Everything you will track down in their next month bill neatly. We loved it ! and still love it even though they offer only 3% now

Pros:
–Maximize rewards
–Keep old cards active (meaning company’s less likely to cancel the card due to inactivity)

Cons:
–Have to remember to pay more bills on time (credits not worth late payment fee)
–Have to keep track of more reward systems to make sure credits are right (some are delayed by 8 weeks!)
–May not accumulate frequently enough on each system to avoid losing points (Citi Dividend card points are like airline miles — must keep card active to avoid losing points — temptation to overspend)
–May have lots of rewards systems with insufficient points to ever qualify for the benefit (i.e. 4 cards with $15 rewards each on them, as opposed to 2 cards with $25 — higher total dollar value, but inaccessible)

Personally, my optimum is the 2% Fidelity AmEx, 1.5% Fidelity Visa for almost everything else, and occasionally 1-2 cards with these rotating categories when I spend for one big thing that puts me over the accumulation threshhold (i.e. Discover with Sears to hit a tool sale over Father’s Day weekend), or to split out spending that needs to be accounted separately (i.e. one card for work travel, so that it’s easy to hand over the whole credit card statement for reimbursement without redacting personal spending — and if the work cc # is stolen it won’t affect my other personal cards).

I am going to call and chew them out right now and I am debating whether it is worth it to use a card with a rotating bonus system if you have to call them up every month to make sure they don’t cheat you.

The thing I don’t like about the Freedom 5% rewards, is that you are not credited until 6-8 weeks after the quarter ends and you are capped at $60 in bonus points. Basically, same as Citi, $300 in rewards a year.

Why did I switch to putting them on the back? I had occasional issues where having it on the end of the card with the magnetic strip caused the label to get caught on the reader when swiping the card. Having it on the other end avoids that. As a bonus, the label is there for my wife and me, but when I lay my credit card down to pay, it is on the bottom so it remains private (and avoids my giving the same explanation repeatedly).

Wanted to share this tip.

Chip

Although I agree that significant savings can be achieved and that tracking this kind of thing is fun, I think we have to be careful of it becoming too much of a distraction. No one ever spent their way to financial well being. I know people that spend way too much time concerned about getting the best credit card when they should be thinking about with opening an IRA, savings account, etc.