A California native transplanted in southern Illinois.I'm trying to get smarter about both of these things.
Quite some time ago, I wrote about trying to pay utilities with rewards cards to earn more points. At the time, I was under the impression I couldn't pay either my local electric or water, sewer, garbage bill with a credit card without being charged a fee. Since then, I have learned the trick for both is to register as a user on their respective websites. I have registered with both now, and will be using rewards cards in the future.
Lately I have been using my Well Fargo Home Rewards Visa for things such as groceries. I use it instead of my checking account debit card, then within a day or two, log on and transfer money from checking to the Visa. This particular rewards card will only redeem in increments of $25, and I had $7 or so in rewards already, so I wanted to get to $25 and redeem. I'm still working on it, but I think when I get to $25 I will stop using it. The reward is 1% on everything, and redemption is a principal reduction on my WF mortgage. I will not close this Visa.
I have also been using my Chase Sapphire some lately, as I had $15 or so in rewards, and need to get to $20 to cash them in. Once I do, I will close this Visa. I opened it last year for the sweet 50k rewards pts bonus. However, this card has an annual fee of $95. They waived the fee the first time, but it has to be coming up and I am not interested in paying it.
My main "go to" rewards card is my Chase Freedom. I will not close this Visa either, but believe I am going to stop using it in favor of....
My American Express rewards card. I've had it for more than a year, and haven't even activated it yet. (!) The rewards are 3% on groceries, 2% on gasoline, 1% on everything else. That's a pretty good deal, so why aren't I taking advantage? Must be inertia.
I will still use Chase Freedom on occasion, such as when the 5% rotating bonus applies to gasoline, etc.
And I heard the other day that stamps are going up yet again. I don't have a whole lot of bills to pay by check, but I am about to have none. I am hanging up my checkbook. From now on, I will use bill-pay for all of my bills. I will still need to write the occasional check, but those will be few and far between. Most importantly, they will not be mailed.
Credit Card Rewards, Postage
November 19th, 2012 at 09:30 pm
November 19th, 2012 at 09:56 pm 1353362181
I noticed a *lot* of insurers and utilities starting to take credit cards in the past 12-24 months. Is likely they did not accept credit card payments, at all, last time you checked. Today I can pay everything by credit except HOA, individuals, IRS/FTB (taxes), county (taxes and utilities) and PG&E. (PGE is certainly behind the times - even my city will take utility payments by credit card). Even the DMV dropped fees for online credit card payments.
Did you see the AmEx Preferred Blue? 6% back on groceries and 3% back on gas. I *just* got this one - am loving it:
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/blue-cash-preferred-american-express-review-groceries.html
November 20th, 2012 at 12:01 am 1353369693
1. Homeowners insurance
2. Car insurance
3. Internet and phone bill
4. Heating oil
I still must pay property taxes, COBRA, water, sewer and electric by check.
November 20th, 2012 at 12:13 am 1353370392
I've chosen to pay a small fee to pay my property taxes by e-check. Just did it for the second time - LOVE that. We have so much mail fraud with our post office, so I feel much better. I will do bank debit for the IRS this year, and skip the post office.
November 20th, 2012 at 12:47 am 1353372434
November 25th, 2012 at 08:29 pm 1353875363
Also we use ebates. Combine 2-10% cash back from ebates with 1-5% cash back w/ DS. Not too shabby. For us anyway.