cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Charging monthly expenses

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@angelnyc wrote:
Trust me when I tell you they are ALWAYS making money off of you one way or the other ... I promise you no one will shut you down as long as you pay your bills with your hard earned money and get the trivial 1-6% cash back...

The reason I say that, is because no one offers a 5% CB on everything@ card.  I consider the 5-6% CB sort of a "loss leader" for them... they lure you in with the good deal, but make money on the other stuff you buy while you're there.  They don't really expect you to use your card for only purchases that qualify for 5%.  Thanks to my recent spree, I can get an effective 6.25% back on utilities and another catebory from US bank, 6% at the grocery store from Amex, 5% on gas from Penfed, and 5% on restaurants & Amazon from Citi.  For what little that isn't covered by that, I can get a lot through gift cards @ the grocery store (again getting 6% from Amex), and the very small percentage left (maybe 10%?) gets 2% from Barclays (the only bank that probably makes a little money off of me).

I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a FR from Amex sometime in my future.  Smiley Surprised

Message 11 of 20
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses

the team that does FR's at AMEX is not concerned with loosing money because you are using the card a 100% with in the guide lines of the card. They are there to prevent fraud, chargeoffs, and loses because abuses to the cards agreement. They also figure if you are making a percent or two off there card, sooner or later you will recomend the card to your buddy (why wouldn't you its a $75 referal bonus) that won't game the system and when he gets the card he will make up for unprofitibility. Or one day you are going to use the wrong card or need carry a balance and bamm they rake in the big bucks from you. 

 

 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 12 of 20
CreditEd
Regular Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses

I pay my kids tuition via cards. RACK UP so many points that my Amazon purchases are either free or heavily discounted.

 

Just got a cash back freedom card after learning so much from the guys on this board. Will try that too...


    NPSL              $25k            $25k              $23k              $22k               $16k              $12k              $10k            $6.5k
Message 13 of 20
bichonmom
Senior Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@LS2982 wrote:
I run all my monthly bills other than my PSECU car loan payments through credit cards. I need to look into that comm pack for the Zync I pay fios / Sprint through them. How much is the pack?

I think it's $15 a yr. You really need to do the math first, because it might not pay. I jumped on it because so many people wrote about it here. But afterwards, when I figured out that I'm really only getting 1% MORE than I was getting w/my regular rewards card (1% any category), and it was costing me $15 a year, I'm *barely* breaking even this year. I won't be renewing it next year.

 

For some, it obviously pays. But I would definitely recommend you figure out your annual internet/cable/satellite/cell phone cost, and then determine if your rewards will be enough to offset the $15 fee and 1% you probably are getting w/another CC.

 

 

 

EQ FICO 750 | TU FICO 761 (Walmart) | EX FAKO 767 | Goal: 800+

Edits, funky spacing and spelling due to my iPad not getting along with the forum editor!

Message 14 of 20
bichonmom
Senior Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@Anonymous wrote:

@angelnyc wrote:
Trust me when I tell you they are ALWAYS making money off of you one way or the other ... I promise you no one will shut you down as long as you pay your bills with your hard earned money and get the trivial 1-6% cash back...

The reason I say that, is because no one offers a 5% CB on everything card.  I consider the 5-6% CB sort of a "loss leader" for them... they lure you in with the good deal, but make money on the other stuff you buy while you're there.  They don't really expect you to use your card for only purchases that qualify for 5%.  Thanks to my recent spree, I can get an effective 6.25% back on utilities and another catebory from US bank, 6% at the grocery store from Amex, 5% on gas from Penfed, and 5% on restaurants & Amazon from Citi. @ For what little that isn't covered by that, I can get a lot through gift cards @ the grocery store (again getting 6% from Amex), and the very small percentage left (maybe 10%?) gets 2% from Barclays (the only bank that probably makes a little money off of me).

I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a FR from Amex sometime in my future.  Smiley Surprised


Wow! You've really gotten a system nailed down! I wish I had read this before I just got the Citi Dividend. I think I would have been better off w/Forward. Figuring out all of the CC rewards really gives me a headache! Smiley Frustrated

 

Curious about 2% from Barclays. I have the Barclays Rewards MC, but I thought that "all other" was 1%. Am I missing something, or do you have a different Barclays CC?

