@ChargedUp wrote:All things considered, my wife has a hard time keeping up with what card to use where sometimes and it's just easier to tell her "Put it on AOD..."
She's got grocery (BCP) and gas (Discover) and Home Depot (Freedom) figured out for now, but otherwise my AOD account is still getting a lot of use!
My spouse has zilcho interest in keeping track of category cards. All of their charges go on their Disco It Miles, which, as far as rewards go, they're perfectly content with. They're probably the kind of credit consumer these cards are meant to target, and, really, just having a decent flat cb card (plus one or two other cards for scoring benefits and/or backups) is probably what's best for the majority of credit consumers who don't want to juggle a bunch of different cards. I imagine a lot of people use some category card like the USB Cash+ or regular Disco It as their daily driver, and so mostly just get back 1% cb. I know that's what I was doing until I started looking into cc's, SUBs, and rewards structures last year.
@longtimelurker wrote:As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income. 
@Horseshoez wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
Waaay too much work for a few dollars.
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
Waaay too much work for a few dollars.
I use AR and then get some paid from my pretax FSA, which takes less than a minute
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:As always, it really depends on your spend, and to some extent terminology. While a lot of my usual spend is covered by 5% cards, occasional big spends aren't, and there are enough of these, and expensive enough, to end up being a big fraction of total spend. For me, these include dentist, vet, car repairs and labor costs for appliance work. Where terminology comes in is that I am able to use the Altitude Reserve (not strictly a general spend card!) on dentist and car, but the others need a true general spend. So this type of card is still very useful for me
I cheat, I pay the dentist from my HSA card with pre-tax income.
Strictly from a rewards perspective, a better option would be to pay your dentist using your highest rewards card and then transfer the amount of the bill from your HSA to your checking account. You'd have to do the math to see if the extra rewards are worth the extra effort. To me, they are.
Waaay too much work for a few dollars.
I use AR and then get some paid from my pretax FSA, which takes less than a minute
I don't know what AR is, but with my HSA I'd need to apply for reimbursement, and the only way to do that for a payment which didn't come in directly from a health care provider is to photograph/scan in the invoice and proof of payment, send them in to the HSA company, and then wait for them to review and reimburse. I mean "REALLY", all that for a few dollars? No thanks, I've got better (and more productive) things to do with my time.
@ChargedUp wrote:All things considered, my wife has a hard time keeping up with what card to use where sometimes and it's just easier to tell her "Put it on AOD..."
She's got grocery (BCP) and gas (Discover) and Home Depot (Freedom) figured out for now, but otherwise my AOD account is still getting a lot of use!
I'm curious why you're using Disco for gas when the BCP gets a higher return?
I think for the most part a person doesn't need every card on their person to maximize rewards, just the ones that earn daily cats like food/grocey and gas/transit. Most of tehe other ones like Utilties/Bills would tend be autopay or at least be fine as SD'd card. I means I too used to struggle with "what card to carry and when", so much so that my wallet and phone caer were full. Now I only need Gold(dining), BCP/Freedom(grocery) and a third general spend.