This year credit card companies PAID ME $1,000+ to simply spend money that I was going to already spend. How is that possible you ask? I answer you with the phrase, “Cashback rewards, and sign up bonuses“. Before you read any further, it is important that you know how to manage credit card debt in a responsible manner, and I will now again repeat for those in the back that did not hear.
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MANAGE CREDIT CARD DEBT IN A RESPONSIBLE MANNER PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RECREATE THIS STRATEGY. FIRST MASTER THAT AND THEN YOU CAN COME BACK TO THIS ARTICLE
Get That Credit Score Up!
The very first thing that you need to do to start getting credit card companies to pay you to spend money is to first get your credit score in the 700s. Doing this will ensure that you can get the cards with the higher and better benefits and rewards. Credit card companies are no fools, and will offer their best rewards to their best customers/ clients that they know have a pristine track record of making payments on time and regularly.
Do your Research…
The next step in the process is going out and actually researching and finding cards with the best rewards out currently. The three cards I was able to take advantage of this past year were the Discover Student Card, The Chase Freedom Unlimited Card, and The Chase Freedom Flex Card. All three of these cards offered great sign up bonuses that I was able to utilize effectively to get free money for spending that I would’ve done with or without the credit. The Discover Student Card offered to match the entire first year of cash back rewards. The Chase Freedom Unlimited Card offered $300 dollars back on the first $500 dollars spent within the first two months and the Chase Freedom Flex Card also offered $300 dollars back on the first $500 spent within the first two months amongst other rewards and cashback benefits like 2% back for dining and gas. At the time of reading this article there may be different sign up offerings available for the different cards and that’s fine, below you can find a list of credit card companies that regularly offer these kinds of benefits. Also, a simple google search of “Best Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses” can be very useful to find similar deals.
The People you’re Getting to Pay You
- Chase
- Apple
- Discover
- American Express
- Bank of America
- Barclays
- Capital One
- PNC Bank
- Wells Fargo
- Citi Bank
- US Bank
- TD Bank
It’s All about the Timing
Now that you have the cards you want to open for the upcoming year, the next important thing is the timing of the acquisition of these cards. If you were to just go out today and acquire all three cards, one, that would quite heavily tank you credit score, but that would also make it difficult to meet the criteria set to actually redeem the rewards. So the next important step is to create a timeline for how you wish to get this cash back. For me it was quite simple, and it is a strategy I would implore you to emulate.
3 Tips for Success
Number one
I would advise for you to only open a new card 3 months or so after any hard inquiry on your credit report. It is not good to get many inquiries on your card in a short period of time, as that makes it look to creditors that you are scrambling to get funds.
Number two
Open up a new card in the anticipation of a new large purchase that will heavily aid in reaching the sign up bonus criterium. For example, I knew I was in the market to purchase a new television, so prior to the purchase, I opened the Chase Freedom Flex Card, with the explicit intent to use that card for the television purchase so I could meet the criteria for the rewards. If you’re not in the market for a television perhaps you are about to make a large down payment on a vehicle, or some other scenario. The important aspect of point two is to time your credit card acquisitions with large potential purchases that you were going to make. You want to make sure that you are able to meet the criteria in a time effective manner.
Number three
Maximize your benefits by each specific card. Every card will have its own strong suits and weaknesses. For example, lets say Card A offers you 3% cashback on dining and 1% on gas, and Card B offers you 2.5% on dining and 1.5% on gas. Many people would simply use Card B for everything because it offers you basically what card A offers you on dining and better on gas, however, I implore you to only use Card A for dining, and use Card B for gas this way you maximize your benefits based on the strengths and weaknesses per card. 0.5% may not seem like a large difference, but it is these differences that end up accumulating to large amount of savings and cashback after years and years of exercising this practice. Not only this, but as you begin to scale and make more money and spend more money the materiality of this difference also cements itself.
Farewell, I Bode you Well
Following these simplistic tips, I was able to amass $1,000+ this past year in cash back rewards and sign up bonuses, that I can use on whatever it is that I please. As the next year approaches I will continue to look to take advantage of all this FREE MONEY that is around for us to grab. So I encourage you to take some of these tips and you too will be making credit card companies pay you to spend money you were already going to spend.
Let me know how these tips work for you! Thanks for the read, find your excellence and unlock what’s within.