These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser.
Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser.
It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
To earn additional rewards on online retail purchases, the purchase must be made on a website or a digital application (an app) from a U.S. retail merchant that sells physical goods or merchandise directly to consumers. To identify eligible online retail purchases, we rely on information provided to us by the merchant. The following are not considered retail purchases: purchases made at restaurants, supermarkets, gasoline stations, or automotive dealers, as well as purchases of travel, entertainment, or other services. Payment must be made online and categorized as an internet transaction by the merchant for the purchase to be eligible. You will not receive additional rewards for purchases ordered online but paid for in store. Payments made in store using a mobile or digital wallet or a contactless payment device are not considered online purchases. You will not receive additional rewards for purchases made by phone or mail, or by using a third party "buy now pay later" installment program.
I'm a rewards maximizer with many cards, and my strategy is to cash out my rewards on a regular basis (every few months or so) on each card - usually applying the rewards to the statement balance. Then I transfer the sum of those amounts to a HYSA that I use for travel/vacations. It has worked very well so far. Sending these amounts to the HYSA allows interest to be earned - you don't earn anything with the rewards just sitting there waiting to be redeemed. I also transfer all spend bonuses, checking account bonuses, etc. to the travel account.
It is usually not recommended to actually use rewards to cover a purchase (unless you are getting more value from your points by doing so like in the case of airline point transfers) since you typically do not earn additional rewards on a transaction that you paid for with rewards.
You lost me at: "Then I transfer the sum of those amounts to a HYSA that I use for travel/vacations." So you applied the rewards to the statement balance and maybe if you don't have more purchases you may end up with a negative balance; and then what gets transferred to the HYSA and do you do that from each reward account? Thanks!
You lost me at: "Then I transfer the sum of those amounts to a HYSA that I use for travel/vacations." So you applied the rewards to the statement balance and maybe if you don't have more purchases you may end up with a negative balance; and then what gets transferred to the HYSA and do you do that from each reward account? Thanks!
First, I use all of my cards frequently so negative balance is not an issue. It's pretty simple...I do this with all of my cards but for the sake of simplicity let's say I only have two.
Card 1 has $1,000 balance and $100 in rewards. I redeem rewards as statement credit. When the card gets paid (all of my cards have autopay for full statement balance), now it only takes $900 to pay in full. Then $100 gets transferred from my main checking account (same account I pay these cards from) to my HYSA.
Card 2 has $500 balance and $25 in rewards. Same thing. I redeem a statement credit. $475 gets paid on the due date and $25 gets transferred from main checking to HYSA.
In reality, I do this all at once on all my cards and make a single lump sum transfer to HYSA to keep it simple. At the end of the day, the money all balances out. It takes almost no time to do these steps....click a few redeem buttons, add up all the amounts, and make a transfer.
Make sense?
If a card gets higher point values for something else, I will likely make a different kind of redemption. For instance, one card gets 50% more value being applied to travel purchases so I redeem that accounts points for travel directly. But for the cards where 1 point = 1cent and there aren't any other redemption options, the above method works best for me.
Got the email announcement and love it. BoA cash rewards already has 3% for a long time but one benefit it has is the extended warranty for 1 year. So for big purchases or none Amex Offers, you can use BoA.
Additionally, BoA cash rewards has a limit of $2500 per quarter, that is $10,000 per year. And if you have both Visa and MC cash rewards its $20,000 spend per year vs $6,000 on Amex.
5.25% back as a platinum honors (75% add on 3%) on a no-AF cards beats anything out there.
First, I use all of my cards frequently so negative balance is not an issue. It's pretty simple...I do this with all of my cards but for the sake of simplicity let's say I only have two.
Card 1 has $1,000 balance and $100 in rewards. I redeem rewards as statement credit. When the card gets paid (all of my cards have autopay for full statement balance), now it only takes $900 to pay in full. Then $100 gets transferred from my main checking account (same account I pay these cards from) to my HYSA.
Card 2 has $500 balance and $25 in rewards. Same thing. I redeem a statement credit. $475 gets paid on the due date and $25 gets transferred from main checking to HYSA.
In reality, I do this all at once on all my cards and make a single lump sum transfer to HYSA to keep it simple. At the end of the day, the money all balances out. It takes almost no time to do these steps....click a few redeem buttons, add up all the amounts, and make a transfer.
Make sense?
If a card gets higher point values for something else, I will likely make a different kind of redemption. For instance, one card gets 50% more value being applied to travel purchases so I redeem that accounts points for travel directly. But for the cards where 1 point = 1cent and there aren't any other redemption options, the above method works best for me.
Make a lot of sense, leaving the 1-1 reward balance serve no purpose since it is not interest bearing. Except maybe for the once a blue moon Amazon pay with reward balance which one can do with 1 cents. thanks
How many cards do you guys have in wallet at same time
just 2 max. if i swipe a card, it's for sure usalliance visa for everything. when i first started, i was spending so much with them, they would shut me off without my knowledge. so i kept fidelity visa in my wallet as a backup. dont need to do that any longer. otherwise, i will grab another cc on the go if i need it in particular like some sort of promo.
Thanks for the HU. Never would have notices otherwise. Just 1% more than my regular card for online shopping (Barclay's PL card), but more is still more.
483 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Featured Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Source: https://www.americanexp
It is usually not recommended to actually use rewards to cover a purchase (unless you are getting more value from your points by doing so like in the case of airline point transfers) since you typically do not earn additional rewards on a transaction that you paid for with rewards.
Card 1 has $1,000 balance and $100 in rewards. I redeem rewards as statement credit. When the card gets paid (all of my cards have autopay for full statement balance), now it only takes $900 to pay in full. Then $100 gets transferred from my main checking account (same account I pay these cards from) to my HYSA.
Card 2 has $500 balance and $25 in rewards. Same thing. I redeem a statement credit. $475 gets paid on the due date and $25 gets transferred from main checking to HYSA.
In reality, I do this all at once on all my cards and make a single lump sum transfer to HYSA to keep it simple. At the end of the day, the money all balances out. It takes almost no time to do these steps....click a few redeem buttons, add up all the amounts, and make a transfer.
Make sense?
If a card gets higher point values for something else, I will likely make a different kind of redemption. For instance, one card gets 50% more value being applied to travel purchases so I redeem that accounts points for travel directly. But for the cards where 1 point = 1cent and there aren't any other redemption options, the above method works best for me.
5.25% back as a platinum honors (75% add on 3%) on a no-AF cards beats anything out there.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Card 1 has $1,000 balance and $100 in rewards. I redeem rewards as statement credit. When the card gets paid (all of my cards have autopay for full statement balance), now it only takes $900 to pay in full. Then $100 gets transferred from my main checking account (same account I pay these cards from) to my HYSA.
Card 2 has $500 balance and $25 in rewards. Same thing. I redeem a statement credit. $475 gets paid on the due date and $25 gets transferred from main checking to HYSA.
In reality, I do this all at once on all my cards and make a single lump sum transfer to HYSA to keep it simple. At the end of the day, the money all balances out. It takes almost no time to do these steps....click a few redeem buttons, add up all the amounts, and make a transfer.
Make sense?
If a card gets higher point values for something else, I will likely make a different kind of redemption. For instance, one card gets 50% more value being applied to travel purchases so I redeem that accounts points for travel directly. But for the cards where 1 point = 1cent and there aren't any other redemption options, the above method works best for me.
Walmart Neighborhood Markets are coded as grocery stores for B&M swipes.
Wish i had one. All superstores in east texas, biggest employer in the counties around here usually
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I buy my groceries at Meijer and get 3%