topic Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points? in Credit Cards

When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

hrdsurfer — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 17:56:50 GMT

Just curious what y'all's preferences are. Do you do it at certain time intervals, dollar amounts, or save with a certain purchase in mind? I kind of like to redeem every year, unless I have something in mind I'm saving for

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 18:13:01 GMT

I do mines monthly. I use to do mines every December but I seen too many people post about account closure and losing rewards. And someone said on here that rang so true: "it's not yours until you redeem them."

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 18:15:29 GMT

@hrdsurfer wrote:
Just curious what y'all's preferences are. Do you do it at certain time intervals, dollar amounts, or save with a certain purchase in mind? I kind of like to redeem every year, unless I have something in mind I'm saving for

With very few exceptions (where larger amounts might have some advantage, like buying gift cads with Discover) the "rational" thing to do is to redeem every time a reward posts, depositing into an interest bearing account.

This:

a) earns a bit of interest, slowly becoming more significant with savings accounts above 4%

b) prevents the chance of loss, if, rightly or wrongly, the issuer closes your card because they think you have done something bad

c) and for those that want to use the rewards for some special purpose (or at least to know it is a significant amount), using a separate deposit account allows you to do this

Doing ANYTHING else is just ungodly, but such people exist!

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

hrdsurfer — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 19:18:21 GMT

Those are actually good points. Seems so obvious, but I never really thought about it.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

RSX — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 19:22:41 GMT

right away - it is THEIR money until i redeem it

i don't care if it gives me a credit of $0.38 - i will use the card and therefore it will reduce the amount by that credit

i read a story on here of someone using it as a "Savings account" - and I don't remember the number exactly, but it was in the Hundreds of Dollars - and their card was closed in Dec and they lost all the money they hadn't claimed throughout the year - PAINFUL!!!!

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Synchrony-closed-my-account-and-won-t-let-me-redeem-my-rewards/m-p/6417445#M1794014

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

hrdsurfer — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:24:37 GMT

These post inspired me to claim my rewards. Had about $250 accumulated over the last few months. Of course comenity's online service wasn't working for whatever reason, but they were able to get it done over the phone.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Horseshoez — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:40:47 GMT

Interesting discussion; I just checked my account pages of the three financial institutions I have active cards with (my CSP was just approved last week and hasn't arrived yet), I guess I should do something about them.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

B_A_R — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:11:23 GMT

ASAP. Then I transfer over to an HYSA. I've read about to many horror stories about accounts being closed with hundreads or thousands of dollars of cash back in them.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Horseshoez — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:16:32 GMT

@B_A_R wrote:
ASAP. Then I transfer over to an HYSA. I've read about to many horror stories about accounts being closed with hundreads or thousands of dollars of cash back in them.

I'm going to cash in the rewards just because it is "time" to do so, however, I'm not at all worried about my accounts getting closed; TD is my main bank and I run plenty of money through my accounts monthly, so I figure I'm good there, and I have yet to hear of accounts being closed by either CapOne or PenFed because of a lot of accrued awards.

Side comment on TDBank; when I logged in today I noticed they gave me some auto CLI love in the last couple of weeks, from $8,500 to $11,500.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:23:34 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
I have yet to hear of accounts being closed by either CapOne or PenFed because of a lot of accrued awards.

It's not "because", just accounts get closed for lots of reasons, and we hear about the ones where a lot of awards were lost. Cap One closed one of my cards without notice (for non-use). I don't think I had any rewards unredeemed but if I had...

Also, apart from my original caveat (saving up for some more valuable redemption, such as discounted gift cards) there is really no good reason, apart from the effort, to keep them with the issuer

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

USMC_Winger — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:25:12 GMT

@hrdsurfer wrote:
Just curious what y'all's preferences are. Do you do it at certain time intervals, dollar amounts, or save with a certain purchase in mind? I kind of like to redeem every year, unless I have something in mind I'm saving for

@hrdsurfer: I prefer to do it as soon as I'm eligible each month, because I've heard of too many people having their accounts closed with substantial unredeemed rewards, and they never got their money.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Horseshoez — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 23:01:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
I have yet to hear of accounts being closed by either CapOne or PenFed because of a lot of accrued awards.

It's not "because", just accounts get closed for lots of reasons, and we hear about the ones where a lot of awards were lost. Cap One closed one of my cards without notice (for non-use). I don't think I had any rewards unredeemed but if I had...

Also, apart from my original caveat (saving up for some more valuable redemption, such as discounted gift cards) there is really no good reason, apart from the effort, to keep them with the issuer

Both of my CapOne cards get regular use; I've had the Quicksilver card for 24 months now and it has been used every month since I got it; the SavorOne card is now 9 months old and if I recall correctly, there have been 2 months where it wasn't used. Said another way, account closure for non-use isn't going to happen.

Regarding cashing in the rewards:

TDBank: among other methods of redeeming rewards, TD allows me to take a statement credit or to direct deposit the cash into any of my accounts; I'll probably take this option
CapOne: I'm looking at a new KitchenAid Pro Line mixer; the beauty of CapOne rewards is you can apply them directly to Amazon purchases.
PenFed: I have no freakin' clue what is the best way of redeeming those rewards; I got a bunch of gift cards from them over a year ago and still haven't used them; any suggestions?

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 23:26:04 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
I have yet to hear of accounts being closed by either CapOne or PenFed because of a lot of accrued awards.

