I've come to the realization that I may have been losing out on cash back rewards by using my MyPoints credit card. For some reason the "2 pts per dollar" translated into my head into "2%." But ... it's not. The least expensive $50 gift card is 6,250 points. So at 2 pts per dollar (assuming that you only earned points through the CC) it would take $3,125 in gas and grocery purchases. 1% of that would be $31.25. 2% would be $62.50. So for the least expensive card, it is about 1.5%. But for the card I get, which is 7,600 points it works out to this: You'd need to spend $3,800.00 on groceries and gas. 1% of that would be $38.00. 2% would be $76.00. So the 2 pts per dollar works out to be about 1.3%.
Hmm... ok. If I'm doing the math right, it isn't actually too bad. Especially since they count Super Walmart as a grocery store, and most other cards don't.
Probably the smartest thing to do is try to spend pretty low during the times that none of the credit cards have the 5% cash back on groceries, and then during the months they have it, use that time to stock up on staples. (Now if I could just get myself to spend UNDER my grocery budget until a 5% promotion period happens ...) But then you also have to figure out if the extra 3.7% cash back is more than the extra you're spending in a normal non-Walmart grocery store. Need a price book for that.
I'm wondering though if I could find a better credit card for gas purchases though? (with no annual fee - I just don't spend enough on either gas or groceries to ever make an annual fee work out to my advantage.)
Well, anyway, just thinking here.
Is My Math Right?
November 26th, 2012 at 01:27 am
November 27th, 2012 at 12:56 am 1353977766