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Credit Card Rewards - What to Charge

November 2nd, 2011 at 07:57 pm

I personally haven't done anything special with credit card rewards this year. I just followed my usual rules of "charge anything and everything" in hopes of rewards, and jump on deals that pay off nicely for doing so. This year is unique in that there are just TONS of easy deals out there. We have never opened near this many credit cards for rewards. Maybe 7-8 in the last year. Our prior record was 3 or 4 in one year.

Anyway, there are numerous reasons I prefer to deal in credit versus cash. For reference, I have paid off the balance every month since aged 16, so I don't find anything scary about the process of utilizing a credit card. I have always managed my finances electronically, and am well aware how to avoid fees (pay off balance every month, well withing grace period). IT's from this electronic mindset that I look at cash with caution. Cash is very easily lost or stolen (& when it's gone, it is gone!). & having to track cash expenditures involves a lot of writing down. I don't have to bother with all that writing down. I can just look on the computer, download to Quicken, etc. Just to share that I have spent almost 20 years paying many bills with credit cards.

I suppose there is one other unique thing about the credit card reward bounty this year. I was able to charge an extra $11,000 or so that I usually don't. Basically, all of our insurance companies suddenly allowed us to charge everything with no fees to do so. That's like a quarter of our annual spending. So, I admit this made it MUCH easier to rack up rewards this year!

I've seen a lot of comments of surprise about the kinds of things we charge, so I wanted to mention things you can probably charge on credit, in the vein of earning rewards. (& as always, I only recommend if you are disciplined to pay off!!!). We generally earn our rewards with regular bills like insurance, gas, groceries, utilities. That is the bulk of it. There is not a lot of discretionary spending beyond that being racked up just to earn credit card rewards. THAT would defeat the purpose!

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As of today, we are able to charge the following:

*Medical insurance and all medical/dental bills
*DMV Fees (California)
*Any city utilities (water, electric - Sacramento)
*cell phone bill
*internet/landline/cable provider
*home/auto insurance
*gym membership
*charity (generally through paypal)
*groceries
*auto fuel
*retail
*restaurants - these days even most fast food
*most services (auto mechanic, etc.)
*netflix, hulu, blockbuster, etc.

Expenses I can not charge:

*Mortgage
*Most individuals (gardener, piano teacher)
*HOA Dues
*county utilities (sewer - our particular county)
*PG&E (gas bill)
*credit card payments (other debt payments)
*payments to public school (requests for money, etc.)

These are the very few items that I write checks for (or pay online, for the most part - online bill pay).

**It is possible that PG&E takes automatic payments by credit card. I personally avoid automatic payments - I like to authorize every charge before it is made - just a personal preference. So is one reason I know I have ruled out not paying by credit in the past.**

Expenses I choose not to charge, because fees are involved:

*Property Taxes (maybe just my county)
*Income Taxes (Fed/state)
*payments to charity, when I want to skip paypal fee (the paypal fee will generally ding the charity - I usually skip charging charitable donations, on principle)

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Of course, in addition to all this, I have ample savings so I can prepay items to build up credit card rewards. This month I prepaid health insurance to reach goal faster. One could buy gift certificates for groceries, etc., to try to advance purchases. Pre-pay utilities? I think that is an idea I have seen mentioned.

Beyond these ideas, check back often. For many years the DMV charged a fee for the privelege to pay by credit, but I just check every year and one year the fee was gone. All of our insurers really made the shift to accepting credit cards this year. I still have to check with our life insurer in the spring (we pay annually on that).

In the last year or two I have been able to stop using cash entirely. Most small places that did not accept credit cards before, will now accept cash. I carry a small amount of cash for "emergency" but besides the ocassional bridge toll, I don't seem to ever need it. Heck, when we were in L.A., the parking meters took credit cards. I thought that was genius! How many times have I been stuck digging around for change for a meter? Change I never have, since I never spend cash.

Is there anything else that you can charge? That you don't see mentioned?

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