Quite confused with all the acronyms 
So, if I understand the concept.. the idea is to buy gift card that would qualify for 5% on my CC and then make purchases using the gift cards.... provided my end product can be bought using one. Am I on the right track ?
@Anonymous wrote:Quite confused with all the acronyms
So, if I understand the concept.. the idea is to buy gift card that would qualify for 5% on my CC and then make purchases using the gift cards.... provided my end product can be bought using one. Am I on the right track ?
Yes. That is part of Manufactured Spending. Because you are buying cash-equivalents, lenders can shut you down. Plenty of people still do it. I know that Fico2Go and LTL have more information, but that is the gist of it.
@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Quite confused with all the acronyms
So, if I understand the concept.. the idea is to buy gift card that would qualify for 5% on my CC and then make purchases using the gift cards.... provided my end product can be bought using one. Am I on the right track ?
Yes. That is part of Manufactured Spending. Because you are buying cash-equivalents, lenders can shut you down. Plenty of people still do it. I know that Fico2Go and LTL have more information, but that is the gist of it.
Ok, I guess thats one way but I would like to hear from other how and what strategies they use. Probably using this method might not be univerally applicable... still all ears.
@Anonymous wrote:I was wondering how everyone has devised a plan to use which credit card when especially rotating categories. With the start of each quarter do you make a list or note that you would keep in your wallet. Gas is generally the most easy category to remember but I always am second guessing when I visit a restaurant, departmental,drug, grocery, etc. store. I am not talking about online purchases which allow more time to decide which card would be best.
Also, how do you keep track of monthly cap where applicable.
At one point of time I had made a following chart on a website so that I could access it online. If others are interested I could make a more detailed one with inputs for you guys and post it here. Or probably one already exists ??
This is an old chart. Maybe Not applicable for 2014 might be making one soon again.
Category January-March April-June July-Sept Oct-Dec
Gas Stations Amex*** Amex*** Chase,Disc Amex*** Groceries Chase,Disc* Disc** Drug Stores Citi,Chase,Disc* Disc** Restaurants Disc Citi Chase,Disc Clothing Disc Disc,Citi Department Amex*** Disc Amex*** Chase,Disc,Citi Electronics Citi Home Improv. Citi,Chase,Disc Health Care Citi Fitness Citi Airlines Disc Chase,Citi Hotels Disc Chase,Citi,Disc Car Rentals Disc Citi Cruises Disc Theme Parks Disc Movies Disc Chase Online Disc
* March only
** June only
*** 3% Supermarkets, 2% Gas/Dept. store
Card January-March Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Chase Freedom $1500 $1500 $1500 $1500 Discover $800/$200* $400/$200** $300 $300 Citi Card $800 $400 $300 $200
* March only categories of groceries and drug stores
** June only categories of groceries and drug stores
I used to pay very close attention to ensure that I was using the best card at each particular store that I shop at to earn the max rewards. However what I learned was that it was quite a bit of effort for a fairly small gain in rewards. Now I have just been getting as many new account bonuses as possible. Since May I have opened amex EDP, CSP, capital one venture and arrival plus. For the rest of the year I plan on opening the spirit airlines card (don’t judge me) citi thank you premiere maybe the chase hyatt card. In January I will add a couple of new amex cards to help salvage my greatly reduced AAoA. I just financed a car so I don’t have any pressing need to keep my credit score pristine for a few years. I figure there are about 20 or so card that I have yet get that have substantial bonuses. I plan on keeping this strategy till I stop being approved for new cards which I figure will happen around mid to late of 2015.
So far this year I have received $1,477 worth of gift cards, flights and hotel rooms. I’m also sitting on about 58,000 UR points and 7,700 MR points. I’m a couple of hundred dollars away from the bonus posting on my venture card and by mid november the bonus from my arrival plus card should post. All together for 2014 I expect to have picked up about 4.5K of credit card rewards on about 30K of spending for an effective rewards rate of approximately 15%. This strategy may not be for the faint of heart but it’s working for me right now.
@nmac wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I was wondering how everyone has devised a plan to use which credit card when especially rotating categories. With the start of each quarter do you make a list or note that you would keep in your wallet. Gas is generally the most easy category to remember but I always am second guessing when I visit a restaurant, departmental,drug, grocery, etc. store. I am not talking about online purchases which allow more time to decide which card would be best.
Also, how do you keep track of monthly cap where applicable.
At one point of time I had made a following chart on a website so that I could access it online. If others are interested I could make a more detailed one with inputs for you guys and post it here. Or probably one already exists ??
