The Credit Card Juggle

I have several credit cards. This may sound bad or irresponsible to some, but hear me out.

I don't use the cards to buy things I don't need. And, I actually make money by using them. I'm not talking pennies. I'm talking enough per month to pay a utility bill or two.

Also, most importantly, I pay my full balance off every month to avoid interest charges as this would completely defeat the purpose of saving $. To make things easier, set up automatic payments so you don't forget.

Believe it or not, if you are using cash or debit card (or a credit card w/ no rewards), you are actually losing money - compared with those who have reward credit cards. Check out this video that offers a good explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySH5SudRwak&feature=youtu.be

Here's my current credit card list:
Citi Double Cash (Citi Bank) - 2% cash back on anything
Discover It (Discover) - 5% cash back on rotating categories
Chase Freedom (Chase) - 5% cash back on rotating categories
Bank of America Cash Rewards (BoA) - 3% cash back on category of your choice
Amazon Prime (Chase) - 5% cash back on certain Prime purchases as well as Whole Foods

My most often used card is the Citi double cash - simply because you get 2% back on everything. This means you can use this card to pay for your car insurance and get cash back from it!

Next most used are either the Chase Freedom or Discover It, depending on the categories. The categories change quarterly, so you'll need to pay attention. Often as at least one of them is gas and sometimes groceries. 5% back on gas and groceries. Not bad, eh?

The BoA card is used when the rotating category cards don't offer 5% back on big expenses like gas or groceries. So when this happens you manually change the category of your BoA card (can be done once per month). 3% isn't too shabby.

I recently got rid of Amazon Prime, so I no longer get the 5% (I instead get 3%), so I don't use this card much anymore. But if you have Prime, it's a no-brainer.

Many of these cards also offer a sign-up bonus (typically $200), so that's nice too.

Happy juggling!

P.s. this is a continuation of https://muse-parade.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-i-save.html

Useful links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance