topic Re: The T word. in Credit Cards

The T word.

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2015 23:06:13 GMT

I'm driving myself crazy with 'what if' plans for after my HELOC (hopefully) closes soon. I have :ahem: some taxes to pay, both state and federal. I'm weighing the possibilities of paying (at least some of) them with cards. Fed charge for using cards 1.87%. State 2.3%.

I could use Arrival+ and come out a bit ahead on Fed. Would not come out ahead on State, but wouldn't be THAT far upside down with the extra 10% redemption bonus. I wouldn't need to use A+ to meet bonus spend, but it would make sure I would be done with it quickly. (only need about another $1000)

Then I think, if there's any other cards that I'm planning to get in the near future that would require bonus spend, maybe that would be the thing to do, but with the exception of a Venture, everything else would be quite the losing proposition percentage wise. And I don't really WANT a Venture, but assuming one of us could get it with a sizeable limit and immediately meet bonus spend, then that could work out pretty well. But there's the triple pull thing.

List of cards I've kicked around in my mind: Prestige, CSP, R-C and/or Marriott and various other hotel cards.

DH has a pre-something offer for DC. That's another possibility for something that wouldn't suck %/fee wise, but that I'm not sure we need. The current Citi accounts I'm primary and if we go for Prestige, he'd likely be primary, FWIW.

Anything (that is okay to talk about here) that I haven't considered?

Re: The T word.

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2015 23:09:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I'm driving myself crazy with 'what if' plans for after my HELOC (hopefully) closes soon. I have :ahem: some taxes to pay, both state and federal. I'm weighing the possibilities of paying (at least some of) them with cards. Fed charge for using cards 1.87%. State 2.3%.

I could use Arrival+ and come out a bit ahead on Fed. Would not come out ahead on State, but wouldn't be THAT far upside down with the extra 10% redemption bonus. I wouldn't need to use A+ to meet bonus spend, but it would make sure I would be done with it quickly. (only need about another $1000)

Then I think, if there's any other cards that I'm planning to get in the near future that would require bonus spend, maybe that would be the thing to do, but with the exception of a Venture, everything else would be quite the losing proposition percentage wise. And I don't really WANT a Venture, but assuming one of us could get it with a sizeable limit and immediately meet bonus spend, then that could work out pretty well. But there's the triple pull thing.

List of cards I've kicked around in my mind: Prestige, CSP, R-C and/or Marriott and various other hotel cards.

DH has a pre-something offer for DC. That's another possibility for something that wouldn't suck %/fee wise, but that I'm not sure we need. The current Citi accounts I'm primary and if we go for Prestige, he'd likely be primary, FWIW.

Anything (that is okay to talk about here) that I haven't considered?

So what you're saying is?

Re: The T word.

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2015 23:30:58 GMT

Barclay's is weird. Would they love/hate if I cycled through a series of large charges and paid them off, on my new-ish A+?

Do others think it's worth it to maybe lose a bit on the % to make the spend bonuses?

Any cards I didn't think of that I should? Or ways to do things (see cards in my sig)

ETA: I'll have the funds to pay them off and could write a check, but trying to decide if there are benefits to be had since I will have some big spending to do, which is unusual.

Re: The T word.

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2015 23:33:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Barclay's is weird. Would they love/hate if I cycled through a series of large charges and paid them off, on my new-ish A+?

Do others think it's worth it to maybe lose a bit on the % to make the spend bonuses?

Any cards I didn't think of that I should? Or ways to do things (see cards in my sig)

ETA: I'll have the funds to pay them off and could write a check, but trying to decide if there are benefits to be had since I will have some big spending to do, which is unusual.

They'd like it just fine.