best cash back cards combination for general spending

[Themanwhocan]

You are missing Bank of America Better Balance Rewards. Setup a small monthly bill to charge to that card, then setup auto pay in full... And get $25 every 3 months. 

For example, if I Charged $46 a month to the card (my DSL bill), that would be over 18% cash back. And its possible to get multiple cards, someone here has 3 of them. You could charge $166 each month, and get 5% cash back. A good way to cover those bills that just don't have a corresponding credit card category.

[kawaiiguy]

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@Themanwhocan wrote:

You are missing Bank of America Better Balance Rewards. Setup a small monthly bill to charge to that card, then setup auto pay in full... And get $25 every 3 months. 

For example, if I Charged $46 a month to the card (my DSL bill), that would be over 18% cash back. And its possible to get multiple cards, someone here has 3 of them. You could charge $166 each month, and get 5% cash back. A good way to cover those bills that just don't have a corresponding credit card category.

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Ha Ha!  You are correct...  I spotted the card in your sig tonight while reading and took a second look at that and since I already have the 123 card BoA has and am only using it for gas (or was until I was pointed to the Sallie Mae for gas) I decided to convert it so it would make me more money (i have a BoA checking too) if I just used that card for something skimpy each month to get a balance to pay and get essentially a free $120/yr.  

Thanks for pointing that one out to us all!  (and thanks for planting that seed about multiple accounts!  like i can just sit by while a free $360/yr slips through my fingers!)

[yfan]

Like others have said, a general list isn't real helpful on these kinds of things. It all depends on your spending habits. Here is how it pans out for me: I am a Costco member, and a major Costco shopper, including Costco gas. While I'm not extravagent, I do tend to dine out a bit. So, Costco and restaurants being my two major ongoing categories of spending, the True Earnings Costco Amex is a must for me. I don't know if it is my "main" card, but it certainly is the most used.

But not all restaurants take Amex. The Amazon Chase VISA offers a 2% cashback on restaurants, equivalent to the Costco Amex. Therefore that is my backup for restaurants, and it has the added benefit of earning 3% on Amazon, regardless of time of year.

For everything else, which is only an occasional expense for me, the Quicksilver from Capital One earns me the best rewards at 1.5%. It is also the card I use for all periodic payments - utility bills, Nefflix, Starbucks card recharges, etc.

BUT, I do keep eyes on revolving 5% categories from my Discover IT card as well as my Citi Dividend, and will switch out other cards for this. For example, I expect most of my holiday shopping, if not all of it, to be on Discover. When January rolls around and Discover's 5% category includes restaurants, you can bet my Amex and Chase VISA will take a backseat.

[longtimelurker]

It also needs to be said that rewards from actual spending tend to be small compared to sign-up bonuses (and even smaller compared to MS).   So rather than worry about the optimal set of cards, and the impact of 2% vs 1.5% etc, ideally (credit report allowing), you sign up for the CSP, Barclays Arrival Plus etc, and quickly get the equivalent of several months of spending rewards as a bonus.

[Open123]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

It also needs to be said that rewards from actual spending tend to be small compared to sign-up bonuses (and even smaller compared to MS).   So rather than worry about the optimal set of cards, and the impact of 2% vs 1.5% etc, ideally (credit report allowing), you sign up for the CSP, Barclays Arrival Plus etc, and quickly get the equivalent of several months of spending rewards as a bonus.

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Right!

This important concept is so often missed on this forum.  Rewards on actual spend is minimal relative to sign-up bonuses and MS (where available).  All things being equal, rewards on spending aren't relevant until sign-up bonuses have been exhausted, or MS isn't feasible or available.

[Kenny]

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@Themanwhocan wrote:

You are missing Bank of America Better Balance Rewards. Setup a small monthly bill to charge to that card, then setup auto pay in full... And get $25 every 3 months. 

For example, if I Charged $46 a month to the card (my DSL bill), that would be over 18% cash back. And its possible to get multiple cards, someone here has 3 of them. You could charge $166 each month, and get 5% cash back. A good way to cover those bills that just don't have a corresponding credit card category.

