The winning combination...

[quiznut1]

Hello everyone,
After much research, I believe I found the best combination of cash back cards I can hold. I have one of these cards, and I want to get the other two this summer. Here are my picks:

Gas/Grocery/Drugstore purchases:

Citi Dividend Platinum Select
5% cash back on gas, grocery, drugstore
1% on everything else
$300 yearly rebate limit

The Citi card I already have, and plan to use it only for the 5% categories, may have to get another one if I reach the $300 limit before the end of the year.

Restaurants/bookstores:

Citi MtvU Visa
5 points for every dollar spent on restaurants and bookstore (including Amazon, where I buy my books for school)
1 point per dollar on everything else
25 bonus points per month that you pay your bill and don't go over your credit limit (extra 300 points per year)
Up to 2,000 bonus points for good grades (you can fax in grades twice a year)
Redeem points for gift cards or student loan rebates
This card I would only use for restaurants, and for the bonus points.

Everything Else:

Bank of America Power Rewards Visa
1 point for every dollar you spend
No limit to the amount of points you can earn
Redeem 50,000 points for $1,000 statement credit (2% cash back)
Points expire after 5 years.

I know, I know, you're all saying, how are you gonna spend $50,000 in 5 years? I found out from Bank of America that any user can buy points in increments of 1,000 for $20 each, charged against the line. You can buy up to 10,000 points each statement cycle, if necessary. What does this mean? Let's say you spend $25,000 over the course of a couple of years, and you want to cash out. Once you buy the remaining 25,000 points for $500, you can cash out for the $1,000 statement credit, get your $500 "investment" back, and still get 2% cash back on the $25,000 in purchases ($500). Because of the ability to buy points, I give this card a two-thumbs up!

Of course, none of this is relevant if you can't pay your bills in full and on time from month to month to make it worthwhile. I've held cards for almost 2 years now and never paid a bill late and always paid in full.

What do you guys think of this combination of cards?

[sweeps]

Looks pretty good to me, quiz. I'm surprised that BoA lets you buy points at the same rate you can redeem them. Usually you have to pay a lot more to buy points than you can redeem them for -- making them useful only if you're very close to a milestone.

[PRICEPLUS]

I guess it looks good. Me I don't want to have one except to rent a car or hotel room. The best combination of Credit Cards is none. Just my .02 cents.

[genchan]

Bank of America Power Rewards Visa

I think I would opt for something else. 5 years is a long time and there is no guarantee that BofA will keep the buying point option available or at the same rate - if they do change, you lose 5 year's worth of purchases - knowing how often credit cards change terms to their advantage, I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

[sweeps]

Good point, genchan.

quiznut, do you have any kids? What about the MBNA/Fidelity 529 card which gives you 2%. Or if you don't have kids, you can get 1.5% directed to a general investment account.

[quiznut1]

Originally Posted by PRICEPLUS

I guess it looks good. Me I don't want to have one except to rent a car or hotel room. The best combination of Credit Cards is none. Just my .02 cents.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I have tested and tried the whole notion of "you'll spend more if you have a credit card." I have found this to be untrue in my own personal finances, despite what Dave Ramsey says. I am already very frugal, and don't like to spend money no matter how it leaves my hands, cash or credit. My rule is, if I don't have the money in the bank, I will not justify charging it to my credit card, because it isn't free money.

Originally Posted by genchan

I think I would opt for something else. 5 years is a long time and there is no guarantee that BofA will keep the buying point option available or at the same rate - if they do change, you lose 5 year's worth of purchases - knowing how often credit cards change terms to their advantage, I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

I'm thinking of cashing out my points no matter where my balance is by the end of a single year that I hold the card, meaning I would use the card for everything else besides what I already covered in the 5% gas, grocery, drugstore categories, and then the last few months of the 12 month span doing the buying points to cash out. I don't like to wait around a lot for my rewards to come, so yes, 5 years is a long time. I believe I can do the 12 month thing though, cuz' I will be paying around $300 a month soon for apartment rent during the school year, a good start. I graduate this fall, so then of course, more expenses to take up.

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

Good point, genchan.

quiznut, do you have any kids? What about the MBNA/Fidelity 529 card which gives you 2%. Or if you don't have kids, you can get 1.5% directed to a general investment account.

Nope, I'm a college student, single , and graduating in December. I looked into the 1.5% card with the investment account. However, when I chatted with a representative on live chat, he told me that the minimum deposit to open an account with them considering my situation was $2,500. Don't have that kind of cash on me. I thought about starting a 529 with myself as a beneficiary, just so I could get that 2% card. However, I found out from feedback on Fat Wallet that the average annual maintenance of that account is 1%, effectively wiping out the 2% reward. Unfortunate I know. I figured the Bank of America card had the least hassle of all of them and the best cashback.

Any other thoughts are welcome, I appreciate it.

[b4freedom]

I use the Citi Dividend Platinum Select. However, I usually max out the $300 mid year (mainly from the 5% back).

I also use the Citi Upromise card. Go to www.upromise.com to find out more. This card isn’t for everyone, but, I get up to 11% back on certain grocery purchases. The card gives me 1% towards a 529 plan on all purchases. But, then they give me a 10% bonus towards purchases of certain products. One of the produces is a specialized formula that my child uses ($24.19/can). So, whenever I buy the formula, I use that credit card to get not only the 11% from Citi, but to also get another 1% from the company.

I pay all the bills that I possibly can with the upromise card. Most bills are automatically withdrawn from the account. Why not get money back for services like cell, telephone, cable, etc.

