[quote=flu][quote=UCGal][quote=flu]I’ll repeat the question again. Where are people getting 2.5% rebates?????[/quote]
The costco amex gives 3% back on gas purchases, 2% on travel, and 1% on everything else. If you’re a costco shopper you can combine it with executive club membership and get 2% back on costco purchases from exec membership and another 1% from the amex card (assuming you pay with amex.) And if you buy gas at costco, pay with the costco amex, and have an executive membership – the combined rewards is 6%… Makes the already cheap gas even cheaper.[/quote]
I know. I have costco cashback and a citicard dividend rewards which does the 1/2/3% thing. But I was curious which card is giving 2.5% for everything (unless the 2.5% is an average)… I don’t get anywhere close to 2.5% because I rarely eat out :([/quote]
Do you travel flu? As I’ve mentioned above, I’ve been getting 3%+ with my AMEX Starwood card. But that’s because I travel at least once a year and I like Starwood’s portfolio of hotels.
Here’s one example of the kind of return cash and points can do for you. I priced out a Hotel in Time Square NYC. If you stay at “The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel” http://www.themanhattanattimessquarehotel.com/ between December 27th and December 31st, a basic room would cost you between $364-384/night (depending on if you get the king bed or 2 doubles). The total cost for you would be $1456 before tax. If you do it w/ cash and points, it’s $60 + 4000 points per night. So that same trip would cost you $240 + 16000 points. So, that 16000 points saved you $1216 (I haven’t even counted in the tax, which would increase the saving much more since you’re being taxed on $240 vs $1456). So, in this case, the return would be at least 7.6% (slightly more when you count in taxes). This also haven’t taken into consideration that if you spend $30k/yr on your credit card, you’re automatically upgraded to Gold member with Starwood, which mean you’ll get upgraded rooms (higher floors and rooms w/ a view), late check out, early check in.
