47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with poll)

Chat about non-baseball topics. No political discussions!
Post Reply

Could you come up with $400 today if you had to?

yes
51
94%
no
2
4%
yes, but I'd have to sell something
1
2%
 
Total votes: 54

Michael
GRB Founder
Posts: 35384
Joined: December 31 69, 6:00 pm
Location: Chicago, IL
Contact:

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Michael »

Kyle wrote:
Michael wrote:In retrospect this credit card is kinda weird and works against itself. I'm racking up a decent amount of amazon credit every month via purchases on amazon and elsewhere which paradoxically means I use my credit card less on amazon to get the 5% discount.
So, here's what I do to mitigate that...

Let's say you accrue $500 in points: you go to Amazon to purchase a tablet for $500. During checkout, it will ask, "hey, do you want to apply $500 worth of points to pay for this?" In this case, you forfeit the discount/cash back. (I think this is what you're referring to?)

Instead, buy the $500 tablet with your Amazon card. You now get the $25 discount/cash back. Now go to your credit card rewards and redeem your points for a $500 statement credit. The net effect is the same, but now you've accrued cash back on your purchase.

Sorry if I misunderstood and this doesn't apply.
Oh interesting! I didn't know you could get cashback. I assumed it was amazon credit or nothing. Thank you!

User avatar
Transmogrified Tiger
Puppy Murderer
Posts: 9334
Joined: April 25 06, 6:07 pm
Location: Across the River

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Transmogrified Tiger »

With as much time as I've wasted looking into various travel itineraries booked with points/miles that haven't gone anywhere, I'm giving some thought to moving to something like that Citi card or CapOne's venture. Increasingly the only way to come out ahead with miles redemptions is to have brutal itineraries(e.g. 5 AM departures, hotels far from where you want to be) or for premium upgrades(which require a ton of said miles/points). Going with a cash back card and maybe cycling a card each year for a particularly good signup bonus seems like the lazy man's way to optimize the effort/reward anymore.

Michael
GRB Founder
Posts: 35384
Joined: December 31 69, 6:00 pm
Location: Chicago, IL
Contact:

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Michael »

The Amazon Prime Visa now offers 5% back at Whole Foods. Nice!

User avatar
Swirls
gone fission
Posts: 8308
Joined: December 11 07, 4:15 pm
Location: South Korea

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Swirls »

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:With as much time as I've wasted looking into various travel itineraries booked with points/miles that haven't gone anywhere, I'm giving some thought to moving to something like that Citi card or CapOne's venture. Increasingly the only way to come out ahead with miles redemptions is to have brutal itineraries(e.g. 5 AM departures, hotels far from where you want to be) or for premium upgrades(which require a ton of said miles/points). Going with a cash back card and maybe cycling a card each year for a particularly good signup bonus seems like the lazy man's way to optimize the effort/reward anymore.
Yep, finding "saver level" award availability is getting harder and harder to do. Further complicating the matters are that airlines are opening up fewer and fewer seats for a points redemption, so even though you may have enough miles for that pair of awesome roundtrip business class tickets to Peru that you've been saving up for (in our case), finding an available flight has been absolute hell, which is why we still haven't booked our trip to Macchu Pichu.

User avatar
Swirls
gone fission
Posts: 8308
Joined: December 11 07, 4:15 pm
Location: South Korea

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Swirls »

Michael wrote:The Amazon Prime Visa now offers 5% back at Whole Foods. Nice!
Enjoy now essentially only paying $12/lb for boneless skinless chicken breast instead of $12.50/lb.

Online
User avatar
Radbird
There's someone in my head but it's not me
Posts: 57432
Joined: April 18 06, 5:08 pm
Location: LF Bleachers @ Busch II

Re: 47% of people could not easily come up with $400 (with p

Post by Radbird »

Swirls wrote:
Michael wrote:The Amazon Prime Visa now offers 5% back at Whole Foods. Nice!
Enjoy now essentially only paying $12/lb for boneless skinless chicken breast instead of $12.50/lb.
But they were happy chickens!!

Post Reply