This is an old chart. Maybe Not applicable for 2014 might be making one soon again.
Category January-March April-June July-Sept Oct-Dec
Gas Stations Amex*** Amex*** Chase,Disc Amex*** Groceries Chase,Disc* Disc** Drug Stores Citi,Chase,Disc* Disc** Restaurants Disc Citi Chase,Disc Clothing Disc Disc,Citi Department Amex*** Disc Amex*** Chase,Disc,Citi Electronics Citi Home Improv. Citi,Chase,Disc Health Care Citi Fitness Citi Airlines Disc Chase,Citi Hotels Disc Chase,Citi,Disc Car Rentals Disc Citi Cruises Disc Theme Parks Disc Movies Disc Chase Online Disc
* March only
** June only
*** 3% Supermarkets, 2% Gas/Dept. store
Card January-March Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Chase Freedom $1500 $1500 $1500 $1500 Discover $800/$200* $400/$200** $300 $300 Citi Card $800 $400 $300 $200
* March only categories of groceries and drug stores
** June only categories of groceries and drug storesI used to pay very close attention to ensure that I was using the best card at each particular store that I shop at to earn the max rewards. However what I learned was that it was quite a bit of effort for a fairly small gain in rewards. Now I have just been getting as many new account bonuses as possible. Since May I have opened amex EDP, CSP, capital one venture and arrival plus. For the rest of the year I plan on opening the spirit airlines card (don’t judge me) citi thank you premiere maybe the chase hyatt card. In January I will add a couple of new amex cards to help salvage my greatly reduced AAoA. I just financed a car so I don’t have any pressing need to keep my credit score pristine for a few years. I figure there are about 20 or so card that I have yet get that have substantial bonuses. I plan on keeping this strategy till I stop being approved for new cards which I figure will happen around mid to late of 2015.
So far this year I have received $1,477 worth of gift cards, flights and hotel rooms. I’m also sitting on about 58,000 UR points and 7,700 MR points. I’m a couple of hundred dollars away from the bonus posting on my venture card and by mid november the bonus from my arrival plus card should post. All together for 2014 I expect to have picked up about 4.5K of credit card rewards on about 30K of spending for an effective rewards rate of approximately 15%. This strategy may not be for the faint of heart but it’s working for me right now.
How has the new accounts impacted your AAoA?
@Fico2Go wrote:
@nmac wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I was wondering how everyone has devised a plan to use which credit card when especially rotating categories. With the start of each quarter do you make a list or note that you would keep in your wallet. Gas is generally the most easy category to remember but I always am second guessing when I visit a restaurant, departmental,drug, grocery, etc. store. I am not talking about online purchases which allow more time to decide which card would be best.
Also, how do you keep track of monthly cap where applicable.
At one point of time I had made a following chart on a website so that I could access it online. If others are interested I could make a more detailed one with inputs for you guys and post it here. Or probably one already exists ??
This is an old chart. Maybe Not applicable for 2014 might be making one soon again.
Category January-March April-June July-Sept Oct-Dec
Gas Stations Amex*** Amex*** Chase,Disc Amex*** Groceries Chase,Disc* Disc** Drug Stores Citi,Chase,Disc* Disc** Restaurants Disc Citi Chase,Disc Clothing Disc Disc,Citi Department Amex*** Disc Amex*** Chase,Disc,Citi Electronics Citi Home Improv. Citi,Chase,Disc Health Care Citi Fitness Citi Airlines Disc Chase,Citi Hotels Disc Chase,Citi,Disc Car Rentals Disc Citi Cruises Disc Theme Parks Disc Movies Disc Chase Online Disc
* March only
** June only
*** 3% Supermarkets, 2% Gas/Dept. store
Card January-March Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Chase Freedom $1500 $1500 $1500 $1500 Discover $800/$200* $400/$200** $300 $300 Citi Card $800 $400 $300 $200
* March only categories of groceries and drug stores
** June only categories of groceries and drug storesI used to pay very close attention to ensure that I was using the best card at each particular store that I shop at to earn the max rewards. However what I learned was that it was quite a bit of effort for a fairly small gain in rewards. Now I have just been getting as many new account bonuses as possible. Since May I have opened amex EDP, CSP, capital one venture and arrival plus. For the rest of the year I plan on opening the spirit airlines card (don’t judge me) citi thank you premiere maybe the chase hyatt card. In January I will add a couple of new amex cards to help salvage my greatly reduced AAoA. I just financed a car so I don’t have any pressing need to keep my credit score pristine for a few years. I figure there are about 20 or so card that I have yet get that have substantial bonuses. I plan on keeping this strategy till I stop being approved for new cards which I figure will happen around mid to late of 2015.
