Credit cards are something that requires a bit of self control and financial literacy and planning to utilize safely. If you know that you are the type of person who gets super lost in paying bills and maybe you have a hard time staying organized on all of it, this may not be for you. I will get into a couple techniques to mitigate some of that stress, but if you aren’t comfortable with your finances now, consider doing more research before getting into credit card rewards.
A sneak peak, after running my own numbers on what I spend on gas and groceries alone, using this strategy I will be making an extra $500+ in 2020!
First, we talking strategy
Before getting into what cards I use and why, I want to go over how I pay them off. This entire strategy doesn’t work if you carry a a balance. Your savings won’t amount to the interest accrued and you will be spending more than you earn. So to make sure we stay on track we set up auto payments. Our auto payments are set up to pay the entire account balance in full as early as the service allows. This allows us to have plenty of wiggle room in case they try to pull some “no transfers on holidays” crap. Even with auto pay, I check our credit card account through their mobile apps at least every other week. I pay them off via transfer every time I open the app so that the bill at the end of the month doesn’t sneak up on me.
Using this strategy and being very diligent in checking your balances, you should be able mitigate any negative effects of having a card. A lot of people say that getting more credit cards hurts your credit score. I’m not a credit expert but I can tell you that with 3 credit cards being opened in the past 6 months, my credit hasn’t gone down at all. Still rockin’ that 750+.
American Express Blue Cash Preferred
This card was one of my first big cash preferred cards and still one of my go-to’s. Below I’ve outlines what I use this card for and why.
- Subscriptions
- AMEX Blue Cash Preferred offers 6% back on subscriptions ranging from Netflix and Audible to NHL.TV and Spotify. The points guy covers this card in a bit more detail.
- Grocery Shopping
- As you’ll soon find out I don’t use it for ALL grocery shopping, but for most of my runs, I use this card for a whopping 6% in cashback rewards!
- Gas (Backup)
- I use this as a great backup option for getting gas. 3% in rewards at gas stations!
The Costco Anywhere Visa by Citi Bank
This card is a very specific card that often just beats the AMEX card listed above.
- Grocery Shopping
- This is when I buy my bulk purchases, I use the Costco Anywhere Visa to get 4% when I go to Costco for anything (When combined with the Executive Membership). I really only go for groceries but they do well pretty much everything.
- Gas
- This one JUST BARELY beats AMEX with 4% on eligible gas which is why I use it for most gas purchases (I drive 35 miles to work so an extra 1% could be quite a bit more money by year-end.)
- Restaurants?
- We don’t go out to eat but it does provide 3% at eligible restaurants.
- THAT’S IT
- This card only provides a measly 1% on all other purchases so I would not use this for ANYTHING else.
The Citi Double Case Card!
This bad boy is my catch all! I use this for anything that doesn’t fit into the above categories. This card offers 1% cash back for the charge and 1% for the payment. Since we always pay in full that makes out to be 2% on everything! This is great for medical bills, car repairs, or any other larger purchases that can be done on credit card.
Now that you are earning cashback, you can transfer that into either a statement credit, to simply pay off your credit card, or get yourself gift cards to stores like Amazon. I prefer the second option as it gives me a budget for what I can spend on not necessarily essential items on Amazon.
Thank you so much for reading! Please share this information with a friend to get them earning cash pronto! This way they can, you guessed it INVEST!!!
If there is anything you think I missed or a credit card that you have to shout out, please feel free to leave a link (with your referral if you have one) in the comments below. Along with a little snippet as to the benefits and how you use it!
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