Credit Cards that pay You.

This next post might not be an investor specific post, but as my father used to tell me if you watch your pennies, your dollars will take care of themselves.

My wife tells me that I am always looking for a way to cut expenses or make money, and I expect she is correct. But one of the ways I make money is one she does not complain too much about and that is the her use of credit cards. Yes, you read that right I encourage my wife to use her credit card.

The reason is simple for everything we buy using credit cards we make a minimum of 1%. Does not sound like much but last year we got paid over $800 for using credit cards. The reason my wife likes this so much is we use any cash back from credit cards to Christmas budget. Frankly if you are not taking advantage of this deal then you missing out on a sweet deal.

We have three credit cards that pay us back.

One card pays back a minimum of 1% on every purchase with bonus points on various categories each quarter. This quarter it is 5% on healthcare spending, drug store spending, and fitness center spending. At 5% it adds up even faster and we target our purchases to take advantage of just that.

Our gas card pays you 5% on all gasoline and BP convenience store purchases. Now I rarely go inside the store, but at 5% I get paid back about 16 cents per gallon purchased at current prices. The BP card also pays back 2% on all dining and lodging purchases.

Another card pays back 3% on grocery purchases, and 2% on fast food. This quarter Chase has upped the grocery purchases to 5%.

Note that all three of these cards also offer percentages back for certain retailers, Even more for online purchases, sometimes up to 10%.

Believe me I use my cards for every purchase possible, and regular billing such as water and sewer, telephone, contributions, and last year property taxes. If I go to Bojangles for a $4 purchase I use my credit card.

Many of you use your debit card for purchases and that is ok, but using a debit card can have liability consequences debit card generally are not covered by a max liability amount if someone steals and uses your card. A credit card does have that feature. Banks love for you to use debit cards since it comes right out of your account and pays them a nice fee. That is why they have made them so easy to use. Now I know it is a lot easier to not get in trouble by overusing a debit card and have a big bill to pay. But if you can control your spending to needs and such using a cash back credit card is a real deal.

If you would like to know which specific cards I have e-mail me and I will pass them on to you.