topic Re: 5% home improvement year round in Credit Cards

5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:28:03 GMT

Any cards? I'd hate to have to apply for Freedom and Discover just to get six months covered.

Edit: cash back ideally, not discount

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:22:19 GMT

Not sure about the percentages, but check out what Lowe's and Home Depot currently have to offer.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Creditaddict — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:23:28 GMT

Home Depot will match Lowes 5% = both Home Depot Store Card and Lowes Store Card and you can get pre-approval at Home Depot.com now.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

juggalo9er — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:24:19 GMT

as long as you are willing to order online upromise always gives 5% in addition to what the card your using gives

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:27:20 GMT

Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:27:51 GMT

@Bman70 wrote:
Any cards? I'd hate to have to apply for Freedom and Discover just to get six months covered.

Where are you shopping for your home improvements?

if cash is an option, most contractors are willing to provide you with a decent discount, or at least the credit transaction fees. A good contractor will also do a better job than say, Home depot.

You can also ask your contractor for Net30 / Net60 payment arrangements.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Creditaddict — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:28:27 GMT

@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.

unless someone else is paying the bill so you can get the rewards after the fact of the bill being paid off receipt (5% when you charge IS cash back!)

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:29:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Any cards? I'd hate to have to apply for Freedom and Discover just to get six months covered.
Where are you shopping for your home improvements?
if cash is an option, most contractors are willing to provide you with a decent discount, or at least the credit transaction fees. A good contractor will also do a better job than say, Home depot.

You can also ask your contractor for Net30 / Net60 payment arrangements.

Lowes first choice, Home Depot works too. It's for projects I'm doing myself, so no contractors involved.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

wacdenney — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:42:31 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.
unless someone else is paying the bill so you can get the rewards after the fact of the bill being paid off receipt (5% when you charge IS cash back!)

Agreed. The 5% discount from Home Depot is money that never even leaves my pocket. It's cash back of the highest order. If it would make you feel better I'm sure you could hand it to the cashier and get them to hand it back to you.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:55:25 GMT

@wacdenney wrote:
@Creditaddict wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.
unless someone else is paying the bill so you can get the rewards after the fact of the bill being paid off receipt (5% when you charge IS cash back!)
Agreed. The 5% discount from Home Depot is money that never even leaves my pocket. It's cash back of the highest order. If it would make you feel better I'm sure you could hand it to the cashier and get them to hand it back to you.

Lol. I still think I'll go for Freedom or Discover for the CB.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

IWOL — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:28:08 GMT

You could by Lowes gift cards at grocery stores and get higher cash back that way when not using the Discover and Freedom quarters.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 08:56:45 GMT

Best answer is Lowes and Home depot for regular people.
BUT, OP wants to pocket the 5% discount and not give the savings to his employer.
You see with Lowes card the discount is automatic, hence his employer gets the discount and not him.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:02:30 GMT

So, how do I know this..... My employees can only use the company card for Lowe's and Home Depot.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

unc0mm0n1 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:48:50 GMT

@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.

I have the Old Amex Blue which gives me 5% off grocery stores and drugstores. I just buy Home Depot or Lowes cards there and thus get 5% off year round.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 18:23:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Best answer is Lowes and Home depot for regular people.
BUT, OP wants to pocket the 5% discount and not give the savings to his employer.
You see with Lowes card the discount is automatic, hence his employer gets the discount and not him.

Lol, that doesn't even make sense. Anyway as posted above, I'm buying for myself for home improvement projects done by me.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 18:35:35 GMT

Currently US Bank Cash+. As home improvement is still a 5% category; however the categories have been changing a lot lately.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 18:41:06 GMT

@unc0mm0n1 wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.
I have the Old Amex Blue which gives me 5% off grocery stores and drugstores. I just buy Home Depot or Lowes cards there and thus get 5% off year round.

[Don't mention that card!], If you are willing to take a little more hassle, you can do well buying the gift cards from brokers (search using e.g. giftcardgranny) So right now, for example, Lowes cards are available at 9%+ off , at lots of price points: Junkyard is selling a $1,527.95 card at 9.1% off, there are also ones in the $50 range with the same discount. Home Depot seems to be 10-11+ off.

And remember, this is the price of the gift cards, so you add whatever your credit card gives you, so an extra 2% for DoubleCash for example (my fave doesn't take Amex so can't use Fidelity).

These deals tend to beat most things, and the cards can still be used at Cashback portals to earn more So Upromise is 5%, LuckyRewards 3% so you can easily get 15% or more off.

I recommend those chasing cashback rewards to use sites like giftcardgranny (for the cards) and cashbackmonitor (for portals) to really maximize savings.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 23:34:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Currently US Bank Cash+. As home improvement is still a 5% category; however the categories have been changing a lot lately.

Hmm, I don't seee it on my categories list. Just furniture stores, department stores, electronic stores, and some others.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Bman70 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 23:38:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@unc0mm0n1 wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.
I have the Old Amex Blue which gives me 5% off grocery stores and drugstores. I just buy Home Depot or Lowes cards there and thus get 5% off year round.

[Don't mention that card!], If you are willing to take a little more hassle, you can do well buying the gift cards from brokers (search using e.g. giftcardgranny) So right now, for example, Lowes cards are available at 9%+ off , at lots of price points: Junkyard is selling a $1,527.95 card at 9.1% off, there are also ones in the $50 range with the same discount. Home Depot seems to be 10-11+ off.

And remember, this is the price of the gift cards, so you add whatever your credit card gives you, so an extra 2% for DoubleCash for example (my fave doesn't take Amex so can't use Fidelity).

These deals tend to beat most things, and the cards can still be used at Cashback portals to earn more So Upromise is 5%, LuckyRewards 3% so you can easily get 15% or more off.

I recommend those chasing cashback rewards to use sites like giftcardgranny (for the cards) and cashbackmonitor (for portals) to really maximize savings.

The gift card suggestions sound promising - would just have to look at my grocery cap. As long as giftcardgranny is legit with no fake or expired cards being hocked, I might look into that.

Re: 5% home improvement year round

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 01:30:11 GMT

@Bman70 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@unc0mm0n1 wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:
Yeah the store's cards themselves are 5% off discount, I'm looking more for cash back.
I have the Old Amex Blue which gives me 5% off grocery stores and drugstores. I just buy Home Depot or Lowes cards there and thus get 5% off year round.

[Don't mention that card!], If you are willing to take a little more hassle, you can do well buying the gift cards from brokers (search using e.g. giftcardgranny) So right now, for example, Lowes cards are available at 9%+ off , at lots of price points: Junkyard is selling a $1,527.95 card at 9.1% off, there are also ones in the $50 range with the same discount. Home Depot seems to be 10-11+ off.

And remember, this is the price of the gift cards, so you add whatever your credit card gives you, so an extra 2% for DoubleCash for example (my fave doesn't take Amex so can't use Fidelity).

These deals tend to beat most things, and the cards can still be used at Cashback portals to earn more So Upromise is 5%, LuckyRewards 3% so you can easily get 15% or more off.

I recommend those chasing cashback rewards to use sites like giftcardgranny (for the cards) and cashbackmonitor (for portals) to really maximize savings.
The gift card suggestions sound promising - would just have to look at my grocery cap. As long as giftcardgranny is legit with no fake or expired cards being hocked, I might look into that.

giftcardgranny is just the search engine, you go to one of the listed sellers. The only time I have had problems with a card being reported as missing/stolen, the brokers have refunded my money within 24 hours.