It's not "because", just accounts get closed for lots of reasons, and we hear about the ones where a lot of awards were lost. Cap One closed one of my cards without notice (for non-use). I don't think I had any rewards unredeemed but if I had...

Also, apart from my original caveat (saving up for some more valuable redemption, such as discounted gift cards) there is really no good reason, apart from the effort, to keep them with the issuer
Both of my CapOne cards get regular use; I've had the Quicksilver card for 24 months now and it has been used every month since I got it; the SavorOne card is now 9 months old and if I recall correctly, there have been 2 months where it wasn't used. Said another way, account closure for non-use isn't going to happen.

Regarding cashing in the rewards:
TDBank: among other methods of redeeming rewards, TD allows me to take a statement credit or to direct deposit the cash into any of my accounts; I'll probably take this option
CapOne: I'm looking at a new KitchenAid Pro Line mixer; the beauty of CapOne rewards is you can apply them directly to Amazon purchases.
PenFed: I have no freakin' clue what is the best way of redeeming those rewards; I got a bunch of gift cards from them over a year ago and still haven't used them; any suggestions?

Non-use was just an example of "things happen"

Using points for purchases is now available on many cards, with some it is a real rip off giving less than 1c per point. Not sure what Cap One's rate is, but even if it is 1:1, it's better to cash the points out to a bank account and use a card to make the Amazon purchase. Then you earn points on the full purchase price.

So, not really a good feature, except for convenience.

Forgot about Penfed: I hardly use the card because the points are of little value usually. But gift cards you can use, or redeeming for a Visa gift card are perhaps the better ones. Visa gift cards aren't great because when you use them you are giving up the opportunity to earn rewards (using a credit card) but better than nothing.

I don't know about travel, that might be OK too.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

SweetCreditObsession — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 23:41:40 GMT

@RSX wrote:
right away - it is THEIR money until i redeem it

i don't care if it gives me a credit of $0.38 - i will use the card and therefore it will reduce the amount by that credit

i read a story on here of someone using it as a "Savings account" - and I don't remember the number exactly, but it was in the Hundreds of Dollars - and their card was closed in Dec and they lost all the money they hadn't claimed throughout the year - PAINFUL!!!!

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Synchrony-closed-my-account-and-won-t-let-me-redeem-my-rewards/m-p/6417445#M1794014

What a practical tip! I've just left mine in place until it's enough to cover a gift for someone but with this is a good incentive to move those bonuses to a HYSA. Thanks!

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Horseshoez — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 23:42:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Using points for purchases is now available on many cards, with some it is a real rip off giving less than 1c per point. Not sure what Cap One's rate is, but even if it is 1:1, it's better to cash the points out to a bank account and use a card to make the Amazon purchase. Then you earn points on the full purchase price.
So, not really a good feature, except for convenience.

Yeah, CapOne's rate to Amazon is 1:1, but your point is well taken, pay for the mixer with my CapOne card and then apply my rewards as a statement credit; I'll come out 1.5% ahead.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

mfinsmi1 — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:52:38 GMT

@RSX exactly this right here!

until you redeem its their money and they can take it away. Always best to redeem monthly that way its yours and they can't touch it. Lets say they close your account all of a sudden, all the points you were saving up to redeem are now gone

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

805orbust — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 11:54:01 GMT

Yeah, the whole closure/AA thing is at times in the back of my mind. I've really only started to just pay attention to the whole cash back thing as I love MR's, however with the changes to my traveling patterns post COVID, I love the cash back game more and more. I usually let it get built up to a decent amount then redeem.

It's only about 4 cards tho: Ink Preferred. TD Cash, NFCU Cash, and FF, which is weird because it shows as points.

Oh, Disco too, but I use that, and the NFCU to autopay utilities/insurance so no groundbreaking amounts.

Oh, the FNBO Evergreen also but I've been using it for my personal LLC so that will change soon as well. Gotta get deeper into the cash back thing tho.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

mgood — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 01:54:50 GMT

I usually use them as statement credit in the month that they post. If they are for gift cards and I don't have enough, then I let it ride until there is enough to get the card I want. My Cabela's card gives rewards as store credit. Whether it's 40 dollars or 40 cents, I use it on my next Cabela's purchase.

The exception is my CFF, where I have almost 55k UR points. I'm waiting until I get a Sapphire card which will make those points more valuable. (I'll be out of 5/24 jail on Jan 16. Tentatively planning to app on Feb 1.)

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

SeaProbe — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 02:39:16 GMT

@hrdsurfer wrote:
Just curious what y'all's preferences are. Do you do it at certain time intervals, dollar amounts, or save with a certain purchase in mind?

When I remember, monthly, as a statement credit for my cashback cards. Sometimes I just let it ride until it is enough to make it worth my while.

That said, I've been letting my Apple Card cashback just accumulate in Apple Cash in anticipation of the previously announced - but delayed - savings account. If that savings account is worthwhile to me, and it's hard to say until they launch it, I *may* redeem into that account.

Re: When do you prefer to redeem your cashback points?

Zoostation1 — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 03:03:59 GMT

I don't have a set plan with my CB rewards. A few months ago I transferred some SavorOne rewards to a VentureOne just so I could combine them to pay for a flight, but other times I'll use it to randomly pay for things or now that I have a 360 Savings with Cap One I may put it in there.