I much prefer true cash back but I will redeem for a gift card instead only if it is 'on sale' (10% off minimum). A couple of things I always consider when choosing to redeem for a gift card instead of cash is 1.) Could I be getting 5% CB from this business if I were using a credit card instead of a gift card? (ex. In the Outback example above, by using a giftcard and not using my Disco this quarter, I'd have lost out on 5% of $25, or $1.25. 2.) What's the discount on Raise or Cardcash? In this case, you can currently get an Outback egift card for 12.4% off face value (14.4% if you pay with a 2% CB card). Just my way of thinking!
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@batsy71 wrote:Since maximizing cash back on gas is the issue here, why arent people going for the GM card by Marcus?
If your annual spend on gas is 1500$ you get 200$ credit each year which comes around 6.6% cash back on gas every year.
I'm not sure anyone said that gas is the issue here. If gas was the only issue, there are ways of getting 5% CB on gas all or most of the whole year. A $100 statement credit for exactly $1500 per year is nice but it's only 6.67% CB at that exact spend. 12,000 mi/yr x 25 mi/gal x $4/gal = $1,920 / yr in gas spend for an average person. Multiply that by two for two drivers sharing the same credit card.
It seems like the points are only worth one penny per point when redeemed for a GM vehicle or at a GM dealer, is that correct?
https://www.marcus.com/us/en/credit-cards/gm-cards/my-gm-rewards-card
@batsy71 wrote:> It seems like the points are only worth one penny per point when redeemed for a GM vehicle or at a GM dealer, is that correct?
The 100$ statement credit collected per 1500$ of gas/yr is separate from the 4 points accumulated for each credit card transaction.
If you are not purchasing GM car you can ignore the points (that's what I do), you are still getting a solid 6.6% from the annual 100$ credit. The website also states that the points can be redeemed for gift cards at lower denomination but that's the icing on the cake if you use the card for gas only: https://www.marcus.com/us/en/credit-cards/gm-cards/my-gm-rewards-card1
If your gas spend is far below 1500$/yr then this card is not for you and going for the traditional cards that give 4%/5% on gas make sense.
If your spend is > 1500$/yr , say, 1920$/yr, then a combination of GM Marcus for the first 1500$ + a simple 1% credit card for the part beyond 1500$ will be 6.6*1500/100 + 1*420/100 = 103.2$ which is more than a 5% flat gas card (5*1920/100 = 96$).If your gas purchases are very high, you can also consider getting multiples of this card, say 2, between multiple people in the same household and then it goes upto 6.6% for 3000$ gas/yr.
If your annual household gas expenditure is > 1500$/yr, getting this card seems like a no brainer to me if you can get approval.
Understood, thank you. FYI, the dollar sign ($) goes before the dollar amount. 
