Strategy for Maxing out Cash Back Categories

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@wacdenney wrote:

I think you are going to find that the 5% categories on Discover and Freedom overlap more often than not.  I have found holding both cards to be somewhat redundant.  If you are looking for three you could ditch the Discover idea and instead split up the gas and dining.  Gas is available at 5% via PenFed and dining at 3% via Marvel plus you would gain the very broad "entertainment" category.  That's only a 1% gain on gas and 3% on entertainment, but every additional percent adds up and that really is the whole point to a good well rounded rewards strategy like you are putting together.

It might also be worthwhile to consider BlisPay over DC for general spend given the additional 0% for 6 months benefit and the very likely possiblity of it being hidden.

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Just depends on your spending habits. For some, even with the broad "entertainment" category, these may not be significant areas of spending (just like how some people don't spend much on gas, etc).

I do agree that holding Discover and Freedom definitely felt redundant when I had both. I chose to keep Discover which has broader, better categories (for me anyway).

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True on the redundancy, however, neither card carries an AF so there shouldn't be any negative affect in carrying both in the long run as long as i keep my UTILs low. I think it would be good to have both to cover additional categories when there are no overlaps.

[Anonymous]

Good discussion. I use PenFed and Discover the most for rewards with Bank of America Cash Rewards as backup. They all serve a different purpose for me.

[takeshi74]

Do the math for your spend.  Don't just look at categories and %.  Have an undertanding of what all that translates into in terms of $.  Don't overlook noncategory spend.

[Anonymous]

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@takeshi74 wrote:

Do the math for your spend.  Don't just look at categories and %.  Have an undertanding of what all that translates into in terms of $.  Don't overlook noncategory spend.

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Absolutely. I always track my monthly/quarterly spend so I can better plan which cards will allow me to maximize my cashback return, with respect to any quarterly/annual caps.

I have a Cap1 QS and QS1 (will PC to QS when eligible to remove AF) I use to get 1.5% cash back on everything until I grab a Citi DC card, so I think I'm in a decent place right now.

Really appreciative for everyone's feedback!