@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I use US Bank Cash+ for my utilities. My second statement just closed, and am raking in the rewards. Highly recommend the card.
yeah you are! out of curiousity what are your utlites spend per month to be getting that kind of return? off the top of my head our monthly utitlies are maybe 1200 month. that includes gas power water internet phones netflix stars hulu hbo disney+ and appletv+
$11.23/.05 = $224.60
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I use US Bank Cash+ for my utilities. My second statement just closed, and am raking in the rewards. Highly recommend the card.
yeah you are! out of curiousity what are your utlites spend per month to be getting that kind of return? off the top of my head our monthly utitlies are maybe 1200 month. that includes gas power water internet phones netflix stars hulu hbo disney+ and appletv+
That total spend may not be as high as you think if you are just looking at his total rewards.
There is a $150 "New Account Spend Bonus" included, I assume a one-time bonus.
Assuming it's just used for utilities, there is a base rewards bonus of $3.27 and then category rewards of $11.23. So the total of the 5% cash back for the month is only $14.50. That would equal about $290 towards utilities. Not unreasonable for an average household, especially depending on what qualifies as utility spend (phones, cable TV, internet, gas, electric, water, sewer, trash, etc.)
It's still a great return but the $164.50 earning is not what you'd get monthly.
@batsy71 wrote:Chase Ink Cash for 5% on internet/phone bills. No AF.
^ ^ ^ ^ This ...
I was going to mention it but @batsy71 beat me to it. 
And if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can move those URs over to get an effective 7.5% return on internet - cable tv - cellphone when redeemed for travel through Chase UR portal.
And ... I got 80K UR points for applying for the Chase Ink Business Preferred, earning the SUB, and then PC'ing the card to the INK Cash. Chase even credited part of my first year AF back.
Still, I have my eye on the USBank Cash+ also. It seems to be the king of utility cards.
@Aim_High wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I use US Bank Cash+ for my utilities. My second statement just closed, and am raking in the rewards. Highly recommend the card.
yeah you are! out of curiousity what are your utlites spend per month to be getting that kind of return? off the top of my head our monthly utitlies are maybe 1200 month. that includes gas power water internet phones netflix stars hulu hbo disney+ and appletv+
That total spend may not be as high as you think if you are just looking at his total rewards.
There is a $150 "New Account Spend Bonus" included, I assume a one-time bonus.
Assuming it's just used for utilities, there is a base rewards bonus of $3.27 and then category rewards of $11.23. So the total of the 5% cash back for the month is only $14.50. That would equal about $290 towards utilities. Not unreasonable for an average household, especially depending on what qualifies as utility spend (phones, cable TV, internet, gas, electric, water, sewer, trash, etc.)
It's still a great return but the $164.50 earning is not what you'd get monthly.
Are you sure that it's separating the cash back? Because $3.27/.01 = $327 and $11.23 /.05 = $224.60.
Either way it's a decent amount.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks aim high, i was a bit confused there how he earned so much cash back... that makes sense now but still not a bad return, so with that card are the streaming services such as netflix hulu etc. and cell phone do they earn 5% back as well?
You're welcome. That's a great question and one I have as well since I don't have the card.
For those who already have the US Bank Cash Plus card and use it for utilities, what type of bills have you been able to pay that qualify as utility charges? And moreover, what bills have only paid at the base rate instead of the bonus rate?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Aim_High wrote:
That total spend may not be as high as you think if you are just looking at his total rewards.
There is a $150 "New Account Spend Bonus" included, I assume a one-time bonus.
Assuming it's just used for utilities, there is a base rewards bonus of $3.27 and then category rewards of $11.23. So the total of the 5% cash back for the month is only $14.50. That would equal about $290 towards utilities. Not unreasonable for an average household, especially depending on what qualifies as utility spend (phones, cable TV, internet, gas, electric, water, sewer, trash, etc.)
It's still a great return but the $164.50 earning is not what you'd get monthly.
Are you sure that it's separating the cash back? Because $3.27/.01 = $327 and $11.23 /.05 = $224.60.
Either way it's a decent amount.
I'm not sure but I've had some cards that do that on bonus categories. They show the "base points" separate from "bonus points." In this case 1% and then additional 4% instead of one category of 5%. So both totals could be towards the utilities spending, depending on how it's accounted. The main thing was I took out that special $150 bonus that reflected in the totals. I think that is what he was focusing on, not the $3.27 or $11.23.
Cash+ utility category is just stuff like gas/electric/water/sanitation. They also have an internet/streaming category that is both your internet bill and all streaming services. They also have a cellphone category which works for your bill or anything bought at a cellphone store like a new one.
You get to pick two Cash+ categories.
You might be better with a card that offers cellphone insurance instead of using the cellphone category on a card that doesn't offer the insurance. You'll have to do that math for your personal situation.
VantageWest Connect Rewards offers a capped $1500 per quarter utility category that covers all normal utilities, internet, cellphone, and streaming. It is geofenced to Arizona unfortunately, though.
If your utility makes you pay a fee to use CC, check and see whether it is percentage based or a flat fee. If it is percentage based it might not he worth it to use a CC to pay it depending on the % charged. If it is a flat fee you can usually overpay for something like a whole year all at once to minimize the effect of the fee.
As an honorable mention, Amex BCP gives 6% back on streaming.
