I redeem at the earliest available opportunity and/or once the minimum rewards threshold is reached (no min. for my Cap1 and Discover cards and $25 for my 3 FNBO and 2 BoA rewards cards, if I am remembering correctly).
@Anonymous wrote:This is discussed here a lot and I never really understand the "other" side. My view for cashback.
Unless there are special offers (e.g. Discover when if you have enough you can buy a giftcard at a discount), cash out as soon as you can, and if you need discipline, put it in a savings account and then spend it at the end of the year or whatever.
Leaving it with an issuer causes a (slight) risk that you can lose it if the issuer decides to close your card, and you are not earning any interest on the saved rewards (so in effect you are paying them interest, which you probably know to avoid).
Real transferable miles are much more complex, as you have to consider potential devaluations by airline (so you don't want to guess and transfer them to the wrong one too early etc), but the cashback case seems pretty cut and dried to me!
Wholeheartedly agree.
This is what I do:
(1) Chase Freedom / CSP : Combine and leave them on CSP UR till I find a good opportunity to transfer. So far I've mostly done Singapore and Southwest. I've got about 92k UR sitting there.
(2) AMEX PRG: New card, but the rule is similar to CSP. I'll mostly pull the points in Singapore.
(3) AMEX BCE, Citi Dividend: Can't wait for the cashback to reach the minimum thresholds, then immediate withdraw (statement credit / direct deposit).
(4) Cap One Quicksilver: Withdraw once every statement as statement credit.
(5) US Bank Cash+: Waited the first time for that $25 bonus on $100 statement credit, after that I withdraw as soon as the statement posts, as statement credit.
(6) Sallie Mae: Wait till I reach $25. Then transfer to UPromise and get 10% annual match in my Sallie Mae HYSA.
(7) UFCU: Involuntary wait. CU credits cashback once a year. Anyway I changed the product to a low interest product and don't use it much.
(8) Discover Debit card: Once a month transfer to Discover credit card, regardless of amount.
(9) Discover It: Piling on cashback. Redeem for Gift cards especially Enterprise, get 2x value.
In general, I keep an excel sheet of monthly rewards. I simply value everything as 1x cashback there (so no high valuation of UR because every better valuation is opportunistic). Then I sum up the monthly rewards and transfer an equivalent amount from my checking account to a HYSA.
Mostly been on track except for big value bonuses. That savings pile recently reached $5k. There's a certain feel good factor once I see it 
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:This is discussed here a lot and I never really understand the "other" side. My view for cashback.
Unless there are special offers (e.g. Discover when if you have enough you can buy a giftcard at a discount), cash out as soon as you can, and if you need discipline, put it in a savings account and then spend it at the end of the year or whatever.
Leaving it with an issuer causes a (slight) risk that you can lose it if the issuer decides to close your card, and you are not earning any interest on the saved rewards (so in effect you are paying them interest, which you probably know to avoid).
Real transferable miles are much more complex, as you have to consider potential devaluations by airline (so you don't want to guess and transfer them to the wrong one too early etc), but the cashback case seems pretty cut and dried to me!
I would agree, not sure what the downside is to redeeming your cash back as often as you can and putting it into a savings account. There's no advantage to leaving it sit in the rewards account other than specific circumstances (gift card discount from Discover, US Bank $25 bonus if redeem $100+, etc).
I was reading each reply to see if anyone was going to mention the possibility of losing it. I agree with LTL and KDM and cash out asap and put it in a savings account if you must. What I usually do is say I have $25 in cash back. I'll apply it as a statement credit, and then transfer $25 from my checking to my savings. That way I don't have to wait for a check/gift card, etc.
Personal:
