How did you do for 2012 Credit Card Rewards?

[understandingJH]

Last year there was a thread about this. Thought it might be fun. Here's mine:

Chase Freedom: 4.8% ($69.10)
Priceline Rewards: 2.0% ($421.54) <-- awesome I can put my rent on this and is my 'daily driver' of cards!
Amex BCE: 1.9% ($56.48 )

Total Rewards: 2.1% ($547.12)
Total Signup Bonus: $150 (Amex & Priceline)

Overall Effective Rate of Return: 2.6% ($697.12)

[prudent]

Around $700, mostly from the 6% on groceries (and giftcards sold at the grocery store) using AmEx Blue Cash Preferred. Sadly it will be capped from now on at $6000 spending per year for the 6% level.

[bigspender]

Just curious, what is the yearly fee for the amex blue cash card?

[MnD]

2 card system - 2.0% overall $1393

Cap1 Venture 2% on everything $1198
Costco Business Amex 2% average (4% gasoline, 1% Costco) $195

Sure beats what I earned in checking/savings account interest last year!

[Sam I Am]

Priceline Visa: $456.50
American Express/Costco:$197.80

$654.30 total for 2012.

2013 will be better, as I didn't get the Priceline Visa card until June. First charge was June 18. Prior to that, most of my charges were at 1% using my AE/Costco. Virtually all 2013 charges will be at 2%.

The next thing I must do is go to Costco, cash my rebate check, and get out without leaving it all there!

Sometimes easier said than done.

Sam I Am

[Radman]

I am a recent convert to bogleheading and credit card rewards so all of these are from 6/12 - 1/13 ( 7 months)

American Express Blue Cash Preferred (mostly 6% groceries and 3% on some department store purchases): 125 rewards + 150 sign up bonus - 75 fee = 200
Capital One Cash Rewards (everyday card 1.5%): 100 sign up bonus + 160.83 = 260.83
Penfed Platinum Cash Rewards (Gas card 5% cash back): 61.17

Total= 522 (although I have yet to get my additional 50% from Capital one which will hit in June) which would make it 602

I know I could be earning a bit more with maybe the Priceline card over Capital One Cash Rewards but I really enjoy the ease of redemption from Capital One. Penfed Platinum Cash Rewards is equally as awesome as it automatically credits the account 5% every month without you even having to do anything.

[interplanetjanet]

Around $700, mostly from the 6% on groceries (and giftcards sold at the grocery store) using AmEx Blue Cash Preferred. Sadly it will be capped from now on at $6000 spending per year for the 6% level.

That's one reason I got a Blue Cash Everyday in addition to my Preferred this month (the other reason was for backdating).

Hm...

Citi Premier, signup points were $400 I took as Amazon credit
Chase Sapphire Preferred, signup $550 or so (cash)
Barclays NFL, signup $400 (cash)
Amex BCP, net around $500 (cash, mostly from groceries)
sundry other cards, maybe another $200-300 in rewards total (mix of cash & travel points)

so around $2100. I'm not complaining!

[mahkceb88]

Just with the Chase Freedom card I got 2.5% ($300 on ~$12,000 spending on the card)

Love this card!

[crowd79]

Around $700, mostly from the 6% on groceries (and giftcards sold at the grocery store) using AmEx Blue Cash Preferred. Sadly it will be capped from now on at $6000 spending per year for the 6% level.

The reason for the $6000 cap? Answered by your statement. People were gaming the system and as a result those that actually spend more than $6k per on groceries such as large families get screwed.

[jeff1949]

$210 Costco AmEx
$410 Chase Freedom

$1900 est. sign-up bonuses from Sapphire (x 2), Delta AmEx (x 3), United cards

About $2500 total not including bonus for opening a bank account with Chase.

[ddunca1944]

Chase Freedom rewards: $544
Costco Amex: $85

Total: $629

[Nummerkins]

Not sure of exact amounts, but a few thousand. I had 12 months of CC spending with 5% cashback on all purchases... first was the chase AARP card and then a Citi card that did the same. I've been aggressively paying down my mortgage and used Chargesmart to pay with my CC. Now it's back to the 5% rotating categories and 2% Fidelity Amex.

