Before you laugh, just know that I pull in $600+ in cash back rewards every year! 🤓 My friends and family know, I’m not a big shopper. So most of this is from purchases I normally make.
A good friend of mine taught me this trick. It can get so confusing to know which card to use. This friend would keep a small piece of paper the size of a credit card in her wallet, with the categories and which credit card to use. Before she would checkout, she just has to scan the paper and pull out the proper credit card.
If you have a spouse with little patience, this didn’t work. Instead, I label our cards with the categories of this quarter. Now, everyone in my household happily participates AND I rack up more rewards.
PRO TIP: I wait until November/December to redeem the rewards. It helps offset the cost of Christmas presents or teacher gifts. Some credit cards have extra deals if redeem your points for gift cards (i.e. get a $50 gift card for just $40 of points)!
1) Write the categories on the sticky side only of post-it notes. Might I suggest the full stick post-it notes. It has a larger sticky part, but it can still be done with regular ones.
2) Cut the label out and stick them on the appropriate card. I have tried using a label maker but I don’t like the sticky residue that stays on the card after I peel the label off.
3) Only write the categories that I care about. For example, since if a store card already gives you 5% back (i.e. target or Amazon), don’t bother listing that when it shows up as a quarter category. Why interrupt the process?
4) Designate a primary card that gives you over 1+% cash back for your every day purchases with no restrictions (no caps, no expiration dates, etc). For me, it’s the Citibank Double Cash Card (2% back)***. If I forget to use the right card for one purchase, I don’t feel so bad because at least I’m getting 2% back.
5) I must stress: DO NOT OVER SHOP! Buy what you normally would but choose the right card to give you the most back. That’s all.
This might feel like a lot of work but it’s not, compared to the potentially large gains.
- I only have three cards that to participate in these quarterly bonus points: Chase, Discover, and Citibank.***
- I activate all the credit cards about the same time and write down their categories in a note taking app like Evernote. The credit card companies make it really easy to activate too. It’s usually just one click; no login required.
- This only happens 4x per year. At the beginning of every January, April, July, and October, I label all my cards at the same time. Some quarters, there are no good categories so there’s nothing to do but peel off the old label.
I only actively track the reward if the redemption period is over a month. I have one or two cards that would have larger cash back for shopping at specific stores (i.e. 10% at Starbucks), but it would expire at different times (i.e. 10 days after activation). It’s hard to follow these types and ultimately not worth the trouble. Most of these deals have a cap on the rewards too. So if you do the reverse math, it equates to about one visit to the store. So it’s worth it for the store, but not for this Tiger Mom.
Unfortunately, there is no hack for mobile pay apps (i.e. ApplePay and AndroidPay). You just have to train yourself (and your shared account holders) to check your notes. I only really use mobile pay apps when I forget my credit card, so mainly restaurants and groceries. For the rest (pharmacy, gas, etc), I use the old fashioned plastic. And if the convenience of using mobile pay is far more than getting $200+ cash back at the end of the year, then you probably would have stopped reading this post by now. 😬
Anyway, I hope you find this useful! Have a tip I didn’t think of? Let me know in a comment below! I’d love to know any credit card hacks here!
Happy savings!!
*** DISCLAIMER: This post is not sponsored by Citibank or any of the companies mentioned above. I am not affiliated with them. This is my honest review. I get no kickbacks or payment for talking about this card.