topic Re: General spend Card becoming less Important in Credit Cards

General spend Card becoming less Important

Beast26 — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 17:51:05 GMT

I'm getting to the point where my 5% categories are pretty much covered and now that they are, I spend WAY less on my general spend Card which is currently the discover it miles. Once my braces are paid off I will probably spend about $300/mo sometimes more. Anybody else notice the same? In the beginning it is the most important card until your major categories are cover by 5% cards.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Slabenstein — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 18:07:37 GMT

Excepting Disco rotating categories, I don't have any 5% cards, but I did notice something similar when I was doing a spend analysis to seen what cb gain I would get if I opened a 2% cb card. As my spending is right now, the majority of my charges fall under a 3%+ category on one of my two main cards, so adding half of a percent on the maybe couple of hundred dollars that has been left over most months wouldn't come to much. Ofc, covid restrictions and our current savings/debt paydown goals have constrained our non-essential spending quite a bit, so I don't buy much right now that isn't groceries, gas, dining, or pharmacy. When that changes, my analysis may change, but if you have a spread of category cards that cover most of your spending, then your off-cat card is only going to come out for the minority of charges that slip through the cracks.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

blindambition — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 18:36:51 GMT

My BCP, Chase Amazon, Flex/Freedom, and Target cover most of our spend at 5/6%, and CP I'll be apping would cover rest. My AOD will always be a valuable 3% general spend though. Especially with the eventual consistency of lender nerfs on cards and categories.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 18:55:46 GMT

Yeah now that I have the Cash+ and Max Cash, my AOD card actually doesn't have a lot of spend. I mean it's basically a SD card now.

Affinity gets my Amazon spend for 5% (the bulk of my non-grocery or utility spend is Amazon), groceries go on BCE for 3%, utilities go on Max Cash for 5%, fast food goes on Cash+ for 5%, etc.

I don't spend a lot of money period. I try to save as much as I can rather than spend it so I try to get as much cash back as I can for what little spend I have.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

calyx — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 19:01:50 GMT

My largest (current) non-cat spend is the vet's office, so my 2%er will get a better work out than it has in the past, but yeah, I think a lot of us here are pretty big on getting category spends covered, making the general spend cards a little bit less loved.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Beast26 — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 23:57:44 GMT

I was thinking the only reason I need another general spend Card is because my little $600 limit quicksilver isn't enough to cover large purchases when I buy something big otherwise I would need another one. But then again there's not much difference between 1% and 1.5%. AOD card is a goal card of mine and I plan on Getting it in December of 2022 if it is still around. Got to get my DTI lower and it will be low enough at that point. But I've been contemplating whether or not I should get the evergreen visa this December if I'm going to get the AOD a year after that. What do you guys think? I could also get another discover it miles and ride the 3% for another year and combine that with my old discover after that year is up.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Kforce — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:48:58 GMT

Definitely depends on where one spends money.

Foe me a great general spend card is king.

I am closing my special category 5% cards because they have so little value.

I only carry/use two general spend cards.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Gunnerboy — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 01:00:25 GMT

No, I'm not seeing less spend on my general-purpose (non-category) 2% Fidelity Visa. Since opening it, 20-25% of my monthly spend goes on the card.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Horseshoez — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 03:32:00 GMT

@Beast26 wrote:
I was thinking the only reason I need another general spend Card is because my little $600 limit quicksilver isn't enough to cover large purchases when I buy something big otherwise I would need another one. But then again there's not much difference between 1% and 1.5%. AOD card is a goal card of mine and I plan on Getting it in December of 2022 if it is still around. Got to get my DTI lower and it will be low enough at that point. But I've been contemplating whether or not I should get the evergreen visa this December if I'm going to get the AOD a year after that. What do you guys think? I could also get another discover it miles and ride the 3% for another year and combine that with my old discover after that year is up.