So far this year I have received $1,477 worth of gift cards, flights and hotel rooms. I’m also sitting on about 58,000 UR points and 7,700 MR points. I’m a couple of hundred dollars away from the bonus posting on my venture card and by mid november the bonus from my arrival plus card should post. All together for 2014 I expect to have picked up about 4.5K of credit card rewards on about 30K of spending for an effective rewards rate of approximately 15%. This strategy may not be for the faint of heart but it’s working for me right now.
How has the new accounts impacted your AAoA?
I had a bunch (like 12 or so I think) student loan accounts that were sold, closed and transferred and thus appear on my reports twice. This happened a few years ago so I have all these accounts padding my AAoA. That being said credit karma has me down to 2 years and 3 month. My actually AAoA is higher than that since CK doesn’t include closed accounts. I’m hoping I don’t torch my AAoA too much before January when I’ll try to add a couple of amex cards that will backdate to 2012.
@nmac wrote:
@Fico2Go wrote:
@nmac wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I was wondering how everyone has devised a plan to use which credit card when especially rotating categories. With the start of each quarter do you make a list or note that you would keep in your wallet. Gas is generally the most easy category to remember but I always am second guessing when I visit a restaurant, departmental,drug, grocery, etc. store. I am not talking about online purchases which allow more time to decide which card would be best.
Also, how do you keep track of monthly cap where applicable.
At one point of time I had made a following chart on a website so that I could access it online. If others are interested I could make a more detailed one with inputs for you guys and post it here. Or probably one already exists ??
This is an old chart. Maybe Not applicable for 2014 might be making one soon again.
Category January-March April-June July-Sept Oct-Dec
Gas Stations Amex*** Amex*** Chase,Disc Amex*** Groceries Chase,Disc* Disc** Drug Stores Citi,Chase,Disc* Disc** Restaurants Disc Citi Chase,Disc Clothing Disc Disc,Citi Department Amex*** Disc Amex*** Chase,Disc,Citi Electronics Citi Home Improv. Citi,Chase,Disc Health Care Citi Fitness Citi Airlines Disc Chase,Citi Hotels Disc Chase,Citi,Disc Car Rentals Disc Citi Cruises Disc Theme Parks Disc Movies Disc Chase Online Disc
* March only
** June only
*** 3% Supermarkets, 2% Gas/Dept. store
Card January-March Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Chase Freedom $1500 $1500 $1500 $1500 Discover $800/$200* $400/$200** $300 $300 Citi Card $800 $400 $300 $200
* March only categories of groceries and drug stores
** June only categories of groceries and drug storesI used to pay very close attention to ensure that I was using the best card at each particular store that I shop at to earn the max rewards. However what I learned was that it was quite a bit of effort for a fairly small gain in rewards. Now I have just been getting as many new account bonuses as possible. Since May I have opened amex EDP, CSP, capital one venture and arrival plus. For the rest of the year I plan on opening the spirit airlines card (don’t judge me) citi thank you premiere maybe the chase hyatt card. In January I will add a couple of new amex cards to help salvage my greatly reduced AAoA. I just financed a car so I don’t have any pressing need to keep my credit score pristine for a few years. I figure there are about 20 or so card that I have yet get that have substantial bonuses. I plan on keeping this strategy till I stop being approved for new cards which I figure will happen around mid to late of 2015.
So far this year I have received $1,477 worth of gift cards, flights and hotel rooms. I’m also sitting on about 58,000 UR points and 7,700 MR points. I’m a couple of hundred dollars away from the bonus posting on my venture card and by mid november the bonus from my arrival plus card should post. All together for 2014 I expect to have picked up about 4.5K of credit card rewards on about 30K of spending for an effective rewards rate of approximately 15%. This strategy may not be for the faint of heart but it’s working for me right now.
How has the new accounts impacted your AAoA?
I had a bunch (like 12 or so I think) student loan accounts that were sold, closed and transferred and thus appear on my reports twice. This happened a few years ago so I have all these accounts padding my AAoA. That being said credit karma has me down to 2 years and 3 month. My actually AAoA is higher than that since CK doesn’t include closed accounts. I’m hoping I don’t torch my AAoA too much before January when I’ll try to add a couple of amex cards that will backdate to 2012.
Trying to reserve my judgement for now on whether apping for many can yield more rewards. My thinking is that maybe it's better to app only for products with the highest rewards vs. many with small rewards. For instance, the fico points lost and # of new accounts opened could jeopardize chances of approval for higher bonuses.
