New Supermarket Card

[Anonymous]

So I used to know everything about every card available and rewards etc... but recently I haven't been following as closely and was wondering if maybe I was missing something.

I currently use the Amex Everyday Preferred.  MR points aren't worth as much to me now as they once were (new baby, less travel) and other redemption options are garbage so I am looking into other options.  Plus I don't feel like making sure I get to 30 transactions/month anymore becuase this isn't my actual everyday card.

My wife does have an Amex Blue Cash card that we just got an offer to upgrade to the preferred card and get a $150 bonus.  I spend around $4k/year at supermarkets so this would get me $240 - $95 AF = $145 = 3.625%

My question: Is there something I'm missing that would get me close to that 3.6% back or more.

None of the other BCP or EDP categories are useful to me. I put gas on Ink (love UR points) and don't have enough Dept store spend to care.

Thanks!

[yfan]

Nope, the BCP is about the best you can do. Can I ask where you usually shop? Saving money can be more of a function of choosing stores with more reasonably priced groceries than a credit card.

[Anonymous]

The vast majority of my grocery spend goes to Meijer, with a small amount to small local store...the rest is at Sams Club and luckily warehouse stores have been all over Freedom and Disco lately

[Anonymous]

My wife is very price conscious, coupon clipping, shopping around etc so I'm pretty sure we are at the limit of savings with the amount of work we are willing to put into researching grocery prices. Thanks for the info

[Anonymous]

The Blue Cash Preferred is the best one can do. Something you could do to increase your spending at a supermarket is buy gift cards. If you don't use a site like CardCash, which heavily discounts many cards (though I have had a few invalid cards that they refunded without hassle) then you get 6% back on gift cards. This could be good if you spend money elsewhere that you can get a gift card for. No need to buy more GCs than you need though. If you do use a site like CardCash, then you would have to look at if you would get a better discount (in many cases no) compared to the site you use.

You could have your everyday card switched to a blue cash yourself if you planned on cancelling, just so you could use the AMEX Offers on both cards.

[austinguy907]

I know how to score more than 4% on things.....  

There's a little CU called Consumers in IL.....

https://www.myconsumers.org/personal/checking/free-rewards-checking.html

The CCU CC also pays 3% on groceries on top of the 3.09-4.59% you get on the checking side...  

If not then check here and find something that fits.... www.depositaccounts.com go under checking / reward checking

[Anonymous]

I'm at work so I didn't have time to read all the fine print...are you telling me that all I have to do is put $20k in an account with them and spend $1k/month on their credit card and they're gonna give me 4.59% on the $20k?!?! Or am I reading this wrong?

[austinguy907]

You read it right.  You also have to swipe your debit 12 times per month.  Pretty simple to get some $$$ out of your cash balances.  

[Anonymous]

Yeah I currently have like $24k in ally earning 1% because I thought that was good...thanks for the info I'll have to check it out

[austinguy907]

Yeah, there's tons of options out there for those that keep a nice cushion on hand for a rainy day.  If you have what it takes to get into the niche CU's and banks listed on depositaccounts.com then there are some higher yields but, for simplicity Consumers is pretty easy.  Not too many hoops to jump through to get things done.