 

 

EQ FICO 750 | TU FICO 761 (Walmart) | EX FAKO 767 | Goal: 800+

Edits, funky spacing and spelling due to my iPad not getting along with the forum editor!

Message 15 of 20
firesoul453
Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@Anonymous wrote:

@angelnyc wrote:
Trust me when I tell you they are ALWAYS making money off of you one way or the other ... I promise you no one will shut you down as long as you pay your bills with your hard earned money and get the trivial 1-6% cash back...

The reason I say that, is because no one offers a 5% CB on everything@ card.  I consider the 5-6% CB sort of a "loss leader" for them... they lure you in with the good deal, but make money on the other stuff you buy while you're there.  They don't really expect you to use your card for only purchases that qualify for 5%.  Thanks to my recent spree, I can get an effective 6.25% back on utilities and another catebory from US bank, 6% at the grocery store from Amex, 5% on gas from Penfed, and 5% on restaurants & Amazon from Citi.  For what little that isn't covered by that, I can get a lot through gift cards @ the grocery store (again getting 6% from Amex), and the very small percentage left (maybe 10%?) gets 2% from Barclays (the only bank that probably makes a little money off of me).

I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a FR from Amex sometime in my future.  Smiley Surprised


I wouldn't worry about using your card to its max. Thats why they have limits like only 5% cash back on $1500 in purchases and things like that, and even furthur limts like need a minimum or $20-$50 to cash out and trying to get you to use it as some store credit or a get a gift card. Even if a few people max out rewards abosultly perfectly, the company probably only out $100 or less per person, and thats not much loss at all.

They could probably have one less representative and save enought to cover all accounts where they acutally lost money.

 

If it gets phased out in the future, oh well. Enjoy it (and max it out) while it lasts.

My ultimate credit wish,
a JP Morgan Palladium card
Message 16 of 20
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@bichonmom wrote:

Curious about 2% from Barclays. I have the Barclays Rewards MC, but I thought that "all other" was 1%. Am I missing something, or do you have a different Barclays CC?


It's the Priceline Visa, which is through Barclays.

Message 17 of 20
bichonmom
Senior Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@Anonymous wrote:

@bichonmom wrote:

Curious about 2% from Barclays. I have the Barclays Rewards MC, but I thought that "all other" was 1%. Am I missing something, or do you have a different Barclays CC?


It's the Priceline Visa, which is through Barclays.


Wow. I didn't realize that there was a double-point for everything card out there. That would be a great day to day card!

 

EQ FICO 750 | TU FICO 761 (Walmart) | EX FAKO 767 | Goal: 800+

Edits, funky spacing and spelling due to my iPad not getting along with the forum editor!

Message 18 of 20
Sparkz1920
Frequent Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses

Yes, I'm going to start charging monthly expenses for points purposes. Only way I'll get the points as I'm not a big spender and when I shop, I use my store cards for those rewards 


Starting Score: 601
Current Score: 670
Goal Score: 700


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge

NFCU Rewards- 8K......AMEX Delta Skymiles-5k.....Citi AAdvantage AMEX-3.5K...WalMart Discover-4K....Old Navy Visa-2k...BOA-3000...AMEX Green-NPSL....Discover More-1K
Message 19 of 20
Jazzzy
Valued Contributor

Re: Charging monthly expenses


@CreditEd wrote:

I pay my kids tuition via cards. RACK UP so many points that my Amazon purchases are either free or heavily discounted.

 

Just got a cash back freedom card after learning so much from the guys on this board. Will try that too...


Our daughter's university charges a 3% fee for doing this.We charge absolutely everything we can on our various cc's....UNLESS the payee has a fee. We even tried it with our real estate taxes (approx. $5k), but they charge a 3% fee also. Our city utilities want a fee, so we can't do them. Must be something about governmental units.

We play the cash back game with the revolving 5% categories...airline miles for a big part of our spending (because I can work them to be worth over 1%). PenFed Rewards for 3% on groceries. PenFed Cashback for 5% on gas. I haven't added it all up, but I'm sure we do approx. $100/mo on cashback and miles. (We both travel a lot....lots of 5% gas.) It's definitely a game worth playing for us...but, as said before, you have to know that you can go home and write the check.

Message 20 of 20
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.