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I am wondering if there are any cards that give 3% (or more) in restaurant/gas on a single card.
Similar to the Chase AARP and Bank of the West cards.
If those are the only two, I'd probably be partial to the Bank of the West card but the restriction of quarterly reward payout bothers me for some reason
I've been thinking of trying to "thin the heard" to carry as few cards as possible just for ease of use. My two main category related spends are gas and "dining", but I don't really feel that I have enough gas spend to warrant having a card that is only used for gas. I could be wrong though.
My monthly spending is usually around
$450 dining (fast food around $200 and restaurants around $250)
$200 gas
$200-250 groceries (sometimes less, bcp will soon be pc'd and sd'd, as it'd probably take too long for me to reach the $25 threshold to care about keeping up with personally)
$100-300 miscellaneous depending on the month
$800 rent that goes on Citi DC or Blispay as I still come out $6 ahead even after the "convenience charge"
Just looking at suggestions for card selection. Citi D.C./Marvel? Citi D.C./Marvel/BoA Cash Rewards? Citi D.C./BotW? Other suggestions welcome, those are just the ones that come to mind initially.
Current EX/TU Ficos per Discover scorecard/statement are around 720-735. Cards and month/year I got them are in signature in regards to new accounts and inquiries in a given time frame.
Perhaps even just going down to Citi D.C. for all the spend as the 1% add may not even be enough with my marginal spending to warrant all this? Again. Opinions/advice is definitely welcome (and encouraged, as I'd like others opinions with my situation/scenario)
$200 on fast food a month? Darn, that's a lot. Sorry I couldn't help.
PNC just came out with a card last month that to my limited knowledge is the best single gas and food card I could find. 4% back on gas, 3% back on restuarants, and 2% back on groceries. Check it out here.
@Anonymous wrote:PNC just came out with a card last month that to my limited knowledge is the best single gas and food card I could find. 4% back on gas, 3% back on restuarants, and 2% back on groceries. Check it out here.
Just to add: $8,000 in combined purchases in these categories annually.
@Anonymous wrote:
The $200 in fast food is largely due to lunches at work. Since we don't do a lot of groceries, there usually isn't much for leftovers. I work at a credit union (so M-F 9-5) and there are usually about 20-22 work days in a given month. My lunch spend is generally about $5-8/day, kinda crazy but we just aren't avid cookers unfortunately. We'd like to start cooking but we just aren't comfortable eating food that we may or may not be able to successfully cook. Maybe we just make it harder than it is haha.
Fair enough.. Didn't cook much when I was single but I was good at buying good bread and lunch meat at the grocery store. Came out cheaper for me than eating out.. And food poision at McDonald's kind if curtailed that expense. Nothing worse than seeing a fish sandwich over and over and over, yuk.
@Anonymous wrote:
The $200 in fast food is largely due to lunches at work. Since we don't do a lot of groceries, there usually isn't much for leftovers. I work at a credit union (so M-F 9-5) and there are usually about 20-22 work days in a given month. My lunch spend is generally about $5-8/day, kinda crazy but we just aren't avid cookers unfortunately. We'd like to start cooking but we just aren't comfortable eating food that we may or may not be able to successfully cook. Maybe we just make it harder than it is haha.
And the costco is a definite no-go. The only costco in Oklahoma to my knowledge is in Tulsa, which is about 2-3 hours from where I'm located (Northwestern OKC). I wanted that card and was fine with the annual payout as those rewards are nice. But the fee for me would be more of an annual card fee than a fee to shop, as I probably wouldn't drive 3 hours for groceries. Any potential savings would most likely be eaten in gas haha.
I mean. Bank of the West seems like my best bet. But I'd read that they don't have a payment option on their side of your card login, which results in requiring you to push the payment from your bank account via billpay. Idk that just seems odd to me, not to have a way to make a payment from your card login on their side? Unless those are very old dp's and this is now an option through their cards? The only reason I prefer doing it from the issuers side is so that in the event that there happens to be an error with payment delivery, they can see that I legitimately did schedule a payment for that date and am not just blowing smoke, ya know? But maybe they allow payments from their side now idk..... if anybody has updated info that'd be nice
You can pay the Bank of the West card online from their web site. However, it uses some wierd western union payment system and you can only pay once a month. I don't recall the exact details, there may have been a fee for paying more than once a month.
Infirst FCU VISA Rewards is 4% gas, 3% restaurant and travel. JCB Marukai is 3% on everything. UMB Simply rewards is 3X in those categories and is offered by a LOT of regional banks (at least 35). Golden 1 is 3% in those categories. Security Service Power Travel is 3.3% iin those categories.
US Bank Cash+ can give 5% on fast food, and 2% on restaurants. However, rumor is some people have been transitioned to other cards, so it may be going away.
If you live in California Golden 1 Credit Union has the Platinum Rewards card that offers 3% for Gas Groceries and Dining. They also have a APR as low as 7.79%