This is an update on my Ally Cashback card. I recently added this credit card to my collection so I could get the bonus.
(If you are not reading this post at www.howisavemoney.net or in your feed reader, it may have been stolen from my site.)
When you redeem the cash back to a savings account you get a 10% bonus. I will let my cash back total grow to at least $10 before cashing out so I can get the full effect of the bonus without missing any rounding.
img from ally.com
What did I buy?
I used the card for almost the entire month so I could get to the required spending limit. I put the following items on the card:
-rent
-gas
-electric bill
-cell phone bill
-food
By simply purchasing the things I would ordinarily buy I was able to hit the spending limit. Using this card fit well into my method of using a different credit card every month. I do this to keep track of my spending and refunds, as well as to take advantage of the rotating spending categories.
I was able to cash out $100 and get a $10 bonus by redeeming my points to my Ally savings account. This means I ‘made’ $110 extra this month just for purchasing the things I normally would buy.
Cons
The only thing I do not like about this card is the integration with Mint. This card is NOT supported by Mint.com, which means you cannot import your transactions. The downside of this is I have to split the payments into various categories so that my monthly budget in Mint makes sense.
Verdict
I do recommend getting this card. It is easy to use and the 10% bonus cash back feature is great.
My main card is tough to beat. It’s a Fidelity affinity card, now managed by Elan bank. It lets you choose where to funnel your 2% cash back rewards, and nearly 20 years ago, (!) we chose the 529 account. The punchline is that the kid is now a college freshman, the account balance $38,200, and on track to pay her senior year in full.
I don’t chase the new card deal as much as I might. The last major deal was a card that offered 10% back at grocery and drug stores for the first 90 days. Over that time, I bought $50,000 worth of visa cash cards at CVS. $5000 profit, less the $500 card fees at $5each. Tough to beat that deal. As we got hooked on Amazon Prime, for both their video offering and free shipping, i added the 5% reward card. That nearly pays for the annual fee.
Wow, $50k in visa cards!!! Can you use the visa cards to pay the credit card off? How does that all work?