Psychology and CC reward programs

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I guess maat, depends on the rewards limit. I personally like maxing out my rewards but it depends on the person.

[maat55]

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

I guess maat, depends on the rewards limit. I personally like maxing out my rewards but it depends on the person.

I know about nothing when it comes to rewards and maxing them out. As a DR fan, I have been in a debtfree boot camp. But, I think I can handle managing a CC for free money, now. Any tips are appreciated.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by maat55

I was told on another forum that I could move my 10k EF over to a Countrywide high yield account at 3.55% and open a visa through them that pays 2% on all purchases. I should be able to pay my mortgage on this card I hope.

Wow. If that's true, I'd be interested, too. I would love to be able to charge my mortgage payment (I'm with Countrywide also). Let me know if you find out.

[Like2Plan]

Originally Posted by maat55

I know about nothing when it comes to rewards and maxing them out. As a DR fan, I have been in a debtfree boot camp. But, I think I can handle managing a CC for free money, now. Any tips are appreciated.

The toughest one is that you have to pay off the CC every month with no exceptions. Even if you have had an unexpected (expensive) expense, it has to be funded.

I monitor the CC every day or so to make sure the charges are within guidelines (guidelines=amount we have set aside to pay bill) . Frequent monitoring also helps to keep an eye out for fraudulent charges.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I am not a fan of mortgage companies but I like cash back. Some people love airline points, others love hobby cards. Depends on your lifestyle really.

I had to admit i caught a fraud charge yesterday when I was reconciling our CC statement with spending. So no problem.

[SnoopyCool]

Personally, I like the money back. But we don't vacation much at all and so the hotel rewards would not be used.

What kinds of bills do you charge? I would love to charge my utilities, but the utility company won't accept that form of payment.

On the side, I just started earning 20% cash back on certain purchases (for the next 6 months... too bad it doesn't include gasoline). Whoopie! I love rewards.

PS - maat - I was hesitant about using cc for rewards with the fear that I might not be able to pay it off or wouldn't control myself to set aside the $ to do it. But the motivation that 1. It is a free "loan" until cc bill comes, and 2. I get a % cash back has been fabulous!

[maat55]

Steve,

I put in my application for the Countrywide Visa. At every 2500 points (1 point per dollar spent) it will pay 50.00 to either your Countrywide high yield savings (10,000 min.), toward your mortgage or other gifts and restaurants etc.

[safari]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Wow. If that's true, I'd be interested, too. I would love to be able to charge my mortgage payment (I'm with Countrywide also). Let me know if you find out.

Steve, that's not true. They just double your reward if you apply it to your Countrywide mortgage or a savings account. Here is the link. It's still a pretty good deal, as you're getting 2% cash back on all your purchases.

[disneysteve]

I didn't think they'd let you charge your payment since they'd lose a few percentage points to Visa each month. No way they'd go for that.

[maat55]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I didn't think they'd let you charge your payment since they'd lose a few percentage points to Visa each month. No way they'd go for that.

The lady handling the credit card app said I could pay my mortgage with it. But I haven't called the actual mortgage company yet. I was thinking the same thing though, surely they wouldn't let you lower your interest rate like that.

I wonder if other cards let you pay your mortgage.

[safari]

Originally Posted by maat55

The lady handling the credit card app said I could pay my mortgage with it. But I haven't called the actual mortgage company yet. I was thinking the same thing though, surely they wouldn't let you lower your interest rate like that.

I wonder if other cards let you pay your mortgage.

She probably meant that you can apply your cashback toward your mortgage payment. It's not a matter of finding a credit card that would let you charge your mortgage payment to it; it's a matter of lender not allowing you to use a credit card as a method of payment because they get charged a fee by Mastercard, Visa, etc. For the same reason you can't buy a car and pay entirely with a credit card - the dealer will only let you charge up to $5,000 and the rest has to be cash.

[Like2Plan]

Originally Posted by maat55

I wonder if other cards let you pay your mortgage.

Maat55,
I haven't found one that did. Although, I should qualify this by saying that almost all the CCs will let you pay anything you want to using one of those convenience checks they include with the bill. There are several problems with this (with the CCs that I am familiar with, anyway). They are considered a cash advance, so you pay a transaction fee and interest starts accruing immediately. And finally, they don't give you reward points for cash advances.

[maat55]

Looks like i'm going to have to scratch that 1000 from my list. I think I still have around 2500 to 3000 I can do monthly for the cash back. Thanks.

[Ima saver]

I don't charge much at all, but my husband shops at Home Depot almost every day. Our bill runs $2,000 to $5,000 a month. The nice thing is, we use the customer's money to pay that monthly bill cause the supplies are for the customer.
Chase rewards only gives back 1%, but on home improvement items, we get 3% and that is about all he buys.
I pretty much get a check or two a month which I add to my challenge money.

[Scanner]

Talk about psychology - we have the Disney Rewards Card from Chase. You only get 1%. As far as I can tell, that pretty much sucks.

So why do we do it? Because we like Disney.

We should probably switch to something more lucrative with the c/c.

[Slug]

Originally Posted by maat55

I can, between my personal and business expenses, get to around 3,000 per month. I was told on another forum that I could move my 10k EF over to a Countrywide high yield account at 3.55% and open a visa through them that pays 2% on all purchases. I should be able to pay my mortgage on this card I hope. The earnings are deposited into my HY savings account.

Do you think this is a good deal?

If you can acquire a card that pays 2% on everything, please post it for the rest of us. The high yield Countrywide account was a no-brainer for me. I've been quite happy with it. My ING account was less happy when I moved it all to Countrywide though.

EDIT: Link to the card offer

[simpletron]

Originally Posted by safari

For the same reason you can't buy a car and pay entirely with a credit card - the dealer will only let you charge up to $5,000 and the rest has to be cash.

there is no maximum that a merchant can apply on Visa and Mastercard transactions. read the merchant argeements below.

if the car company is willing to accept any portion of the car to be paid for by a credit card then they must be willing to accept the whole amount being purchased. just show up with merchant argeement and a willingness to tell visa or mastercard and the dealership will back down. but they might not lower the price in negotiation as much because of the transaction fee.

visa (see page 9)
http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan..._merchants.pdf

mastercard (see page 2-60)
http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF...anual_5_08.pdf

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by simpletron

they might not lower the price in negotiation as much because of the transaction fee.

Don't tell them how you intend to pay until after you've got the price in writing. When I buy a car, I don't tell them if I'm fianancing through them, outside financing or paying cash. I don't reveal that info until I know the price of the car.

[safari]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Don't tell them how you intend to pay until after you've got the price in writing. When I buy a car, I don't tell them if I'm fianancing through them, outside financing or paying cash. I don't reveal that info until I know the price of the car.

It's true that it's not legal for a dealer to impose a maximum amount that can be charged on a credit card; however, there is a big difference between just paying cash or charging a car on a credit card. Let's say you negotiated a deal to purchase a car at $500 over invoice, and the dealer expects to receive $500 profit. Whether you finance the car or pay cash, the dealer will still receive $500 profit. Now if you use a credit card, the dealer will lose 2-3% to the credit card company. If you're buying a car for $20K, the fee is going to be $400-$600, and that completely changes the deal that you just negotiated. The dealer has the right to refuse that deal because that's not what he originally agreed to. If you want to charge the full price of the car on a credit card, you'll have to pay more. Check out this article for more info. By the way, I see a lot of places (furniture stores, gas stations) starting to display two prices, a lower price if you play cash and a higher price if you pay with a credit card.