How do you track where to spend for rewards every quarter?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I can understand both perspectives on this.  One, wanting to maximize rewards which is part of the reason for getting reward-specific cards to begin with and Two, not worrying about the minor "loss" in not maximizing rewards and putting something on the "wrong" card.  It all comes down to the individual as to what is more important.

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Yes. I sometimes have to remind myself how little these mistakes cost.   Recently, while travelling in CA, I twice bought some coffees using my CSP.  On return, I found that since the store was inside Whole Foods, these were classified as supermarkets, get 1UR on CSP (vs 5% on OBC which I should have used).   But even valuing a UR at just 1c, since the total cost was $14, I "lost" at most 56c, so I don't need to berate myself "You should have checked on the website after the first transaction posted..."

On the other hand, when replacing furnace/AC for $16K, we did initially use the wrong card (Citi Forward for 1TYP vs Discover IT Miles for 3%) and since that was real money, we managed to get it changed....

[Anonymous]

Buy a Costco cash card on day 1 of each quarter, then put the card away until next quarter.

Nothing to keep track of, you'll know when you're Costco cash card runs out of balance

[takeshi74]

It's up to you to determine your overall card strategy and to consider what you can reasonably manage.  There are certainly those who choose not to deal with rotators at all.

If you have a lot of spend in a given category then you may not want to rely on 5% in just one quarter and may want to look at maximizing rewards on that spend throughout the entire year.

Don't just look at %.  How much of a $ impact are you fretting over?

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@Anonymous wrote:

How do you keep track of when you hit these maximums and need to switch?

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In the same spreadsheet I use to balance my checking account, track credit card accounts (transactions, revolving utilization, statement & due dates, etc), perform crude budgeting, etc.  Though right now the 5% rotators (aside from Discover since I'm still in my double cash back period) are peanuts compared to the sign on bonuses I'm chasing.