Now that I think back on it… when my kids were teenagers and eating as much as three people, our grocery bills were probably pretty high. As empty-nesters the bill isn’t too high any more. Our yearly gasoline expense is probably less than 1/3 of @ArdenNJ 's.
DW doesn’t like to use a CC in the grocery store for some reason. She likes to debit everything. This annoys me somewhat but it’s not worth arguing over.
One thing I do do, I have as many bills as possible auto-pay with my credit card. Cable, cell phone, ezpass, a few others. I like getting everything consolidated into one bill, and get cash back at the same time.
Our cable bill is on Citi Double Cash Card for 2% cash back
Our cell phone bill is on Amex Ble Cash prefferred for 10% Amex promotion.
Our Ezpass is tied to our Chase Sapphire Reserve that pays 3% cash back on travel as they consider Ezpass as travel.
I keep track of everything on a file that I created and track all 3 of my credit cards accordingly.
Lol. Thanks @notrichenough . For me this is a hobby. Some like to work on yards, some like drinking beer with friends and I like controlling our finances with my excel charts etc. It comes from my career background. I work to optimize costs for the supply chain network for a Fortune 100 company and have been in all sorts of planning and optimization roles for the past 17 years. This credit card optimization is a peanut for me.
Also I realized I didn’t answer your question earlier. You are right. Our monthly credit card bill ranges between $4000 and $5000 a month. We use credit card for everything. I hate to pay with a Debit card. I already pay everything in full and carry zero balance on our credit cards.
@doschicos that is interesting about Fidelity. My D is suffering from Bank of America’s monthly fees which are dwindling her little savings account. I’m going to send her to Fidelity
Definitely check it out, @coralbrook. A fringe benefit IMO is that they also see info on investing and it spurs them on to become more active savers and investors. My young adult children have traveled the world with their accounts and cards and zero hassle, zero fees. Even ATM fees abroad of as much as $7-8 per transaction were refunded to their accounts. Each kid now has a Roth IRA in addition to savings, checking, credit card and it makes it easy to have it all in one place and handle things with super simple online banking.
Fidelity is the only major broker we’ve found that allows true durable power of attorney on their forms. Both Vanguard and Schwab just have Springing power of attorney where you have to prove the principal is incapacitated before the POA is effective. We like Fidelity but I prefer Visa over AmEx because of wider general acceptance. If you qualify for USAA, their unlimited VISA @ 2.5% cash back is very nice.
Him, I thought you had to be military to have a USAA credit card. I just looked it up and that is what it
indicates. Am I missing something?
It seems Fidelity puts the cash back into a savings account? Do you then just take it out whenever you want
the money. We have used Fidelity for decades but are no longer at an age where we are saving for the future–the
future is here!
@oregon101 Yes, in the case of my kids’ accounts, it goes into the account they use as a checking account (Cash Management Account) which is the same one set up to pay their credit card bill. (Have it set up for auto pay - optional - just to insure timely payment and for good financial responsibility). https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/fidelity-cash-management-account/overview
Yes, you have to qualify for USAA credit card by being military or a child of a military or former military person. My dad served in the military decades ago, so we qualify thru him.
I’m sorry, forgot Fidelity has Visa–used to be AmEx.
I’ve been using the Citi Double Cash almost exclusively for several months now, and I like it. I plan to cash in my points in December.
I looked at other cards and combinations… including Southwest, Amazon and various Chase cards. I made up spreadsheets showing what each would give me on each category, and what the optimal combination was. l decided that the small difference in the optimal combination vs just using Citi Double Cash wasn’t worth the hassle of managing multiple cards.
Mommertons, I am thinking that way for my D also. Recommending Citi double cash for her. My S has Amazon, which works well for him. Older D is like me, uses AmEx for groceries, used to use Cap One for travel but now has Chase Sapphire Reserve.
I have too many cards right now, but plan to whittle down some. I opened 2 SW credit cards this year to qualify for the free companion pass until the end of 2018. Our grocery store sells gift cards which I get the 6% back on through my AmEx. I like my Costco Citi card as well, 3% on dining and travel, but the Chase Sapphire card has primary rental car insurance. Life is complicated!
