Why the need for Rotating Category Cards?

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@Credit12Fico wrote:

Agree with above poster. The one benefit is just getting "In" with chase. You can then product change to a few other interesting cards with more perks.   So when starting out, a freedom is nice, but once you get kitted out with a BCP, and other bells and whistle cards, you can product change the Chase Freedom into something else like the Unlimited or the Annual fee cards with the travel perks.

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Better to go the other way IMO...SUB chase the AF cards then PC to the 5% or 1.5%. My CFU was a CSP and Freedom number 2 was a CSR.

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Perhaps during normal business hours a PC is great, but currently Chase is offering 5% on grocery spend on both CFU and the CF cards as a part of their SUB. So right now those sound better option during the current situation. The AF cards will always be around later.

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True. Freedom is an excellent value for someone with $6k-$12k annual grocery spend and no other year-round grocery cards. I'd go for one now if I didn'y already have two...and BCP...and EDP.

BCP I'll downgrade in a few weeks. EDP will give me 25k to upgrade.

[UpperNwGuy]

Why the need for rotating category cards?

1.  It's not a need.  It's a want.

2.  5% is 5% and usually you can only get 5% on rotating category cards.  Why settle for less?

[Anonymous]

The caps on the rotating category cards typically mean you're chasing, at best, a few hundred dollars a year in extra rewards. The effort required to manage the cards doesn't justify the rewards for me. It might for you.

[Azza]

So what I've put together is a tidy list of cards that I keep in my wallet for covering all my desired purchases. I have no annual fees.

5/3% on Amazon - My wife's Chase Amazon Prime card (3% when not in Prime status)

Depending on whether a purchase is going to net a massive return or not decides if we're going Prime. Honestly we like Prime for the movies and shows though, so we've been subscribed for quite some time. We can pay for Prime with our Prime card and get $5 off our yearly membership heh!

4% Gas - Costco
3% Dining - Costco
3% Travel - Costco
2% Purchases at Costco - Costco

First of all, the Costco card is insane and is not quite a unicorn, but I'd argue some of the travel-holics would call it one. Okay so we're not using gas as much right now cuz Covid, but I sure enjoy eating food! And we shop at Costco. Honestly this card is just so good. If they added groceries I wouldn't need another card lol!

5% Rotating - Discover IT - Currently Dining & Paypal - that got maxed off one purchase I made online for speakers that cost $3200 and I was able to use Paypal as the payment gateway ayyyy. It's going to be Amazon in a month or so, and I'm going to max out my cashback rewards from Discover first because Discover offers the highest price point for reward points that I possess (can get up to 1.25? cents per point at gift card redemption) so that card is just really nice.

We don't use my wife's chase freedom because the categories have literally sucked for about 2 years. I might throw it in my wallet the next time Groceries comes around again, which I will talk about down below.

2% Anywhere - Alliant ($5,000 max)

Speaks for itself, but I have a crap SL on it and it takes a hard pull to bump the limit. Not gonna happen, so I tend to preload my alliant savings account with money, buy something, pay it off then buy something else. Have had to do that only once. For larger purchases where I can't split up shipping costs...

1.5% Anywhere - Rivermark ($20,000 with the ability to go over if I PIF before statement)

So Rivermark is kinda eh. Recently I was planning to buy a home theater and was going to throw it all on one card and the Alliant wouldn't let it fit. So I called my CU and asked them for their rewards visa, told them how much I wanted (HT is going to cost $17,000) and they approved me on the spot. Problem is it's only 1.5% back. Tiny drawback in my opinion though for huge spends and if I need to pull the rewards money out I can do it right after I pay it and it's literally cash in my bank account.

So yeah, I have a nice spread. The only thing I am missing is groceries, but my wife and I shop at WinCo Foods which is already a pretty stupendous savings because they only accept debit cards, and the prices are very competitive. It'd be nice though to have a shopping card for going to New Seasons for the nice chocolate and seasonal figs, but Amex has declined me [count em] three times in three years. I hate amex lol. Anyway, that's what I do!

[AdamC]

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The only thing I am missing is groceries, but my wife and I shop at WinCo Foods which is already a pretty stupendous savings because they only accept debit cards, and the prices are very competitive.

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Wow that's amazing that there's still a grocery that is debit only! A quick google said they are employee-owned too which is awesome. I see they have some stores here in AZ, but alas none in Tucson. While I value credit card rewards - if a store wants to keep competitive prices, rewards their employees and limit it to debit, I'd at least give them a shot!

As far as the rotators - I haven't had much problems with my disco and freedom. If it's a category I will use when I'm out, the card will go in my 3 card wallet and get use. If not - it usually goes on amex BCE or citi DC. I can understand others who have the BCP not getting use out of groceries for example, I just prefer no AF and the BCE only provides 3% grocery, 2% gas. To be honest, my car is efficient and I don't use much gas annualy. If one of the rotators brings up gas, I typically get 3 full tanks in a quarter. When I ride my motorcyle, it's about 3 gallons per trip so nothing big there either. Groceries are a different story, I usually get noticible chunks of CB no matter if I use my BCE or a rotator.

Restaurant quarters are invaluable for me (aside from pandemic) because I have a group of friends I go out with on Friday for happy hour. We can easily have a $250 bill, and that CB comes back in large chunks at 5%. It doesn't really net me anything, I just pass that 5% on to my friends in terms of savings at the table, or kick it to our server. My only "restaurant" card is a citi TYP, and I don't use it too much.

[Beast26]

I think I will actually go with discover first for the benefit of having all of these cashback categories available to me as I go on my journey to acquiring all of the other cards that I want.  I will maximize cashback and by the time I hit the 1 year mark I will have 3 of my goal cards.

The biggest reason I'm going with it first is I feel like I will be a lot more patient knowing that I will make $500+ in my first year and this card actually seems more interesting than getting a flat 2% back card to garden with.  I may not use it much once I get all my goal cards but it will actually be useful for the first 2 years that I have it.  It just seems like the perfect card to garden with.

[Face_Value]

The Discover it Cash Back card should be everyone's first card.

[Anonymous]

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@Face_Value wrote:

The Discover it Cash Back card should be everyone's first card.

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Way too general a statement!   If you do a lot of foreign transactions, discover might not be available.   If you spend outside the categories, you get 2% first year and 1% subsequently.    For many, a 3% everywhere would be a good first card, for others it depends on their spend (e.g. if you do a lot of Amazon and are prime, one of the Amazon cards is the best)

And I would probably go for the Cash App card, which isn't even a credit card, as potentially the most rewarding cashback to start with

[Azza]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And I would probably go for the Cash App card, which isn't even a credit card, as potentially the most rewarding cashback to start with

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Heh! I don't use mine often, but if I'm ever needing a hankering for fast food, man oh man the savings

[Anonymous]

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@Azza wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

And I would probably go for the Cash App card, which isn't even a credit card, as potentially the most rewarding cashback to start with

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Heh! I don't use mine often, but if I'm ever needing a hankering for fast food, man oh man the savings

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Yes, apart from that I have (most up to $75 spend)

10% off any supermarket 

15% of any restaurant 

20% off Lyft

$5 off any purchase, 

15% off walgreens, doordash, chipotle, chick-fil-a

10% off Home Depot

and lots of others.   Have to start paying more attention to it!