[Carl53]

Chase BP - 23.25 1.02% - no longer used regularly due to program degradation
PenFed Platinum Cash Back and now Platinum Rewards Visa $519.98 including $250 signup bonuses, 2.79% mostly gas and overseas travel
American Express Blue Preferred - $675.38 net after $75 annual fee, 4.60% - unfortunately now limited to $6k groceries
Priceline Visa - $222.30, 2.59% including $50 signup bonus, great for paying insurance, property taxes
Net Fuel rebates on gift cards bought at grocery stores using AXBP - $529.20

Total Rebates for 2012 - $1970, 4.45% of CC spending

Hope to exceed $2000 in 2013 despite AXBP new limitations. Local grocery store now offering gift cards at 90% of face value. These include $100 Visa cards for $90 + 5.95 activation which when combined with rebate CCs can boost the discount to up to 10%. Great for paying bills online.

[Carl53]

Around $700, mostly from the 6% on groceries (and giftcards sold at the grocery store) using AmEx Blue Cash Preferred. Sadly it will be capped from now on at $6000 spending per year for the 6% level.

The reason for the $6000 cap? Answered by your statement. People were gaming the system and as a result those that actually spend more than $6k per on groceries such as large families get screwed.

I believe companies are always reworking offers to make them the most money. As consumers so do we. As the result of the change, I have weighed dropping the AXBP card versus its benefits and decided that I'll be about $100 per year ahead keeping it. Not worth getting it unless I already had it. If they lose enough business they will come up with an increased limit. As bogleheads we hopefully are doing better at staying the course with our investments, but if you look back over comments of posters over time, you find that we may state that we are adjusting our AA. Just another way of reacting to the marketplace.

[BigFoot48]

Bank of America Visa: $208
American Express/Costco:$103

$311 total for 2012.

[tomd37]

I have the original AMEX Blue Cash reward card (no annual fee) that once the $6500 tier is reached pays 5% at gas stations, grocery stores, and drugstores and 1% everywhere else. My annual reward has averaged $600 since starting many years ago and I am already up to $520 this year with two more months to go in the annual period. I am happy with that return and will not switch to another cash reward card, especially if I have to pay an annual fee and if they tend to change the reward percentages. I must admit the smaller percentage has dropped from 1.5% over the last couple of years or so.

[Sheepdog]

Priceline Visa 2% on everything 2012 $292.92.
HSBC MasterCard which is grandfathered with 5% rebates 2012 $500.00 (Max per year)
PenFed Visa (There was a $250 promotion last year of which I took advantage.) Use only for gasoline now. 2012 $408.59
Discover 2012 5% on select quarterly promotions $75.00
AARP Chase Visa -discontinued use 2012 $50.00.
Total credit card rebates 2012 $1326.51

[EternalOptimist]

I really like Chase Sapphire and Freedom cards for their cash rewards. No annual fee and I pay off monthly so don't worry about APR. Am dumping American Aadvantage as there is a $50 fee and no longer relevant

[mcse37]

PenFed Visa = $275.00 in gift cards in 2012.

[MilleniumBuc]

American Express Blue Preferred - $416.15 net after $75 annual fee, 2.59% - Total Spent = 16,097.32 (5486k in groceries)

Chase Freedom - $275.01, 2.75% - Total Spent = $9,992.04 (Saw on annual report that super walmarts were coded as grocery, while amex did not. Too bad they do not have groceries for 2013. Could have planned accordingly)

Discover 5% - $286.29, 3.63% - Total Spent = $7,884.16

Discover Open Road - $16.84, 2.05% - Total Spent = $820.36

Target Red Card - $202.80, 4.97% - Total Spent = $4,084.40

Total Savings for 2012 - $1197.09, 3.08% of CC spending (Total Spent = $38,878.28)

[johnkidding]

By "churning" I got about 14% return on my spending from last year.

[jimmyrules712]

Sign up bonuses:
Chase Southwest: $3,000 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 3 times each over the course of the year, each signup gave a $500 bonus)
Penfed Visa: $250
Citi ThankYou Premeir: $500
Barclays NFL: $1200 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 2 times each over the course of the year, the first signup gave a $200 bonus, second $400)
Citi Dividend: $200

Spending cashback:
Chase AARP Visa (5% cashback on all purchases for first 6 months. I used it to pay for my mortgage, income taxes, 12 months of prepaid utilities, and everything else for 6 months): $2,821
Penfed Visa (5% cashback on gas, 3% on groceries): $100
Citi Forward (5% cashback on Amazon & restaraunts): $75
Fidelity Visa (1.5% cashback on all purchases): $243

Grand total: $8,389. It was a good year...and surprisingly my credit score wasn't hurt at all from all the new accounts and of course all bills were paid off immediately so no interest was paid.

