I absolutely hate winter. I know I was destined to live somewhere South because I really do detest the winter months in Washington. It’s dreary, cold, gray and I only feel good when I happen to see how much more daylight we get than my friends in Alaska. All that being said, there is one month during the winter that I enjoy from a financial aspect. February is definitely my favorite month of the year, financially speaking. A lot of things happen in February. I get an annual bonus, we get our tax return (normally), I find out about my annual raise near the end of February and American Express mails me my annual cash rebate for using their Costco American Express True Earnings card. All in all it works out to be a very POSITIVE cash flow month for us.
Today I received my rebate check from American Express. The check was for $335 so it’s not a huge amount of money, but it is a great way to get some extra cash in our pocket for the things we buy every day. I especially like the 4% cash back I receive for buying gas. With the price of gas going up every day, I’ll take all the help I can get to minimize the cost. The normal consumer card gives you 3% cash back for gas, but I signed up for the business card (I mean, heck, I do have a blog), which pays higher rates for gas. I also receive 2% for any travel related purchases, 2% for any purchases in restaurants and 1% everywhere else. Not bad for a card with no annual fee!
Are you using a rewards card?
Gotta love February for the Costco Amex rebate check. I just got mine a few days ago – $850.44. Woot! I am on a mission to kill my mortgage so I send every extra bit of income (like this) directly off to my mortgage.
To answer your question – I make heavy use of rewards cards. In fact, I charge everything I can.
We’re using Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card (currently it’s a Chase card, used to be BankOne (before Chase acquired them), and then something else before that). It gives you 3 points per dollar spent on Amazon.com, 2 points per dollar spent on gas, restaurants, and drugstores, and one point for each dollar spent everywhere else. The best deal one can get by collecting at least 15,000 points, and then buying airline ticket(s). We usually go for a $50 statement credit after collecting 5,000 points. Last year we charged slightly over $23K on this card, and got $400 in statement credits, which translates into a 1.7% cash back rate. Not much, of course, but it is a free money. On Amazon web site, during check-out, they tempt you to “pay with points”, but that would be the dumbest way to spend ‘em!