March 23, 2014

3 Good Rewards Cards I'm Working on Getting

Last year I earned over $800 in rewards and bonuses with my credit cards.   I'm hoping to increase that this year.   Theres some good rewards cards out there that would help me add several hundred to that amount.   Below are 3 key cards I'm working on getting and the kinds of rewards  I could get.  I estimated the rewards based on what I can get above the current cards I've got.


Card #1 :  Fidelity American Express

This one currently has a promotion for a $75 sign up bonus*.    The card rebates 2% of ALL purchases into a linked Fidelity account.   We could use this to replace our primary spending card and raise our rewards on most purchases from 1% to 2%.   I figure that would net us a good $450 a year on last years spending rate.

Estimate rewards : $450/yr


Card #3 : Sallie Mae Mastercard

5% cash back on the first $250 you spend per month on eligible gas and grocery purchases each and the first $750 you spend per month on eligible book purchases.

 We easily spend $250 on groceries / gas a month so that 5% rate would net us $90 a year.   
Also from what I've heard the $750 on book purchases actually counts Amazon.com as a bookstore and we shop there quite a bit.  Last year I count a whopping $7400 in purchases on Amazon.  This 5% above the 2% could give us another $225 a year in rewards.    

[edit :  I forgot to mention the Sallie Mae card currently has a $25 cash back bonus for the first time you use your account.   $25 isn't much of a promo deal but its still free money. ]

Estimate rewards: $315 /yr


Card #3 : US Bank Cash+ Signature card

This one has different categories you can pick to get 2% and 5% rates.
Earn 5% cash back on your first $2,000 in net purchases each quarter on the combined two categories you choose.  

You can see the categories here  Potential options for the 5% categories for us would be : cell phone bill, restaurants & charities.    However we don't spend a ton in those categories.     You can also get a $25 Cash+ Bonus when you redeem $100 or more in a single redemption once a year.

Estimated rewards : $135/yr


* I got that link from MyMoneyBlog and its likely a commission link for MMB.   Just FYI, you might be helping MMB earn a few bucks if you sign up via that link.
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