[JArthur]

Discover Open Road = $259.94

[Easy Rhino]

I had one of those "5% for the first six months" cards as well, and I used it for everything. I don't know the precise amount, but it seemed like a lot.

[crowd79]

Sign up bonuses:
Chase Southwest: $3,000 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 3 times each over the course of the year, each signup gave a $500 bonus)
Penfed Visa: $250
Citi ThankYou Premeir: $500
Barclays NFL: $1200 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 2 times each over the course of the year, the first signup gave a $200 bonus, second $400)
Citi Dividend: $200

Spending cashback:
Chase AARP Visa (5% cashback on all purchases for first 6 months. I used it to pay for my mortgage, income taxes, 12 months of prepaid utilities, and everything else for 6 months): $2,821
Penfed Visa (5% cashback on gas, 3% on groceries): $100
Citi Forward (5% cashback on Amazon & restaraunts): $75
Fidelity Visa (1.5% cashback on all purchases): $243

Grand total: $8,389. It was a good year...and surprisingly my credit score wasn't hurt at all from all the new accounts and of course all bills were paid off immediately so no interest was paid.

That's a lot of individual sign-up bonuses in one year, thus many accounts opened. Wouldn't opening so many credit card accounts within a small time frame damage your credit score? Doesn't seem worth it to me, even for all those bonuses.

[mikep]

Southwest miles visa 50,000 point bonus ($833 in southwest airfare we were planning to use anyway)
Fidelity amex $500 (2%)
Citi MC $300 (5% back mostly 1st quarter medical bills/lumping utilities)
Amazon visa $100) 3% back amazon
Target redcard $300 5%

Total ~$2000

[jeff1949]

I really like Chase Sapphire and Freedom cards for their cash rewards. No annual fee and I pay off monthly so don't worry about APR. Am dumping American Aadvantage as there is a $50 fee and no longer relevant

My Chase Sapphire card was fee free for the first year only and will have a $95 charge thereafter. There are two versions of this card however.

[Ice-9]

What luck! I was actually thinking of last year's thread too and figured it all out a few days ago.

Slightly improved this year, I think mostly because some of my non-category purchases that otherwise would have been 1% cashback were either 2% on several special days with Discover or 5% for a limited period with Bank of America Mastercard. Also, my cell phone bill earned 2% all year through a special deal from Discover.

2012 total = $945.87

AMEX Blue Cash = $129.31
Chase Ink MC = $186.58
Chase Freedom Visa = $319.82
Chase Amazon Visa = $33.16
Discover = $252
B of A MC = $25 (started using late fall)

Total CC payments in 2012: $35,897
946/35897 = 2.64% cash back throughout 2012

[Rainier]

AMEX Blue: $900 - Put central A/C system on this card
CitiCard: $100
Chase Freedom: $300 (sign up bonus)

[jimmyrules712]

Sign up bonuses:
Chase Southwest: $3,000 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 3 times each over the course of the year, each signup gave a $500 bonus)
Penfed Visa: $250
Citi ThankYou Premeir: $500
Barclays NFL: $1200 (my wife and I signed up for the same card 2 times each over the course of the year, the first signup gave a $200 bonus, second $400)
Citi Dividend: $200

Spending cashback:
Chase AARP Visa (5% cashback on all purchases for first 6 months. I used it to pay for my mortgage, income taxes, 12 months of prepaid utilities, and everything else for 6 months): $2,821
Penfed Visa (5% cashback on gas, 3% on groceries): $100
Citi Forward (5% cashback on Amazon & restaraunts): $75
Fidelity Visa (1.5% cashback on all purchases): $243

Grand total: $8,389. It was a good year...and surprisingly my credit score wasn't hurt at all from all the new accounts and of course all bills were paid off immediately so no interest was paid.

