Cash back cards that
use categories reward bonus cash back for purchases that fall into the specified categories.
Not exact matches
Therefore, while this card offers very high
rewards rates on the aforementioned
categories, it should be noted that they can only be
used towards stays at the 150 participating hotels across the nation.
You could come close to that
rewards levels with many other cards, but only if you spent on specific
categories, or by
using the
rewards at a particular chain of airlines or hotels.
Savvy
rewards card users can
use the Discover it Cashback Match card to earn cash back on rotating quarterly
categories.
Tip # 1:
Use a card that earns Chase Ultimate
Rewards points when making a purchase in one of the relevant bonus
categories.
Tip # 2:
Use the United MileagePlus ® Club Card to earn 1.5 X United miles per dollar on purchases that don't fall under a bonus
category of one of the Chase Ultimate
Rewards credit cards.
The Discover it ® for Students offers a competitive 5 % cash back on rotating
categories when you sign up (capped at $ 1,500 in spending each quarter) which, if
used even somewhat frequently, will provide fantastic
rewards to any student trying to stretch their dollar further.
To maximize earning
rewards at 5 %, you'll have to
use the card just for the bonus
categories.
The most obvious way to get more
rewards for your buck is to
use a card that offers accelerated earnings for specific
categories of purchases like groceries, gas or dining out.
The company also has an expanded list of
categories that fall under travel, making it one of the easiest
rewards programs to
use.
The one caveat is that maximizing your
rewards rate with the Chase Freedom ® requires you to stay on top of which
categories are currently eligible for the bonus and
using the card accordingly.
We broke down each consumer's spending into major
rewards categories using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And there's no reason you couldn't
use both types of cards: a flat - rate card for everyday purchases, and a card with tiered
rewards for purchases within a certain
category.
The card is most
rewarding when you
use it to make purchases in travel
categories — 3 ThankYou ® per $ 1.
This simply means that spending money on things outside of flights to get the 10,000 mile bonus may not be worth it if you have options for higher spending
categories, like
using some Ultimate
Rewards cards.
The Ink Business Preferred ℠ Credit Card and other Chase Ultimate
Rewards credit cards can be
used in combination to cover all bonus
categories.
This food tends to fall into three
categories: food brought in for classroom celebrations; the
use of food by teachers as a teaching tool or manipulative; and food handed out by teachers or principals as a
reward for good behavior or academic performance.
And while I know of no academic studies looking at the latter two
categories of classroom food, in my experience (and in the reported experience of my readers), food
used as a teaching tool and as a
reward also almost always falls into the «junk food»
category.
Each
category is
used to promote and
reward a certain type of positive learner behaviour:
The
reward is nice but what's also beneficial is
using the prompt or
category as a challenge to write something new.
Use the card exclusively in the 3 % and 2 % back
categories, and your
rewards portfolio can add up nicely and quickly.
We broke down each consumer's spending into major
rewards categories using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If the retailer is under one of the higher earnings
categories, be sure to
use whichever Chase Ultimate
Rewards card has the highest earning potential!
In other words, if you don't travel or
use any of those
categories in the parenthesis, then the Capital One ® Quicksilver ® Cash
Rewards Credit Card is the better card for you.
If the points are
used for travel redemptions, shopping in one of the above
categories will yield a
rewards rate of 3 % - significantly higher than average.
The card is most
rewarding when you
use it to make purchases in travel
categories — 3 ThankYou ® per $ 1.
Still, you're not limited to carrying just one card, so perhaps during the rotating
categories period you can take advantage of the higher cash back
rewards of the Chase Freedom card, and you can use your Fidelity Rewards Visa for everythin
rewards of the Chase Freedom card, and you can
use your Fidelity
Rewards Visa for everythin
Rewards Visa for everything else.
Since the Discover it ® Miles effectively gives cardholders a 1.5 %
rewards rate (1.5 x $ 0.01), it's best
used by anyone for whom most spending falls outside of the 5 %
categories of other Discover cards.
This is by far one of the easiest
rewards credit cards to
use — there are no bonus
categories to keep track of and no complicated redemptions or cash - back limits.
While the highest
rewards category has a 3 %
rewards rate, cardholders receive a 25 % bonus on their points when the points are
used to book travel through the ThankYou Travel Center — boosting the value to 3.75 %.
