best mix of 3 cards for my spending profile suggested by the rewards calculator at:
Credit Card Tune-Up: Discover the Best Credit Card Reward Deals

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply! So there are two sets of fees one by Amex & other by the ATM owner? I opened account they said the minimum of 2500, so 5000 is the avg balance that one needs to maintain? Does some one have both the Amex & the 1.5% visa cards from the same account?

I see Ameriprise ONE financial account also has some similar features does it work the sameway?

do you know if the MtvU points matches with the flight points? I have a Chairman and the MtvU seems to have better points per dollar on some things like say, books. Instead of 1 + 1 (purchase+flight points), I was hoping if possible to use the MtvU for 5+5 :D

NO. Flight points earned by a Chairman Card can only be matched by purchase points earned by the SAME Chairman Card.

The same rule is true of PP and PPE.