That's a lot of individual sign-up bonuses in one year, thus many accounts opened. Wouldn't opening so many credit card accounts within a small time frame damage your credit score? Doesn't seem worth it to me, even for all those bonuses.

I expected it to but it actually went slightly up (currently between 750 and 800). Go figure. My hard inquiries are at a high level though, around 10 or so.

[wingnutty]

United Explorer card: 55,000 miles x 2 (both my wife and I signed up)
Barclay's Extra Points Card: $200 signup bonus
Chase: $500 in Amazon gift certificates

Not too bad for our first year. Will likely do better next year.

[market timer]

I'm planning to apply for a mortgage, so didn't play many games in 2012.

Chase British Airways: 125K miles ($20K spending)
Chase Ultimate Rewards: 60K points ($5K spending)

Borrowed (via balance transfer) $35K at 2% interest to pay down other debt charging 6.8%.

[jbk]

AmEx Preferred: $1,115.77. Take $75 off that for the annual fee. We spend about 11k per year in grocery bills. Have to see if there's a better deal out there now that groceries are capped at 6k.

[WHL]

That's a lot of individual sign-up bonuses in one year, thus many accounts opened. Wouldn't opening so many credit card accounts within a small time frame damage your credit score? Doesn't seem worth it to me, even for all those bonuses.

Just a question for you, and possibly others: Why would it matter?

I've had friends / family ask me if opening a ton of credit cards hurts my score. I've opened 9 cards in the last six months. My score went from 798 to 784, but what does it really matter? I only use my score to open new credit cards

[WHL]

I don't churn cards for cash, only for points / miles, as I've found them to be a far superior value to cash.

My cards from 2012:

Chase Southwest Visa, 50k
Citi AA Mastercard, 50k
Barclays US Airways Mastercard, 40k
Barclays Lufthansa Mastercard, 20k
Chase United Visa, 30k
Chase Sapphire Preferred, 40k
Chase Ink Plus, 50k

I feel like I'm forgetting a few, but oh well.

My next run of cards will be in a month or two, and will focus on the Hilton hhonors cards. 5 cards will give ~280k hilton points

[vshun]

Chase Freedom card for wife - $300 signup bonus
Penfed card for both - $250 signup bonus

Got smarter second half of the year in this game:
2 NFL cards for self and wife - $400*2 signup bonus
Chase Saphire Plus card for self - 40K bonus - plan to redeem for United points at 1:2 ccp
Southwest personal and business for self - 50K bonus each. Working to spend 10K to get companion pass for 2 years then will apply for the same 2 cards for wife.
Also eyeballing United card for 50 or 55 points for later in the year to combine with Saphire points.

Got a bunch of cash for spending from Penfed or Freedon cards but these are peanuts compared to signup points.

[stoptothink]

Wow, you guys have a lot more expenses than I. American Express Blue Cash: $246.xx, which was almost exactly 1.5% of all of my expenditures (including housing) in 2012.

[555]

Nothing, just like everyone else. You pay for these kickbacks in the form of increased prices.

[kenyan]

Nothing, just like everyone else. You pay for these kickbacks in the form of increased prices.

We (as all of the consumers in the world, mostly those domiciled in the USA) do indeed pay for the kickbacks. However, I'm sure much of the cost is borne by those consumers who carry credit card balances and pay interest, so they help reduce the burden. The costs that are passed on to businesses are whatever increase in fees the rewards cards charge over other credit cards...which I'm sure are passed on to all of us one way or another. As long as you net more in rewards than the average person, though, you're doing ok.

[dickenjb]

Capital One Venture card: $2079.48
Discover 5% promotions: not sure, probably $200 or so

[crowd79]

I applied for and got approved for a Citi Preferred Card last year back in April, mainly for the "spend $2,000 in 3 months and receive 35,000 bonus Thank You points" promotion. The card also has had a 1 yr 0% APR promo on purchases which will end next month. Paid for a trip to Mexico and a large car repair on the card to meet the $2k threshold in less than a month.

Took 37,500 points and cashed out for $400 in Best Buy gift cards (which are stashed away for my next computer purchase). Also stoozed the card, which have netted me another ~$30 in interest from deferred payments to savings. So $430 total. Not too bad for a "new" card.

