Many people choose not to have credit cards; It's easy to rack up tons of debt that you do not have the money to pay back. But I like credit cards, I ALWAYS pay on time, So I never pay interest. Plus I can get cashback and rewards to help boost my income.
Because of my business, I spend hundreds to thousands a month on Amazon! ( Don't worry, I use a woman's affiliate code who donates to charity! ) Normally I have a Discover Miles card for my "business expenses".
I have a Discover cashback card
for my personal expenses.
It's pretty obvious that I just LOVE Discover. The website set up and the card designs grab my attention. Other banks seem to have boring, Old looking cards, With a disorganized website. So I've pretty much stayed with Discover
Some people like to hop around credit cards eating up the rewards; I don't have time to do that. But I realized something when spending a TON of money on my new Discover Miles Credit card.
- They get you by saying they'll DOUBLE your rewards the first year.
- The regular reward percentage is just 1.5%
- So the doubled amount is 3% and you only get it for the first year.
My cashback credit card.....
- 1% cashback on all purchases.
- 5% on rotating cashback categories.
JAN-MAR 2016
Gas & Ground
Transportation
APR-JUN 2016
Restaurants &
Movies
JUL-SEP 2016
Home Improvement
Stores &
Amazon.com
OCT-DEC 2016
Amazon.com,
Department Stores &
Sam's Club
So from July To December, I basically can get 5% cashback on all my purchases. Sure, For the rest of the year, I only get 1% Cashback, But Discover
also allows you to get cashback
When you "reload your balance on Amazon" So I can take advantage of that by paying for future business expenses immediately rather than later.
The Discover portal
There is also a cashback portal on Discover ;
That will allow you to earn extra cashback by shopping at certain stores! You can take serious advantage of it! But sadly the miles card doesn't have that either. So I feel like I was giving up too much for just 1.5% cashback and 3% cashback on the first year.
Choose your Credit Card Wisely!
- When credit card shopping it's important to pick carefully. Check out the menu, Make sure you like the website. I feel like that's a big one.
- Make sure to pick the card that will give you the maximum reward benefits.
I'm going to cancel
I know it hurts your credit score when you cancel things, But I have no choice with this, I want a second cashback card. And Discover only allows two credit cards per person. So I'm going to cancel and try to get a second cashback card.
. After I enjoy the "doubling" benefits of my first year. Sadly I should have paid closer attention. I wanted to travel more, So this miles card sounded like a dream come true. But when 70% of my business spending goes to Amazon, I can't pass up the 5% offer.
I dont do credit cards anymore as you say they can rack up debt. I got one when I was to young to have one now I save for what I want or do without.
That is very smart :) I only really use credit cards for the rewards. But I'm very careful. I keep my limits low and I only have two, One for personal. One for business expenses.
They can be to tempting for young people as you don't think about what your getting into. I learned my lesson
True! I hope I never have to learn the hard way.
Sounds like you know what your doing
I have an Amazon credit card, 5% cashback year round on Amazon that way. Might be good for you to look into.
Discover is my other card, but I'm really bad at remembering to use it with the rotation... :(
Wow! Is the Amazon card a chase card? Can you spend money on other things too?
I forget the rotation sometimes too! You can alway buy gift cards as well. So if it's "restaurant time" Buy some gift cards to your favorite restaurants to rack up the rewards.
Yes Amazon is chase and you can use it fpr anything. It's my primary card, and gives 3% for gas/groceries (I think) and 1% for everything else.
Never even thought of the gift certificate thing, may have to try that!
I'm going to look into that ! it sounds great :)
Yes the only bad thing about the gift card idea, Is you'll have to pay for all of it at once, Rather than going to a restaurant here and there. you'll be paying for months of restaurant purchases in one go haa.
You don't want to get on my bad list, you know...
LOL
Chase just launched the new sapphire "reserve"
it looks quite badass.
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/sapphire/reserve
Annual fee is high. That is the flip side of the coin.
I have a Preferred and I am very happy. The $20k/month limit helps a lot with the credit score. (You barely reach 50% of usage)
The preferred is where it's at! Have you earned any free flights yet?
I learned from my own experiences and others that credit cards are scams. If you have the money or access to it then you'll never need credit. If you want to spend money you don't have and might never have, then credit is available, with lots and lots of interest so that if you lose your job or employment based income stream you are stuck.
The only thing I use credit for now is when I need to pay for something faster than I can transfer money to a bank and they wont take cash or anything else. Credit is a last resort and choose to pay entire bills off a week or two after making them or sometimes even in the same day. Basically if it's money I already have in some form then I use credit.
Credit cards are amazing. Just pay it off each month.
There is no reason to use credit if you have money. If you don't have money and use credit then it's a mistake. So why ever use credit?
To get the points and travel for free!
Hurray for gamifications. It aint free if you gotta spend to buy it. Think about it.
Oh I've thought about it for a long time. I don't spend anything I wouldn't normally spend... I just get free travel for the money I do spend.
Oh I've thought about it for a long time. I don't spend anything I wouldn't normally spend... I just get free travel for the money I do spend.
The only time I can think of to max out the credit cards is to use it to buy cryptocurrency or to start a company. Entrepreneurship is the one time where credit could be worth it in terms of risk vs reward.
You