Big spending
 

I am hoping for some help here, in the next several weeks I will be doing alot of spending
$14,500 roofing
$ 4,000 patio
$ 1,000 landscaping
$600-1200 average monthly expenses

I currently have:

capital one venture
just recieved the chase saphire
and Discovercard
just cancelled the chase continental card last week

Within the next week I will probably have to pay a deposit on the roof (5,000), and week after that the patio ($4,000) I will use the saphire on the patio to qualify for my 3k required spend. I will be able to pay off the entire balances so interest rate is not a concern.

Any ideas on what would be a good card to apply for with the spending I am about to do? Or should I just take the Capital one 2%?

My airport doesnt have American airlines, so that and British Air card dont seem to be beneficial. I didnt jump on the Amex 50k bonus because the Columbia grad school target, and not many peaople seem that successful on talking there way into a bigger bonus. I dont see anything else that my initial spend will be a big benefit. I have scanned the forums before asking, but hoping that there are other ideas that I just missed. As you can see I dont really have much oppertunity to wait for the next great deal. Thanks for any assistance.

double check with your contractors first. most that i dealt with in the past only accepted cash or checks (30% deposit, 30% upon material buy and 40% upon completion)

They both accept credit cards, I was pleasantly surprised by there answer

Chase AARP card, 5% on everything for 6mo.

Citi promotions if you want AA miles.
With your spend, 200k miles (need 20k spend in first year split between 2 cards) and then use AARP card for the balance after the bonus miles requirement met on Citi cards. Just an idea if AA miles are of value or you are near lifetime status threshold.

According to the American Airlines Card 75,000 sign up bonus thread, the 100,000 mile bonus offers are expired. Have you recently had success with them?

I just applied for my Chase saphire last week, I thought they had a 60 or 90 day rule between Chase applications? Thanks for the suggestion

Yes, read the latest posts.

Too bad you canceled the Chase CO card. If you spend $25K in one year you get a 10,000 mile bonus...

Did you read in first post where the OP says AA miles aren't beneficial to him?

If your contractors don't mind cc then u r getting overcharged A min of 5%

+1. Try to negotiate a better cash price (that is if you have cash ready).

Do you feel the same about retailers or restaurants that take CC's as well?

As the prices of items and services go up, a lot of retailers (automobile dealers, sellers of real estate) either don't take credit cards or, as in the case of dealers aligned with Amex's car buying program, take them only for a portion of the selling price. The amount the OP is spending here falls below those thresholds, but along with the OP, I would have been surprised that his contractors would take credit cards, as I and many of my friends have dealt with tons of contractors over the years who would not. And I agree with the suggestions made that any contractor who is accepting credit cards might very well negotiate a lower price if straight cash is paid.

Since this is FT and questions of saving money may be relegated to the desire to earn miles and if the OP decides against negotiating the price, perhaps his best option is the Starwood Amex. With the spending he's outlined, he should get the 25,000 bonus Starpoints currently offered (10,000 at first purchase, 15,000 more with $15k spending, which seems to be his remaining budget after spending the initial $3K on the Chase card) plus he would earn at least 15,000 more Starpoints based on his spending. Even if he does not want to use these points at SPG properties, that's 40,000 Starpoints which, with the 5000 point bonus for 20,000 point transfers, would convert to 50,000 airline miles on Delta or US Airways (which could then be used for Star Alliance flights).

Thank you.

To me with that much spending coming up I'd ask myself if I was ok with opening a lot of cards and splitting the spending among them to reach sign up bonuses.

If the answer is yes I'd apply for the AA cards (all three if you could, or even 2 for you, and two for a spouse/parent), and split the spending up. A total of just 4 cards with spending requirements met would net you 300,000 miles on AA. Sure they don't fly to your regonal airport...but 300,000 miles could be used to book hotels, or you could pay for a flight to a larger airport and then take the award flight from there.

If the answer is no, I'd focus on the higest milage/cash back possible (which has been outlined pretty well above AARP/Cap 1/SPG, etc). Of course it sounds like to do this you'd still need to apply for 1 or more cards...

There is no rule!

No kidding, I wish it was only 5%, but I live in an expensive area, they use good products, and have good reviews, and heck they accept credit cards. Thanks for the input it seems like SPG or AARP maybe the way to go. I will read the AA forum to see how they are about using there miles. (Since I don't fly them I really don't have much knowledge of there program). Thanks for the help, and I'm still open to suggestions.

One thing you and everyone can do on large purchases related to your home is Lowes (not sure about others) offers a program if your purchases are over $2,000 is to submit everything to them that your going to purchase. Do this at the commercial desk. The Lowes CSR will them submit the package to corporate and with 24 hours you'll have a discount on all items. Usual savings is around 10%-20%. Some items are a little less and some more. On a Refrig I received 19%, deck supplies 21%, fencing 9%, riding lawn mower 14%.

Then I use my CC and got the miles. I never let the contractors make the purchases. I find I get better savings making the purchases myself and paying the contractor for work only. Just an idea.

To parlay this idea further, your capital one venture card currently offers an effective return of 6% toward travel expenses when you buy Lowes Gift Cards through their website. You get 2 points for the purchase and 4 bonus points per dollar. So for every 1000.00 you purchase in GCs you'll get 60.00 in travel credit. Pretty darn good when you stack when submitting to the commercial desk.

Well, AA may not be a choice but what about another One World partner? I can't see what airport the OP is near, while using this iPhone app. Just trying to share info and OP can decide for him/herself if AA looks more appealing after evaluating mileage potential - maybe even drive to an airport AA serves.

ALB Albany, NY is my home airport

This is just from my recent experience, but I just replaced my roof 3 weeks ago. Two of the four contractors I obtained quotes from accepted credit cards, including the one I chose. The highest and the lowest cost roofers were the ones who didn't accept cards, while the two who did accept them were right in the middle. All of them were reasonably close in price (within $500) of each other.