[Atilla]

849 bucks for 2012. More than I earned in interest from cash savings.

I know there is a cost to businesses that they must pass along. However...one of our favorite trendy Belgian beer and top shelf bar food pubs has little cards on the bar encouraging patrons to pay in cash and keep from sending money to the big banks by paying with a credit card. "Keep your money local" and all that.

However the same owner and printer of the cards does not offer a discount for cash. "Keep the money local" it appears to mean in his pocket only.

I'll fling down the plastic and take the money back from the big bank... and let the suckers who pay with cash make up the difference.

[555]

I would love to see things change where we get
"How did you do for 201X Discounts For Cash?"
threads.

[G-Force]

$500 from Amex BCP.

[jimmyrules712]

Nothing, just like everyone else. You pay for these kickbacks in the form of increased prices.

To a large degree you are right, businesses pay around 2% of all credit card purchases to the CC banks which is surely passed on to the consumer, however our current society charges all consumers for these expenses whether they use a CC or not (in most cases). If you use cash or a check the retailer pockets the 2% fee they would have paid and yet charges you the same price (most the time). You don't see a dime of the savings. So unless someone changes the rules of the game you might as well get as much money back from the banks and retailers as possible.

[Sunny Sarkar]

One card: Fidelity Amex
2% return on everything

Auto-redemption shows up like clockwork every month like this...
09/05/2012 Deposit DIRECT DEPOSIT FIA CARDSVC DCB PAYMNT $ 156.78
10/02/2012 Deposit DIRECT DEPOSIT FIA CARDSVC DCB PAYMNT $ 110.73
11/05/2012 Deposit DIRECT DEPOSIT FIA CARDSVC DCB PAYMNT $ 57.44
12/04/2012 Deposit DIRECT DEPOSIT FIA CARDSVC DCB PAYMNT $ 66.52
01/04/2013 Deposit DIRECT DEPOSIT FIA CARDSVC DCB PAYMNT $ 68.81

[tfb]

Nothing, just like everyone else. You pay for these kickbacks in the form of increased prices.

To a large degree you are right, businesses pay around 2% of all credit card purchases to the CC banks which is surely passed on to the consumer, however our current society charges all consumers for these expenses whether they use a CC or not (in most cases). If you use cash or a check the retailer pockets the 2% fee they would have paid and yet charges you the same price (most the time). You don't see a dime of the savings. So unless someone changes the rules of the game you might as well get as much money back from the banks and retailers as possible.

Here comes Target RED debit card that works like a check: 5% off on the spot; they debit your bank account the next day.

[og15F1]

We were "rewarded" with around $250 on an AMEX Blue Cash (not preferred) card

Now that I've had it for a year I'll take a closer look at the year end summary and check out the benefit of switching to preferred

[LFKB]

$4,500 this year.

Chase Sapphire Preferred: $2,260 in SW flights (it's a fixed points / $ ratio on SW). I could take $1,130 in cash back but instead I use the points on SW flights because it's a much better value. Anyone who uses The SW Visa should switch to Chase Sapphire Preferred and get 2x points on restaurants and travel, 1x points on everything else, 7% annual points dividend and 40,000 sign up points. Points transfer 1:1 to SW (or United but points aren't as valuable) or can be used for cash back or to book travel (flights and hotel) at 20% off (I.e. $100 flight is 8000 points rather than 10,000).

$2,336 on restaurants or travel = 4,672 points * 1.07 (points dividend) = 5,000 points which books a $100 SW flight. If you fly SW enough, you won't find a better ratio than $2,336 spent = $100 rewards.

I also use American Express Starwood card for everything else and earned about $2,240 In Starwood hotel stays this year.

So overall I guess $4,500 in credit card rewards this year, used for SW flights and Starwood hotels. This number is high this year because I got the sign up points for each card, otherwise it would be around $3,000. I'm glad I learned the value of credit card rewards at a young age (I'm 26). Like most others on here, I've never paid a dollar of interest.

[LFKB]

Nothing, just like everyone else. You pay for these kickbacks in the form of increased prices.

This is incorrect. Most on this board never pay CC interest and take advantage of rewards programs more efficiently than the average consumer. Of my $4,500 in CC rewards this year, I did not pay $4,500 in Increased prices.

[personal comment deleted by admin alex]