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Home > Luck is on my side!

Luck is on my side!

August 4th, 2011 at 08:31 pm

I really didn't expect much from Chase.

But...

This morning I had 53,000 points to redeem! Big Grin

Of course I redeemed - before they could change their mind.

Grand total of cash rewards? $1,030 (I already got $500).

$750 to mortgage
$250 donate to kids' school
$ 30 will just keep for bills

-----------------------------------------------------

Dh filled up both cars and got groceries. Between that and weekend vacation plans, I am pretty sure we will earn our Citi rewards by the end of this weekend. (In comparison, I spent $10 on food this week - so - clearly no worse for the ware now that I am no longer an authorized user on this account. That said, I need to charge a $215 professional fee that my boss will reimburse. I can do that with dh's card - factored that in my calculations for above).

As such, dh might get his new Chase card and get those rewards in first billing cycle. Only have to spend $500. 4 more weeks of gas/groceries will do the job.

I will rejoice when we pay off these cards and get them all closed (probably all said and done by mid September. I'll pay them all 9/1, but then there is the closings to deal with).

I do admit Quicken is kind of hard to manage with the endless stream of credit cards. I got to leave them all in there for history. It's fine for now - but a few more years like this? Ugh. That said, I couldn't imagine managing all this without Quicken! Quicken did greatly sinplify tracking all these cards. I have just been paying them all off the 1st of the month so I don't forget. I just paid off 4 credit cards a couple of days ago (July charges). One to go, for July. I usually pay the one or main card off second half of month. I paid all the little ones ASAP to erase the *I forgot* factor.

I told dh we had a good run for 2011 (expecting $500 cash + $500 gift cards still. Plus more deposits into my ROTH. WELL over the $2k mark). BUT, if I see *another* $500 reward, not sure I Can resist. Big Grin I suppose that is my new thresshold. A year ago, I would have thought $100 cash reward was awesome enough! Since we both already opened 2 cards this year, for one-time rewards, I think we will just hold out for $500 rewards. Not expecting any, but who knows.

I may change my mind - has been really easy money!

Dh seems skeptical that we could possibly qualify for more rewards. I assured him we were just the small guys. I have seen people who apply for the same card over and over and over, just for example - open/close/repeat - the BIG LEAGUES. I somehow doubt we are even a blip on the radar. I've never had reason to apply for more than 2 cards per year (each). But seems plenty of people do far more volume.

5 Responses to “Luck is on my side!”

  1. ceejay74 Says:
    1312495908

    What a funny coincidence! I read your post moments after I wrote my breakup email to Chase. We'll see if they make an attempt to keep me. My guess is they will try to soothe my irritation but won't actually give me the extra 50,000, which of course will have the opposite effect. Big Grin

  2. rob62521 Says:
    1312501161

    Congrats on those points! Looks like you made excellent use of them.

  3. whitestripe Says:
    1312518663

    Nice!
    I just got a letter from Amex saying if we spend over $300 between now and 30 September will earn three times as many points. (We usually spend around $2k a month on our card so it won't be hard to do at all). I still have money on my GC from last year's redemption of points, and we are looking as though it will take us half the time to earn $400 this year, might even get close to redeeming enough for $800... (oh, and for us, you get more money for redeeming GC's than cash, so we opt for GC's and buy what we would normally buy anyway.)

  4. debtfreeme Says:
    1312952384

    How are you putting money into Roth? Is it just the checks they are sending you that you are then putting into Roth or a card that is giving back to you?

  5. MonkeyMama Says:
    1313016033

    I have a Fidelity AmEx that deposits 2% of all purchases into my Fidelity account. All I have is a ROTH with them, so they literally deposit the reward directly into my ROTH ($50 at a time). This is my main credit card that I usually use.

    Win-Win. Tax Free In and Tax Free Out!

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