On top of that, I open and close a Marriott and Continental card every year (both cards are from Chase). I open both, use it for a business trip, wait 9 months and then close both cards. I do this for all the extra points I get. I’m saving up for a FREE family vacation to a particular resort in Hawaii. I did this before and cashed in two years ago. It was great!

But, most importantly, I pay my balances in full every month to avoid finance fees. Finance fees defeats the purpose of rewards.

[jmjj215]

I just signed up for upromise and also got my MIL to sign up as well. It took about 15 minutes and is an extra 1% cashback on top of the 1% we're already getting with our plain vanilla visa from wells. Now I just need to convince my parents to sign up.

[sweeps]

b4 and Jesse, what is your average cash back at the grocery store with the Upromise card? I use my Citi Dividend card for the 5% which is also linked to Upromise. But very few items that we buy register as Upromise items (Lego waffles, that's about it). I just don't see it earning anywhere near the 5% I'm getting on the Citi card.

[jmjj215]

I think the point though is that the upromise is cashback above and beyond your 5% from citi - so even if it's small (and from what I've read, it is), it's still just another additional bit of cashback.

[jmjj215]

Well, I should say that is as long as you don't use their city upromise card that they tote. That wouldn't be a good deal.

[slimcustomer]

I definitly recommend getting as many 5% cash back cards as possible that cover different catergories of spending. After that, the Norwegian Cruise Line Card that earns the equivalent of 3% cash back towards a NCL cruise is a good card, followed up by either or both the Bank of America Power Rewards card and the MBNA Fidelity 529 Card which each earn 2% cash back. Shoot for 5% back on all your purchases and don't settle for less than 2%!

[b4freedom]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

b4 and Jesse, what is your average cash back at the grocery store with the Upromise card? I use my Citi Dividend card for the 5% which is also linked to Upromise. But very few items that we buy register as Upromise items (Lego waffles, that's about it). I just don't see it earning anywhere near the 5% I'm getting on the Citi card.

Short answer: I don’t use upromise card for all my grocery purchases. I use it only for purchases where the majority (or all) of my items are upromise items. Or, I use it after I’ve maxed out the $300 limit on the dividends card.

Long answer: It depends on what I’m purchasing. My store gives me $10 baby bucks towards a $50 purchase when I purchase $75 in baby items. My child’s formula is ~$25/can (very expensive – he uses 4 a week). So, when I purchase formula for him, I’ll go in the store, purchase 3 cans, walk out, walk back in, purchase 2 more and use the $10 baby bucks. I took it one step further two weeks ago when I had 20% off my entire purchase at the grocery store. I walked into the store, and purchased a little over $600 worth of formula (everything on the shelf) and baby food. I used all the coupons that I could, took the 20% off, and received a handful of $10 baby bucks towards regular purchases of $50 purchases. Now, to top off the savings from coupons and the store 20% off, I used the upromise card. I get 1% of the full price from the formula company, the credit card gives me 1% of the actual total purchase (off the top of my head, I think it was about $387 total purchase price), and then the credit card gives me the extra 10% rewards of the actual sale price. (The 10% takes a few weeks longer to post to my upromise account, but it’s always posted). Now, I have lots of baby food and formula. Hopefully I have enough to cover me for three months (but probably only two).

[Ima saver]

What is Uppromise?

[Ima saver]

uppromise is only for a child's college account, right? I have no children.

[sweeps]

b4: Makes sense. I think it's important to mention those things when recommending the Upromise card because some people may use it for all purchases and not just for the Upromise-only purchases where you really get the bang for the buck.

My store (Meijer) also does baby bucks, but they're not as lucrative as yours: $250 in purchases gets you a $20 gift card. One nice thing is that the full price of the items apply toward the baby bucks, before any coupons and rebates are applied.

On formula purchases we usually bought at Babies R Us. We'd wait for it to go on sale and then use a coupon or rebate check on top of it.

[b4freedom]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

uppromise is only for a child's college account, right? I have no children.

No. You can use it to pay for your own college, or another relative. Or you can give it friend’s kids.

I opened a upromise account before I was even married (three years ago). I knew that some day I would have a family. My son is less then a year old and already has around $1300 for college from upromise. That $1300 cost me nothing but a few minutes of time. I didn’t open the 529 account until after he was born. I think of it as free money, why not sign up, someday you might help buy someone a book or two for classes.

[slimcustomer]

Originally Posted by b4freedom

My store gives me $10 baby bucks towards a $50 purchase when I purchase $75 in baby items.

Do you shope at ShopRite? I know they have a baby bucks program. You can also earn free Continental ONEPASS frequent flyer miles shopping at Shoprite when you register your PRICEPLUS card with the ONEPASS program. You earn 1 mile for every $2 spent.

[jmjj215]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

b4: Makes sense. I think it's important to mention those things when recommending the Upromise card because some people may use it for all purchases and not just for the Upromise-only purchases where you really get the bang for the buck.

Perhaps I misunderstood upromise's terms.

If you have a citi 5% cb card, and you 'link' it w/ upromise, you'll be earning 5% per citi's agreements, and another 1% on upromise items that comes from the vendor - not from citi. So what's the harm in linking up all of your dcs/ccs to upromise for the possible extra 1% on upromise items?

[sweeps]

Jesse, we're talking 2 different things. Yes, you should link all of your cards to Upromise -- so whenever you happen to buy a Upromise item you automatically get the credit.

But what b4freedom is talking about is the Citi Upromise card, which offers you 1% on all purchases except for 11% on Upromise-specific items (and 2% on ExxonMobil gas stations, but who's counting). What b4freedom is doing is making a special trip into the store to buy all Upromise items with the Upromise card for the maximum 11%.