Missyson
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2015
Yes the Discover It card should give you 5% cash back on quarterly categories, plus 5% bonus back 1 year later (on your first year), while giving your son a small ($50?) support bonus and you a $50 SUB. If you maxed out a quarterly category by spending $1500, you would earn $75 now and $75 a year from now. Or a total max of $600 for $6k in spend over all 4 quarters. Warehouse clubs are 2nd quarter. Discover points never expire, but I think they can only be cashed out toward gift cards (which are often discounted).
For Amex, I plan to accumulate MRs then get the Charles Schwab Platinum card which (with some prep work) will cash out MRs to Schwab at 1.25x. If you try for one of the Platinums, I have some tips on DISchurners MISC thread, and have also posted them here in the past. As an example 100k MRs earned from one Platinum Card would be $1,250 toward a Schwab account.
I think a good card this year is the Amex Gold card (60k MRs for $4k spend in 3 months):
* $120 Cheesecake Factory (and a few others) credit ($10 per month). Many of us pick up $10 GCs and save up for dinner.
* $100 airline incidentals credit (benefit ends at the end of 2021)
* $120 Uber/Eats credit ($10 per month). Many order Uber Eats for pickup. Benefit begins sometime in "early" 2021
That's up to $340 credit on a $250 AF card during 2021, and only in 2021 (unless they raise the AF?), not to mention 4x on dining and grocery.
For Chase, you might like the Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited which give 3x points on Dining and Drug Stores. The CFF also has quarterly 5x categories, while the CFU has 1.5x on everything. Both earn $200 SUB.
Chase Biz cards (which you aren't excited about): The Chase Ink Preferred has a 100k SUB for $15k spend in 3 months, which is more than you want to spend. The Chase Ink Cash and Chase Ink Unlimited Biz cards have $750 SUB for $7500 spend in 3 months.
If the Amex Gold doesn't fit your needs, let's see what the Hotel experts suggest. That's out of my knowledge area.
Thank you! Lots to think about. I’m sure I will have more questions.