I suppose that is one way of looking at it; the other way is the Quicksilver returns 50% more rewards than other 1% cards. It may not sound like a lot, but it does add up pretty quickly; hence the fact my Quicksilver is my "General Spend" card and typically gets anywhere from a third to a half of my monthly spend.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

ChargedUp — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 03:46:28 GMT

All things considered, my wife has a hard time keeping up with what card to use where sometimes and it's just easier to tell her "Put it on AOD..."

She's got grocery (BCP) and gas (Discover) and Home Depot (Freedom) figured out for now, but otherwise my AOD account is still getting a lot of use!

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Slabenstein — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 04:15:02 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
All things considered, my wife has a hard time keeping up with what card to use where sometimes and it's just easier to tell her "Put it on AOD..."

She's got grocery (BCP) and gas (Discover) and Home Depot (Freedom) figured out for now, but otherwise my AOD account is still getting a lot of use!

My spouse has zilcho interest in keeping track of category cards. All of their charges go on their Disco It Miles, which, as far as rewards go, they're perfectly content with. They're probably the kind of credit consumer these cards are meant to target, and, really, just having a decent flat cb card (plus one or two other cards for scoring benefits and/or backups) is probably what's best for the majority of credit consumers who don't want to juggle a bunch of different cards. I imagine a lot of people use some category card like the USB Cash+ or regular Disco It as their daily driver, and so mostly just get back 1% cb. I know that's what I was doing until I started looking into cc's, SUBs, and rewards structures last year.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 04:12:21 GMT

As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Horseshoez — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 04:45:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me

I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 05:07:17 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.

Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Horseshoez — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 12:56:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.

Waaay too much work for a few dollars.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 12:58:27 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
Waaay too much work for a few dollars.

I use AR and then get some paid from my pretax FSA, which takes less than a minute

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Horseshoez — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 13:04:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
Waaay too much work for a few dollars.
I use AR and then get some paid from my pretax FSA, which takes less than a minute

I don't know what AR is, but with my HSA I'd need to apply for reimbursement, and the only way to do that for a payment which didn't come in directly from a health care provider is to photograph/scan in the invoice and proof of payment, send them in to the HSA company, and then wait for them to review and reimburse. I mean "REALLY", all that for a few dollars? No thanks, I've got better (and more productive) things to do with my time.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 13:25:42 GMT

As I get older, I find that two cards, AMEX BCP and Citi Double Cash, are enough.

Target purchases go on Redcard.

Wife has Costco Visa, for trips to Costco.

That's it.

Citi DC gets close to 85% of charges. Another 10% goes to AMEX BCP for the 6% groceries. 5% left goes to Target, Costco, occasional Freedom Flex if there is a good quarter or a huge meal. Flex gets taken out of SD and then put back after I pay for the meal or whatever.

My largest categories are Groceries and 'everything else.'

I keep Chase Freedon Flex in the 'SD,' ready for action, if needed. If Citibank starts playing (and not in a good way) with the 2% on DC, then I will convert Freedom Flex to Freedom Unlimited, and use that as my 'everything else' card. I hope that does not happen.

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 14:49:11 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
I don't know what AR is,

Altitude Reserve

Re: General spend Card becoming less Important

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 21:56:34 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
All things considered, my wife has a hard time keeping up with what card to use where sometimes and it's just easier to tell her "Put it on AOD..."

She's got grocery (BCP) and gas (Discover) and Home Depot (Freedom) figured out for now, but otherwise my AOD account is still getting a lot of use!

I'm curious why you're using Disco for gas when the BCP gets a higher return?

I think for the most part a person doesn't need every card on their person to maximize rewards, just the ones that earn daily cats like food/grocey and gas/transit. Most of tehe other ones like Utilties/Bills would tend be autopay or at least be fine as SD'd card. I means I too used to struggle with "what card to carry and when", so much so that my wallet and phone caer were full. Now I only need Gold(dining), BCP/Freedom(grocery) and a third general spend.