Saturday, December 29, 2007

I don't know!


I have no idea what rewards I've got. it takes me too much time and for what a toaster? Seriously, I don't think they really care if we use them or not, just a way to get you to choose their Credit Card.

2 comments:

Hugh G. Fallis said...

Rico my man,

It comes down to this - you've got to do the math because, I assure you, the banks are doing THEIR math.

Ask yourself what's most important - toasters? Hotel rooms? Airline tickets? Cash Back? There are cards out there that cater to each of these. Although most "rewards" cards will claim to offer a little bit of each, you need the card that specializes in what you ultimately want to redeem for - that's my secret. I focus on one type of reward only (hotel stays) and I use only one of the specialty cards (Marriott). Then, I find the 'deals' out there that my card has made with big vendors that earns me extra points - in my case, marriottrewardsmall.com. I get 2-8 extra points per dollar spent. As a result of the way I use my card and redeem my points, I effectively get a 5-10% discount on all my purchases by converting the point value into hotel vacations (compare that to an average of 0.7-1.0% for other rewards cards!!!). So, for me, I am doing up to a 1000% better than the average guy.

Again, just do your math.

Sincerely,

Hugh G. Fallis, credit card expert and world traveller extraordinaire.

Anonymous said...

Spending between 2-300 a run to Costco, the math says that my Executive Membership Amex card was worth the fee. It costs $100, at 2% back you need to spend $2500 a year to break even. We surpass that with 6 people and 5 pets in our home. The rewards check comes in. Simple. I have a Wachovia Visa that had earned thousands of points. It was obvious that they made it excruciating to find out how to redeem those points on their site. Finally, I got a human rep. on the phone and found out I could have a check sent instead of choosing something I didn't need. (My remaining points got me a solar calculator. Whoopee.) I keep the Visa anyway, but I'll keep a closer eye on my "rewards" from now on.

.Mac (Apple Computer, Inc.)