I am going to have to run some numbers. I have the AmEx Cash Preferred that I only use for the 6% grocery stores, but it has a $95 annual fee. It looks like the Freedom Unlimited is a better card all around.
On the other hand I am refinancing my mortgage, so I can’t apply to new CC right now.
I have a credit union credit card with 2% rewards redeemable as cash back any time in $25 increments. I haven’t found anything better with the same flexibility.
Well, your situation is complicated. Flat 6% back on groceries is amazing on its own.
The Sapphire Reserve redeems each point for 1.5c until April 2021, for dining, hardware stores, and groceries. The Freedom Unlimited rewards 5 points per dollar spent on groceries for 1 year. So you’ll make 7.5% back on groceries until April, and then it will switch to 5% (in cash) or 7.5% back (if you spend those points on travel using the Sapphire Reserve’s 1.5x multiplier).
The Freedom Unlimited is a great partner for the Sapphire Reserve because it fills those holes where the Reserve only pays 1 point per dollar spent.
2% cashback is the baseline, that’s the best you can do without any work on your part. You can do much better, though.
Nice job on refinancing, I just did that myself. 30 years at 3.000%!
I don’t travel or eat out a lot, so the Sapphire Reserve is pointless for me. I am not really a big spender on groceries either, so the AmEx is a close call as to whether that annual fee makes it worth it (most years it does).
I got all my credit scores through the refinance, Transunion has me marked down quite a bit from the other two for too many accounts with a balance. I have like 5 credit cards but pay them off monthly. It’s kind of BS.
Thanks, you too. Got 2.85% on 30 here. Timing it just before fees go up in the new year.
Well done!!
A question I’m curious if anyone knows the answer to:
I had an autopayment set up with Cox cable to my Visa card. I recently moved and the payment went through before I changed my address in Cox’s system, so the charge got declined because my zip code was wrong. No problem; I updated my card and processed the payment the same day. It went through and was on time. But Cox charged me a $25 fee for the initial payment decline. Is this legal? I’ve never been charged a fee for a credit card decline before. It happens all the time when, for instance, my card gets temporarily suspended for suspicious activity or something.
I have never been charged a fee for having to update my credit card in an autopay situation.
What’s especially obnoxious about it is there are several legitimate reasons why a credit card might be frozen for a moment, so most just try again and if they can’t get it send you a note.
You’re not alone with Cox though. A quick search says they’ve been providing this stellar example of customer service for years.
Oh my, it looks like Spectrum might charge 50 or 75. I should just cancel that damn thing now.
Obviously call them and complain, try to get it reversed. But it’s the cable company, they not only don’t care if you live or die, they actively hate you.
I have a Chase Freedom card that I’ve been using for most things for many years. In the past, I’ve let the points accumulate for a few years before I use them, and since I’ve already got the card registered at Amazon, I generally found it easier to just spend the points there, since it’s basically just a one-click operation to do so.
However, the last time I did this (about 2 years ago), I had something like 8,000 points, which in the past would have been worth $80.00. But I noticed that Amazon was only going to give me roughly something like $60 for those points. And I went ahead and did it, because I didn’t feel like shopping for a better use of those points. That was 2 years ago.
Today, I had 68,000 points accumulated, and I saw that Amazon once again was going to short me, and only give me something like $55 for them.
I also have a Chase Amazon Prime card that I use exclusively for Amazon purchases, as it gives 5% points on Amazon purchases. On that card, they will credit 1:1, or in other words, those 68,000 points would be worth $68.
Why did they change it to make my Chase Freedom card’s points worth less than my Chase Prime points, when it used to be that for both cards, Amazon would credit 1:1?
So what I did this time was go through the Chase website and buy a $50 Amazon gift card, which cost me 5,000 points. That worked fine, and I got my old 1:1 exchange rate that way. Which seems a convoluted way to do it, but it works.
The best part is you can use Chase points to buy electronic Amazon Gift Cards in the Chase point redemption shop at the usual penny-per-point cost. Then go add the gift card balance to your Amazon account. Less convenient than using points directly on Amazon, but if they’re charging 15% vig, then I’ll do some extra typing.
Edit: brain error due to weekend, failed to process your last paragraph. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I get so angry at this nonsense.
The calculus is that for each layer of indirection, the company pays out e.g. 0.85/1.00 while paying 0.10/1.00 in administrative fees, and therefore some trust-fund jackass gets his stock vested.
Made-up money in service of illusory debts that leads to real-world suffering. Yay, capitalism! I’m so glad to be alive.
Don’t have an answer for you, but wouldn’t it be easier to do a statement credit? That way it doesn’t matter where you buy from and you still earn points on what you do buy.
I have three primary cards, the chase sapphire reserve, chase freedom unlimited, and amazon prime.
The sapphire reserve is 3% in points on travel/dining, and you can spend those points on travel and (during pandemic times) on dining/groceries with a 50% bonus. So it’s effectively 4.5% back. However it is only 1% on other purchases (1.5% back with the bonus).
The freedom unlimited is a whopping 5% in points on groceries and 1.5% back on all other purchases. So I use it for groceries and non-travel/dining. Then I can transfer those points to the sapphire reserve, meaning I get 2.25% back on general purchases (everything not travel, dining, or groceries) and a whopping 7.5% back on groceries!
Also the sapphire reserve points can be transferred to many frequent flier miles, which can offer reasonably a 7-8% return, once travel is a thing again.
And of course Amazon is 5% back on all amazon and whole foods purchases. You do want to spend those points as a statement credit, because you can then spend that money on amazon stuff and get 5% back on it.
I am a big fan of the double cash card.
https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-double-cash-credit-card
Earn 2% cash back on purchases; 1% when you buy plus 1% as you pay
And the Amazon card for 5% obviously. :)
That’s the easiest card, yes. Use that if you don’t want to futz around with rewards.
That said the difference between 4.5% (dining/travel) or 7.5% (groceries) and 2% is substantial.
I haven’t done the calculations but I probably earn $2000-3000 per year in cash back between my Amazon credit card and my bank’s credit card. I pay my bills with my credit card when I can, specifically for this purpose.
I use a creditcard for everything possible. I literally only use cash to pay my cleaning lady. Couldn’t convince her ICE wouldn’t track her down through Apple Cash or Zelle.
That is impressive!
I number of bills won’t accept CCs or a few will charge me more. I would auto everything on a credit card if they’d let me!
I pay my co-op maintenance through my creditcard even though they charge me a 3% fee. I get 2.25% of it back through points and 0.75% is worthwhile for the convenience.