Maximizing Reward Credit Card Usage

I love using credit cards, and I always try to maximize my rewards. To quote a poster on MSN money boards "they'll have to pry my CC out of my cold hands." I thought his quote highly amusing. My DH and I are not your typical credit card user, neither DH or I have ever paid a penny of interest or paid a late fee on any accounts since we were 14. So we've had CC for more than half our lives and haven't misused it ever.

But for now I'll explain our current credit card strategy and how much we've earned in rewards this year. First we typically use our Citibank Simplicity card for everything. It gives us 5% cash back on all gas station and drug stores purchases, and 1% back on everything else. The maximum cash back reward is $300/calendar year. Another bonus is no late fees, which I've never used but is a nice benefit. We got this card almost one year ago in April, but have earned so far $273 in this year, and $140 of it since January 2007. Not bad just for using the card. It would have been more, but our other credit cards upped their rewards so we've been using them more.

The second card we use is the American Express True Earnings Card. We picked this card mainly because it works at Costco, where we are die-hard members. Now with the true earnings card you get 3% cash back at eating out anywhere, 2% cash back from any travel related expenses, and 1% cash back on everything else. Great deal, so we've started to use it for eating out and as always costco shopping. This year we earned a total of $180 from American Express.

Finally we started this past summer we started using a Discover card for specific items. 4x a year they have a program where you get 5% back on specific categories. This summer it was school supplies until Sept 30th, then in the fall it went to shopping and eating out, and this winter it was for travel. You also get 1% back on everything else on the card. Since we started using it in June our cashback bonus this year has been $142. For discover we also usually double our rewards because we get gift certificates to restaurants or coupons for videos. So our actually rebate was closer to $280. That sums up our regular use cards.