Poll of the Day > I successfully stole $205 from american express. mission accomplished.

(+) Yeah! (+)

intro offer: spend 1,000 in the first 3 months and get a credit of $300. The card has a yearly fee of $95(which is not avoidable), so hey still $205 in my pocket.

So...at first I was shocked you didn't need to pay it off to get the bonus, which seemed odd. But then I remembered, a LOT of people will look to spend $1,000 to save $300 without the ability to actually pay off even $700 and not accrue interest. These schemes make money of course. I have paid this off. I am going to close the account before I accrue a second yearly fee, but I am keeping it for 6% cash back at grocery stores and using my other card for everything else until then.

So, I was going to buy something for myself, but I did spend a little more than usual on other things for other people so that evens it out and I don't think I will plurge on myself.

I feel like I want to do more of these, especially since living at home with my mom means the credit dip I'd get from opening and closing accounts wouldn't matter. It's also high anyways. Hmmm....

argonautweakend posted...

but I am keeping it for 6% cash back at grocery stores

Dang! I wish I had discounts that good!

I get 1% cash back on pretty much everything, but just 1%

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This card carries a $95 a year fee. You'd need to buy a lot of groceries for that alone to eclipse the fee and make you more money than a no fee card with maybe 1-3%. It is also capped at 8,000 dollars a year in spending. At select grocery stores(dedicated ones, wal-mart and target do not count).

So I am getting rid of it before i get that fee again, but yeah this is a nice benefit if you can do it efficiently.

The best cards to get that are free are ones like my bank offers.

4/3/2/1

4% on gas, 3% at restaurants, 2% at grocery stores and 1% everywhere.

That should come back to more than 2% on average. Other options I think are good are the citi double cash back whatever where you get 1% at purchase and 1% when you pay, if you can do it that is 2% every day all day. Or just a straight 1.5% cash back card. usually not hard to get i dont think and 1.5% > 1%

not that I know a lot, so I could be mistaken here.