Perhaps a combination of getting high sign up bonsus and learning how to find ways to earn 5% cashback on everthing can net most.
@Fico2Go wrote:
@nmac wrote:
@Fico2Go wrote:
@nmac wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I was wondering how everyone has devised a plan to use which credit card when especially rotating categories. With the start of each quarter do you make a list or note that you would keep in your wallet. Gas is generally the most easy category to remember but I always am second guessing when I visit a restaurant, departmental,drug, grocery, etc. store. I am not talking about online purchases which allow more time to decide which card would be best.
Also, how do you keep track of monthly cap where applicable.
At one point of time I had made a following chart on a website so that I could access it online. If others are interested I could make a more detailed one with inputs for you guys and post it here. Or probably one already exists ??
This is an old chart. Maybe Not applicable for 2014 might be making one soon again.
Category January-March April-June July-Sept Oct-Dec
Gas Stations Amex*** Amex*** Chase,Disc Amex*** Groceries Chase,Disc* Disc** Drug Stores Citi,Chase,Disc* Disc** Restaurants Disc Citi Chase,Disc Clothing Disc Disc,Citi Department Amex*** Disc Amex*** Chase,Disc,Citi Electronics Citi Home Improv. Citi,Chase,Disc Health Care Citi Fitness Citi Airlines Disc Chase,Citi Hotels Disc Chase,Citi,Disc Car Rentals Disc Citi Cruises Disc Theme Parks Disc Movies Disc Chase Online Disc
* March only
** June only
*** 3% Supermarkets, 2% Gas/Dept. store
Card January-March Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Chase Freedom $1500 $1500 $1500 $1500 Discover $800/$200* $400/$200** $300 $300 Citi Card $800 $400 $300 $200
* March only categories of groceries and drug stores
** June only categories of groceries and drug storesI used to pay very close attention to ensure that I was using the best card at each particular store that I shop at to earn the max rewards. However what I learned was that it was quite a bit of effort for a fairly small gain in rewards. Now I have just been getting as many new account bonuses as possible. Since May I have opened amex EDP, CSP, capital one venture and arrival plus. For the rest of the year I plan on opening the spirit airlines card (don’t judge me) citi thank you premiere maybe the chase hyatt card. In January I will add a couple of new amex cards to help salvage my greatly reduced AAoA. I just financed a car so I don’t have any pressing need to keep my credit score pristine for a few years. I figure there are about 20 or so card that I have yet get that have substantial bonuses. I plan on keeping this strategy till I stop being approved for new cards which I figure will happen around mid to late of 2015.
So far this year I have received $1,477 worth of gift cards, flights and hotel rooms. I’m also sitting on about 58,000 UR points and 7,700 MR points. I’m a couple of hundred dollars away from the bonus posting on my venture card and by mid november the bonus from my arrival plus card should post. All together for 2014 I expect to have picked up about 4.5K of credit card rewards on about 30K of spending for an effective rewards rate of approximately 15%. This strategy may not be for the faint of heart but it’s working for me right now.
How has the new accounts impacted your AAoA?
I had a bunch (like 12 or so I think) student loan accounts that were sold, closed and transferred and thus appear on my reports twice. This happened a few years ago so I have all these accounts padding my AAoA. That being said credit karma has me down to 2 years and 3 month. My actually AAoA is higher than that since CK doesn’t include closed accounts. I’m hoping I don’t torch my AAoA too much before January when I’ll try to add a couple of amex cards that will backdate to 2012.
Trying to reserve my judgement for now on whether apping for many can yield more rewards. My thinking is that maybe it's better to app only for products with the highest rewards vs. many with small rewards. For instance, the fico points lost and # of new accounts opened could jeopardize chances of approval for higher bonuses.
Perhaps a combination of getting high sign up bonsus and learning how to find ways to earn 5% cashback on everthing can net most.
I do try to strike a balance between large sign up bonuses and rewards that are the most valuable to me. For example I'm currently a tad flush on flights and hotels so I plan on getting the spirit airlines card which includes a $100 statment credit as well as 15k miles. Same with the citi TY premiere. The $200 of gift cards I can get with it will be more valuable to me then if I opened on of the AA cards and got 30K american airlines miles even though you could argue the 30K AA miles is most certainly worth more than 20K TY points.
I also don't completely ignore roting categories I just to overly plan about them. Plus I decided it wasn't smart to carry 5+ cards with me all the time because if my wallet was lost I would be competly cardless. I'm not suggesting this bonus chasing strategy for everyone, IMHO it has to fit in with your larger credit goals.