Just wanted to share with you all that I recently received the annual reward from my Blue Cash® from American Express card. Here is how the numbers work out:
- Gas, Grocery, & Drugstore charges -- $5,530.99
- Everywhere else charges -- $15,288.88
- Total charges -- $20,819.87
- Gas, Grocery, & Drugstore cash rebate -- $237.66
- Everywhere else cash rebate -- $174.06
- Total cash rebate -- $411.72
- Gas, Grocery, & Drugstore rebate percentage -- 4.30%
- Everywhere else rebate percentage -- 1.14%
- Total cash rebate percentage -- 1.98%
A few comments on this from me:
1. The total amount is not as high as it has been in past years because I've also been using a Chase Freedom card in a hybrid strategy that returned me a few hundred dollars itself.
2. My percentage rebate could have been maximized (and been over 2%) if I hadn't split charges between the two cards.
3. I am still working in my comparison between the three cash back cards I think are best: Blue Cash® from American Express, Chase Freedom, and Schwab 2% Visa. I hope to get to this soon.
4. Hey, $412 for not doing anything different than I normally do. I'll take it!
I personally love the Schwab 2% Visa. I don't have to worry about what category a purchase might fall in or which card to use for a certain purchase. Also as you can see your largest category is "Everywhere else charges" and getting 2% on that is nice!
Also getting the cash back every month instead of once a year is even better!
Posted by: Money Progress | March 12, 2009 at 10:44 AM
I use Schwab 2% card for most things and PenFed Visa for Gas.
Looks like your making out good with the AMEX card.
Posted by: t | March 12, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Is there an annual fee?
Posted by: Matt | March 12, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Matt --
Nope.
Posted by: FMF | March 12, 2009 at 01:05 PM
Schwab would have awarded you about $5 more and you wouldn't have to keep track of separate categories. And you get the rewards each month, so you could move the money into an interest bearing account right away.
Of course, the Schwab card wasn't available until recently. And of course.....I heard about the Schwab card from this site!
Posted by: rwh | March 12, 2009 at 01:07 PM
We got $295 for our AMEX cash back.
Posted by: rdub98 | March 12, 2009 at 01:08 PM
My YTD spend on my AmEx Blue is $22,960 for a current cashback of $351.40... approx 1.53% thus far. Anniversary date is actually July 2009, so still have a bit more to go.
Was wondering what your total cashback rate is, when you include the hybrid strategy (I guess due to timing cycles, perhaps it's not sync'ed completely) but just want to see how much better you are doing by having 2 cards.
Posted by: Ray | March 12, 2009 at 02:13 PM
Ray --
Combined rate is in the 2.2% range, though it's hard to compare since time frames are out of whack between the two cards.
Posted by: FMF | March 12, 2009 at 02:27 PM
That's a lot of chargers... What is that all spent on? Like not just food/gas/essentials I would imagine?
Posted by: SJ@6bubbles | March 12, 2009 at 02:39 PM
Is there any reason why people choose the amex gold over the blue cash? Is it simply the prestige?
Posted by: MB | March 12, 2009 at 04:00 PM
SJ@6bubbles:
I'll easily charge over 20k this year. And I'm comfortable stating every penny would have been spent anyway, so I may as well put it on the rewards card.
Posted by: rwh | March 12, 2009 at 04:55 PM
I signed up for a Schwab 2% Visa with a Schwab One Account after reading about it here at FMF, thank you very much. Even better than you mentioned in your post about the Schwab 2% Visa, Schwab apparently no longer requires the $1,000 minimum for the the Schwab One Account, which I never did fund. My first Visa rebate just posted to my Schwab One Account, so its balance is no longer zero. I also have a Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa, similar to Chase Freedom, which pays me a 3% rebate on gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores. It used to be 5%, but they cut it back to 3% a few months back, boo hoo.
Posted by: Harvey | March 12, 2009 at 05:14 PM
It looks like Wells Fargo Cash Back Visa just dropped its tiered rate. I've had this card for over 7 years. Now they offer a full 1% for every dollar from the beginning of each statement period, rather than the old method of paying .25%, .50%, etc., until you reach $450 in purchases.
Yeah, I know it's nothing like Blue or Schwab, but at least it's a trend in the right direction.
Posted by: Todd | March 12, 2009 at 07:44 PM
Also, my mom's Suntrust Visa Rewards is now giving up to 1% cash back for every dollar spent, but you have to wait until you reach $5000 before you get a $50 statement credit. There are some really good deals for merchandise, travel, etc., that work out to values greater than 1 point per dollar spent.
Posted by: Todd | March 12, 2009 at 07:50 PM
I use the Citibank cashback card and I got $250 back last year.
Much better than airmiles!
Posted by: TStrump | March 12, 2009 at 10:24 PM
That's a good $400 dollars. Not bad at all.
Posted by: Paul Morales | March 13, 2009 at 01:11 PM
What was your percentage of regular spending vs. bonus spending on the card? Right now I'm pacing 22% on the bonus spending which is nice.
Posted by: thomas | March 14, 2009 at 02:30 AM
You did well on your cash back and I look forward to reading your comparisons when you get around to it.
We just got our Amex in Nov and our rebate in Feb was $194.59 or 1.53%. Can't wait till next year because I'm expecting a $750+ rebate. Nice!
Posted by: Mia | March 15, 2009 at 06:50 PM