what freebie goodies does your credit card give you?

**kork13** · 02-09-2009, 05:31 PM

I'm assuming that by "freebie goodies", you mean "rewards".... please correct if I'm misunderstanding you.

For me, it's CASH--period, dot, end of story. I have used a few different credit cards, and am familiar with a number of others. In the end, I've decided that I'm not really a fan of cards that give me "points" which I am supposed to save up then cash in for whatever "reward" I want, whether that's airfare, hotel rooms, gift cards, or merchandise. Quite honestly, I just never use them!

No, I quite like my current card, which gives cash back (paid against my balance). Its rewards come in different levels based on category (gas/groceries/everything else), but in the end I'm averaging about 1.8-2% back overall. That's actually the highest total reward I've ever gotten from my credit card use, so again... quite happy with getting a 'cash back' reward now, and I don't expect to change this anytime in the foreseeable future.

I do, however, "get silly and charge everything I buy". I love the simplicity of using my CC, and every dollar charged gets me another couple cents back. Since it's all money that I would have spent anyway, I say why not take advantage?

**jIM_Ohio** · 02-09-2009, 05:39 PM

1% of my purchases pay down the principal on my mortgage. I have two cards which have this benefit.

**Seeker** · 02-09-2009, 05:42 PM

Originally posted by kork13 View Post

I'm assuming that by "freebie goodies", you mean "rewards".... please correct if I'm misunderstanding you.

For me, it's CASH--period, dot, end of story. I have used a few different credit cards, and am familiar with a number of others. In the end, I've decided that I'm not really a fan of cards that give me "points" which I am supposed to save up then cash in for whatever "reward" I want, whether that's airfare, hotel rooms, gift cards, or merchandise. Quite honestly, I just never use them!

No, I quite like my current card, which gives cash back (paid against my balance). Its rewards come in different levels based on category (gas/groceries/everything else), but in the end I'm averaging about 1.8-2% back overall. That's actually the highest total reward I've ever gotten from my credit card use, so again... quite happy with getting a 'cash back' reward now, and I don't expect to change this anytime in the foreseeable future.

I do, however, "get silly and charge everything I buy". I love the simplicity of using my CC, and every dollar charged gets me another couple cents back. Since it's all money that I would have spent anyway, I say why not take advantage?

LOL -- same for me. Discover is my main card, Discover Business for the 5%cashback on gasoline/office supplies "reward." And MC for whichever docs/dentists that do not take Discover.

Toyota repair did not take Discover ; Honda does. I'm so glad we got rid of his clunker Toyota.

**disneysteve** · 02-09-2009, 06:04 PM

We have 3 reward cards: Marriott Visa, Chase Freedom Visa (formerly AOL Visa) and Discover. We only use Discover to take advantage of their 5% cashback bonus categories. We pretty much only use the Chase Freedom card for some automatic monthly payments that have been charging to that card for years, before we had the Marriott card. Everything else - and we do charge everything we possibly can - goes on the Marriott card. With that, we've been averaging one free vacation every other year. Sometimes we break it up like this weekend when we're redeeming points for 2 free nights in Annapolis, MD. Summer of 2007 we redeemed for 10 free nights in New Hampshire. Summer of 2005 it was a free stay at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Summer of 2003 it was 5 nights in Boston. So we make good use of our points.

With the Chase/AOL card, I've gotten cash back. I got $200 in 2008.

**Like2Plan** · 02-11-2009, 11:18 AM

We mainly use a card for airline rewards. In combination with actual travel, the CC and other incentives, we have earned quite a few free flights. DH and I value the opportunity to travel that this CC has made possible.

We charge everything we can on this card.

**TheTicket** · 02-11-2009, 12:36 PM

The Chase Freedom card has a very nice feature that I always utilize. If you wait until you have $200 in rebate dollars, and redeem at that point, they send you $250, 25% more than you would have gotten had you redeemed at the minimum level of $50. I put everything on this card except when Discover is running a promo for 5%, but they max out at $400 per promo.

**ksluis62** · 02-11-2009, 08:32 PM

I use my United Visa from Chase to charge everything I can, and pay it off monthly. I have a daughter going to school out of state, so the miles help with the travel to and from school.

**boosami** · 02-12-2009, 05:52 AM

Amex has a cool points feature. It allows you to redeem any amount of points (over 5,000) toward travel when you book through their travel service. You can redeem any number of points and reduce the cost of your trip. For example, if I booked a cruise for $3k, I could partially pay with 50k points and reduce the cost by $1,000, paying only $2k.

I rarely use the points to buy catalog items or for gift cards. One of my cards offers cash back, which is automatically applied to the balance. However, since I don't use the card all the time, on off months it has a negative balance because of when the credit is applied.

I'm more interested in the non-reward perks my cards offer:
* Concierge service
* Free airline and hotel upgrades
* Golf Course and healthclub access
* Free international companion airline tickets
* Reserve tickets for concerts and events
* Complimentary lounge access
* Roadside assistance
* Automatic extended warranty
* Travel/Event insurance

...and yes, I use them all

what freebie goodies does your credit card give you?