Most lucrative card for paying tuition

[Anonymous]

Hello all you fine folks on myFICO,

So I was recently accepted to a school program to advance my career. And I am lucky enough to be able to pay for it out of pocket. (If you call paying thousands of dollars to study, lucky) But naturally, if you are a contributor to this forum, you want to maximize your earnings on some heavy spend... 

So, current stats

EXP: 695

TU: 652

EQ: 665

@ 5/24 currently

1% fee to charge tuition on credit card

So I am leaning towards a BBP, but honestly have no idea on business credit. I plan to do some freelance work with website development this year but imo, not enough income to claim on taxes.

If I was under 5/24, easily a CFU, but I don't have that current luxury. I'm open to other ideas that I haven't thought of and perhaps going to 6/24 with a strong card. I would only have to wait three more months to drop from my next open slot (Dec 2020 to March 2021). Perhaps even starting the SUB clock on a Citi Premier Card as it could be changed to a DC in a year, then be ready for another Citi SUB 48 months later...

Any advice on the BBP or any other lucrative cards? 

[wasCB14]

How much spend are we talking about, now and over the next few years?

BBP is nice but the SUB is small and often available only by referral. For smaller amounts, a big SUB can be more lucrative.

How valuable would a 0% intro period be for you?

BofA Premium is nice at the Platinum Honors tier. I do like BBP, though, and have hit the $50k cap every year so far.

Is your Discover in its first year?

[Anonymous]

So it's going to be increments of 2K every three months. Effectively 16K over two years. 

And I wish I had BoA Platinum tier lol BoA needs to extend that perk to friends like Amazon Prime

And my Discover is about to be at its end. I personally prefer points over cash back personally. 

[Anonymous]

^^Good Question. If your Discover is still in its first year you could pay some of your expenses on that and then get the CB match at the end of the year.

[wasCB14]

At that spend level, I would focus on getting a big SUB.

[TheBoondocks]

I just got approved for the business cash card from amex - 2% and I would use that if you don't have any future plans for traveling.

[PullingMeSoftly]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So it's going to be increments of 2K every three months. Effectively 16K over two years. 

And I wish I had BoA Platinum tier lol BoA needs to extend that perk to friends like Amazon Prime

And my Discover is about to be at its end. I personally prefer points over cash back personally. 

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Paying a similar tuition for my DS, and am putting all of this semester on my Hilton Aspire for the SUB. After that though, I'll go back to using my Fidelity 2%. So maybe just stick with a solid 2% card (Citi DC, PP, Fidelity, Penfed PC with checking acct) for the time being unless your out of pocket also includes travel, etc. which wouldn't exactly be a starving student budget.

[Revelate]

Why not do multiple subs on that to your point?

Every 3 months, I'm assuming you have some variability in terms of when you pay it and it's not exactly 3 months to the day every single time... if you can double up on some of those there are probably useful SUB's in the 3-4K range that can be had and then just repeat that 3x.

That's pretty much what I was doing with my estimated tax payments.  End of the day losing 1-2% in marginal rewards on 16K ($320 worst case) is beaten by typically 1 SUB, then +2/3?  Winning.

Will say though 1% fee to swipe a CC for tuition payments is pretty sweet.

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

Will say though 1% fee to swipe a CC for tuition payments is pretty sweet.

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Yeah. I saw this on my institutions website and I instantly got pretty giddy. I can still play the credit card game while I am in school and working full time. 

Hmm. I have some definete options. BBP for long term, Premier and Venture. I am leaning to the Premier because I essentially can start the clock on that one. Then, PC to a DC later on... 

This is a dumb question, but I received my CSP last November, they will not give me any trouble if I open up other credit lines?

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Revelate wrote:

Will say though 1% fee to swipe a CC for tuition payments is pretty sweet.

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Yeah. I saw this on my institutions website and I instantly got pretty giddy. I can still play the credit card game while I am in school and working full time. 

Hmm. I have some definete options. BBP for long term, Premier and Venture. I am leaning to the Premier because I essentially can start the clock on that one. Then, PC to a DC later on... 

This is a dumb question, but I received my CSP last November, they will not give me any trouble if I open up other credit lines?

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There have been a few cases of people getting a Chase card while under 5/24, then adding several new cards and having the Chase cards shut down. A shutdown is not guaranteed and perhaps not common, but not unheard of, either. The cases of AA get a lot of attention while the cases of no AA aren't discussed. I added CSR and then went a little over 5/24 (to maybe 6/24 or 7/24) and I didn't have any of my 5 Chase cards shut down.

BBP does not report personally, though, so long as the account is paid as agreed. And the reports of AA generally involve people going well in excess of 5 new accounts.