February 27, 2014

Credit Card Rewards for 2013 = $817

In 2013 we made $817.70 in rewards and bonuses from our card cards.  
 
Our main credit card has been the American Express TrueEarnings card through Costco.       Most of the rewards and spending was through that Amex card.   However the Amex card barely earned over 1% overall and our better rewards where through promotional 5% deals and a $200 signup bonus with a new Chase card.   I've been trying to watch for and better use the 5% promotional rebates with our cards.    We used our Citibank and Discover cards some mostly to take advantage of 5% deals.  I also got that new Chase card and we used it some both to meet the minimum purchase requirement to earn the $200 sign up bonus and to take advantage of their 5% deals.

Here is how our rewards were earned per card :

American Express :$439.21
1-3% cash back on various purchase categories.  Mostly 1%
+$25 credit from a Amazon.com promotion
Citibank : $25.57
Mostly 1% bonus but also $1.84 from 5% bonus at Home Depot
Discover Card : $80.43
Almost all 5% bonus for online shopping in Q4.
Chase Freedom : 27,249 points = $272.49 cash
I got a $200 sign up bonus and the rest was primarily shopping at Amazon for the 5% bonus.


The amount we earned was pretty good in total.   I'm happy with $817 in extra money for sure.   However I am sure we can increase this through use of other cards.    I've been considering getting the Amex card through Fidelity which pays 2% into a Fidelity account.   That would nearly double the $439 + $25 we earned on our Amex Costco and Citibank cards since that was mostly all 1% spending.   I've also decided to watch for and sign up for more promotional deals like that $200 bonus from the Chase card.   I figure it would be no problem to sign up for 1-2 new cards a year just to cash in sign up bonuses.   My credit score is over 800 and can easily withstand a hard pull once in a while.


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