My wife said during our first official financial meeting as husband and wife, ‘why do you have so many credit card, we need to close evil credit cards and use cash based system with budget’. To be fair, I actually added ‘evil’ to her sentence to reflect the vibe I was getting. But she did say the rest & meant it. Come to think of it, I think I got very similar advice from church based pre-marriage counseling group also.
We need to close evil credit cards and use cash budget!
My answer to that was simple. ‘Why would I want to give up all that Free Money?’
I’m always looking for ways to save. But I’m also lazy… so I look for something that’s easier than doing coupon hunt while it result in similar outcome. And I discovered two systems that works & I personally use to get cashback.
One of them is reward credit card, and the other is cashback system. And I’ll share it all with you today!
I carry around this card in case I forget which card I should be using for maximum cashback!
Credit Card
Having a credit card debt is a bad thing. There’s no argument there and it can be very dangerous if you don’t control your spending. But if you spend just on what you need and pay off each month, it can be a great thing!
I have a collection of 6 different credit cards and each serves a specific purpose. For example AMEX Blue card gives you 3% cashback on groceries while Bank of America Card gives you 3% cashback on gas station purchases. Btw, I only go for cashback and never for mileage or points. Because mileage and points system change all the time, often making it more unfair for you & locks you in to certain things only. Plus, if you get cashback, you get to earn cashback when you spend that cashback too! 🙂
Let say, gas and groceries for typical family can be around $700. That’s $8,400 per year. And just by using right credit card and paying off each month, you get $252 in cash back. If you ask me, $252 is a lot of money for a very simply action of ‘picking the right credit card to pay’. And remember, some cards pay up to 5% cashback!
Using this system, I can get cashback of average of $1,000 / year in credit cards alone. And this is really from everyday purchases from eating out to going to movies. So why would you sit there and let credit card company keep $1,000 of YOUR money?
While you think about that, I’m going to go decide what I’ll buy with my extra $1,000 cashback!
Cashback System
One of the site that offers cashback. We happened to be their partner. Click on banner to find out more!
I think Chase is first major institution to start this program. (I could be wrong about this) Way this works is simple.
You go to chase rewards site, then you search for site you are going to buy something, like staples.com. Then you click on the link, make purchase, and chase gives you get cashback provided by staples.com. (typically 2~3%) Easy, right?
Nowadays, you don’t even need to spend that extra 3 minutes logging into chase and clicking on the link to get cashback. You just install a simple add-on to your PC, then it racks up cashback for you automatically. Now, that’s smart shopping!
There are many different sites/services that offer this now. But here’s something for you to consider. If you sign up to get cashback through us, you’ll start earning cashback + we can small bonus which is special to Clear Charity. And we’ll put that bonus to good cause, promise!
Willing to check it out? Click here for details & get cashback!
American Express
If you have AMEX card, it doesn’t end there. They have unique program called ‘AMEX offers’. And using this is like a goldmine. Unlike other cashback system that typically gives you 5% or less, they give you a chunk of money back.
Recently, I went to PF Chang, spend $50 via AMEX card, and they give you $10 statement credit. Yup, that’s 20% discount. I once used it to buy what I needed from Home Depot. And if you spent $100, you got $20 back. This is EASY money. But you do have to look out for it and activate it before you go to store. Extra work but worth it!
There you go! Almost everyone I know personally already knows this because I talk about this all the time. I think this is so easy and everyone really should be doing this. Because this is money that’s given to you for FREE! So why not try it, right?
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!
