Checking the Score on my 2% Cashback Card
Whenever I count the score on how much I've earned from a credit card's fringe benefits (see my What's in your wallet? on Dreamwidth and with longer history on LiveJournal) I compare the total earned from the card to the opportunity cost of using that card instead of a basic, 2% cashback card with no annual fee. That opportunity cost, like the basic card, is not merely hypothetical. In fact I have two such cards. And one of them just reached its first anniversary, so let's check the score there.
Fidelity Rewards Visa
I signed up for the Fidelity Rewards Visa card a year ago. It pays 2% cash back on purchases and charges no annual fee. Why open a 2% cashback account when I already have one? you might ask. There were several reasons:
1) It's a Visa, so I can use it at Costco.
Seriously. It may sound funny to pick a card based on being able to use it at one store chain, but especially since the pandemic drove us to cook at home regularly instead of eating at restaurants most of the time we are spending a lot at Costco, a few hundred dollars a month on average. And Costco only accepts Visa cards.
2) Cash back is available starting at $25, and is direct-deposited.
This minimum for taking the cashback is half the $50 minimum on my other card. That's important for reducing the risk of leaving money stranded. Plus, this card automatically deposits to one of my Fidelity accounts every time the cashback balance reaches $25 or more, so there's less effort required on my part to keep the money flowing.
3) $150 sign-up bonus.
The card paid a bonus of $150 cash back after $1,500 of purchases. I hit that target in the first billing cycle. A $150 bonus alone isn't enough to interest me in opening a new card- from my other posts on this tag you'll see that I routinely net $600, $800, or more in the first year of a new card- but when combined with the other benefits it was enough to make it worth opening.
4) Another bank.
This may sound like a weird reason, but it's from another bank. All my other cards are with the big credit-card issuing banks: Chase, American Express, and Citibank. Having cards from multiple issuers is important when one travels a lot because if a bank thinks fraud is occurring on one it may freeze all accounts it issues. Having cards from multiple banks gives me more alternatives while I'm trying to unstick the situation should such a thing happen.
Okay, So What's the Score?
That's a simple question. This card's 2% cashback is the baseline I compare all other cards against. The net win is that $150 signup bonus.
I charged over $16,000 on this card in the past 12 months. For a card that's supposed to be my baseline comparison, the card I use if I literally don't have anything better, that's a lot. The reason it's a lot is a one-two punch of factors. One, the credit card game has been slowing down, as I've written several times. I've only opened one other card in the 12 months since opening this card. Two, because the still-ongoing pandemic has curtailed much of my travel I'm not spending much in the airline and hotel categories- the categories those affinity cards pay multiple points per dollar on. With my one other new card this past year I charged enough to meet its $4,000 signup bonus target and went back to putting most of my charges on this 2% cashback card.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/100379.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Fidelity Rewards Visa
I signed up for the Fidelity Rewards Visa card a year ago. It pays 2% cash back on purchases and charges no annual fee. Why open a 2% cashback account when I already have one? you might ask. There were several reasons:
1) It's a Visa, so I can use it at Costco.
Seriously. It may sound funny to pick a card based on being able to use it at one store chain, but especially since the pandemic drove us to cook at home regularly instead of eating at restaurants most of the time we are spending a lot at Costco, a few hundred dollars a month on average. And Costco only accepts Visa cards.
2) Cash back is available starting at $25, and is direct-deposited.
This minimum for taking the cashback is half the $50 minimum on my other card. That's important for reducing the risk of leaving money stranded. Plus, this card automatically deposits to one of my Fidelity accounts every time the cashback balance reaches $25 or more, so there's less effort required on my part to keep the money flowing.
3) $150 sign-up bonus.
The card paid a bonus of $150 cash back after $1,500 of purchases. I hit that target in the first billing cycle. A $150 bonus alone isn't enough to interest me in opening a new card- from my other posts on this tag you'll see that I routinely net $600, $800, or more in the first year of a new card- but when combined with the other benefits it was enough to make it worth opening.
4) Another bank.
This may sound like a weird reason, but it's from another bank. All my other cards are with the big credit-card issuing banks: Chase, American Express, and Citibank. Having cards from multiple issuers is important when one travels a lot because if a bank thinks fraud is occurring on one it may freeze all accounts it issues. Having cards from multiple banks gives me more alternatives while I'm trying to unstick the situation should such a thing happen.
Okay, So What's the Score?
That's a simple question. This card's 2% cashback is the baseline I compare all other cards against. The net win is that $150 signup bonus.
I charged over $16,000 on this card in the past 12 months. For a card that's supposed to be my baseline comparison, the card I use if I literally don't have anything better, that's a lot. The reason it's a lot is a one-two punch of factors. One, the credit card game has been slowing down, as I've written several times. I've only opened one other card in the 12 months since opening this card. Two, because the still-ongoing pandemic has curtailed much of my travel I'm not spending much in the airline and hotel categories- the categories those affinity cards pay multiple points per dollar on. With my one other new card this past year I charged enough to meet its $4,000 signup bonus target and went back to putting most of my charges on this 2% cashback card.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/100379.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]