If having more than one of the credit cards in our database and
using each card for its more -
rewarding categories will earn you a greater annual
reward, then those best combinations are shown in the columns labeled «Best N - Card Combo» — up to as many as «Best 3 - Card Combo».
I give this criteria to the Discover it ® for Students card because you'll most likely earn much more throughout the year by
using the card on one (or several) of that 5 % cash back
categories, as opposed to the 1.25 % effective cash back that you'd receive from the Journey ℠ Student
Rewards from Capital One ®.
Use the Chase Freedom ® Credit Card on all purchases which fall into the bonus
categories, and the Farmers ®
Rewards Visa ® elsewhere.
This quarter those
categories include wholesale clubs, so you could earn decent
rewards at Costco
using it.
For travelers, it sometimes is handy to have a separate card that's only
used for travel - related items and which offers great
rewards in the
categories of plane tickets and restaurants.
Using this card you get generous cash back
rewards on purchases in certain
categories.
To
use an extreme example, on average, the only way you can match the the Citi ® Double Cash Credit Card on
rewards earned on credit card spending is by spending $ 100,000 per month on Korean Air tickets — we think it's safe to say very few people fall in that
category.
Tip # 2:
Use the United MileagePlus ® Club Card to earn 1.5 X United miles per dollar on purchases that don't fall under a bonus
category of one of the Chase Ultimate
Rewards credit cards.
Consumers earn 1 % back with the Korean Air Visa Signature card when spending in other
categories, so someone who
uses the credit card to charge both Korean Air tickets and general household expenditures will get a weighted average of the two
rewards rate.
Using my Chase Cash
Rewards for g / g / d (grandfathered at 5 % for the time being), Costco Amex (3 % restaurants, 2 % travel), Chase Professional MC (3 % restaurants, office supply, home improvement / hardware), and Discover (5 % for whatever bonus
categories happen to be in effect), purchases on which I get back only 1 % are now the exception.
all except the gas
category started getting reductions in
rewards (I did catch that notice years ago), however I was very surprised to find out my card no ONLY has the 5 % cash back on gas - the other
categories all went POOF (did not see a notice on that...) I generally only
use it for gas anyway so it wasn't something I caught until recently it's probably been like this for a while now.
The one caveat is that maximizing your
rewards rate with the Chase Freedom ® requires you to stay on top of which
categories are currently eligible for the bonus and
using the card accordingly.
Taking advantage of the «Dynamic Cash
Rewards» option of the Chase Freedom VISA, you could select any three of the other twelve «essential»
categories (other than grocery, gas, and drug), and
use the Chase VISA for only those charges.
Criteria
used: Credit needed, tools to track credit score, ability to improve credit line,
rewards rate,
rewards categories, sign - up bonuses, redemption options, promotional 0 % APR periods, annual fee, other rates and fees, extra features and benefits, customer service, ease of application
Criteria
used: Credit needed,
rewards rates,
rewards categories, sign - up bonuses, redemptions, customer service, ability to move credit line, credit score tracking, annual fee, other rates and fees, application process, other benefits and features
The Discover it ® for Students offers a competitive 5 % cash back on rotating
categories when you sign up (capped at $ 1,500 in spending each quarter) which, if
used even somewhat frequently, will provide fantastic
rewards to any student trying to stretch their dollar further.
To maximize earning
rewards at 5 %, you'll have to
use the card just for the bonus
categories.
Criteria
used:
Rewards rate, supplemental rewards categories, integration with loyalty programs, redemption options, redemption flexibility, sign - up bonus, other benefits, customer service, credit needed, rates and fees, ease of appl
Rewards rate, supplemental
rewards categories, integration with loyalty programs, redemption options, redemption flexibility, sign - up bonus, other benefits, customer service, credit needed, rates and fees, ease of appl
rewards categories, integration with loyalty programs, redemption options, redemption flexibility, sign - up bonus, other benefits, customer service, credit needed, rates and fees, ease of application
If you hit the spending limits
using the 5 % and 2 %
categories the program would yield $ 3,500 in
rewards each year.
Criteria
used: Credit needed,
rewards rates,
rewards categories, sign - up bonus, point values (if any), redemption options and flexibility, annual fee, other rates and fees, customer service, application process, miscellaneous benefits