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I literally charge an extremely small amount to my card each month. Each card that I have gets half of my cell phone bill about 30 each and I pay 28 and let 2 dollars report on each. lol But, one could really (if they wanted to get the biggest bang for the buck so to speak) only buy like a 1 or 2 dollar Amazon gift card on their card and let that report a balance each month. Easy, easy money with this card. Not life changing, but a good deal.. period.

[kawaiiguy]

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@Open123 wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

It also needs to be said that rewards from actual spending tend to be small compared to sign-up bonuses (and even smaller compared to MS).   So rather than worry about the optimal set of cards, and the impact of 2% vs 1.5% etc, ideally (credit report allowing), you sign up for the CSP, Barclays Arrival Plus etc, and quickly get the equivalent of several months of spending rewards as a bonus.

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Right!

This important concept is so often missed on this forum.  Rewards on actual spend is minimal relative to sign-up bonuses and MS (where available).  All things being equal, rewards on spending aren't relevant until sign-up bonuses have been exhausted, or MS isn't feasible or available.

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Of course that may be missed by some, tho i think this thread is just conversation about "general spending".  your method is prolly not available to a lot of people turning here, esp. the ones starting to rebuild.  I know you said credit allowing, but still.  I personally have a ton of inquiries, why they keep giving me cards I don't know, but for some people adding those hits just isnt an option.  Good point tho all the same... thanks!

[Open123]

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@KennyRS wrote:

I literally charge an extremely small amount to my card each month. Each card that I have gets half of my cell phone bill about 30 each and I pay 28 and let 2 dollars report on each. lol But, one could really (if they wanted to get the biggest bang for the buck so to speak) only buy like a 1 or 2 dollar Amazon gift card on their card and let that report a balance each month. Easy, easy money with this card. Not life changing, but a good deal.. period.

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This is what I had in mind, but wasn't certain a small charged paid would qualify as the "minimum" payment threshold for the bonus.  If it does, I'll get this card just for the freebies per quarter & BofA checking bonus.

[longtimelurker]

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@KennyRS wrote:

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@Themanwhocan wrote:

You are missing Bank of America Better Balance Rewards. Setup a small monthly bill to charge to that card, then setup auto pay in full... And get $25 every 3 months. 

For example, if I Charged $46 a month to the card (my DSL bill), that would be over 18% cash back. And its possible to get multiple cards, someone here has 3 of them. You could charge $166 each month, and get 5% cash back. A good way to cover those bills that just don't have a corresponding credit card category.

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I literally charge an extremely small amount to my card each month. Each card that I have gets half of my cell phone bill about 30 each and I pay 28 and let 2 dollars report on each. lol But, one could really (if they wanted to get the biggest bang for the buck so to speak) only buy like a 1 or 2 dollar Amazon gift card on their card and let that report a balance each month. Easy, easy money with this card. Not life changing, but a good deal.. period.

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Whenever Themanwhocan (who is right about everything else!) posts this, I just think "that's wrong in any meaningful way".   If I can get away with paying 1c, the percentage would be huge and even though in reality is has to be more than that you can have a big percentage.   But it just doesn't scale.   Without an unrealistic number of BBR cards, I cannot structure my transactions to take advantage of this.  It really is best thought about as just $25 per quarter per card.   What's needed is good scalable percentages (which is why I use Blue Cash!).  So yes, a free $100 a year, but whether that is exciting/worth the effort depends on the person.

[Open123]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

Whenever Themanwhocan (who is right about everything else!) posts this, I just think "that's wrong in any meaningful way".   If I can get away with paying 1c, the percentage would be huge and even though in reality is has to be more than that you can have a big percentage.   But it just doesn't scale.   Without an unrealistic number of BBR cards, I cannot structure my transactions to take advantage of this.  It really is best thought about as just $25 per quarter per card.   What's needed is good scalable percentages (which is why I use Blue Cash!).  So yes, a free $100 a year, but whether that is exciting/worth the effort depends on the person.

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As usual, I couldn't agree more with Lurker.  Scalability is key.  If I were in Boston, I'd submit to annual FRs to have my Blue Cash at $100K CL.