The Credit Card thread (Cash Back)

PhrostByte

PhrostByte

CAG Newbie
Maybe I'm just not aware of an already existing Credit Card thread, but it seems like something this site is sorely lacking.. I mean we're CAGs, shouldn't we look for credit cards with good cash back rates?

Anyway.. if I'm just overlooking the thread, let me know.. otherwise, I'll start the discussion.

There's a lot of info on FW, SD, creditboards, but some of those people are highly obsessed.. so I'll just tell you about two cards today. One card I already have and another I'm considering applying for.

The first card I'd like to tell ya'll about is the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Platinum VISA Rewards card. This is the one I have. Here are the details

  • 5% off all gas purchases
  • 2% off all grocery purchases
  • 1.25% off otherwise
  • no rewards cap, instantly applied as a statement credit at the end of your billing cycle
What's the catch? You either have to be military, have a relative in the military, or join some sort of affiliated organization. If you're a student, you can sign up with a co-signer as well. Some of the affiliated organizations include the MOAA, the NMFA, and SAME. I believe signing up for SAME is free. This is an excellent card for its sheer simplicity, and they also have great rates for other loans, such as mortgages and car loans. The website is http://www.penfed.org/ Here's a picture.

penfed-visa.gif


Ok, enough of that. Now I'll tell you about the MTVu STUDENT Platinum VISA Rewards card. You must be a student to get this (although I'm sure you can get it if you're not). This is the one I'm considering. Instead of instant cash back, you get points redeemable for various prizes. Sounds like bullshit right? Well, it's certainly not as easy as the PenFed, but some of the deals make up for it. Here are the details:


  • 5 points for purchases made at bookstores, restaurants (fast food too), movies, movie rental stores, bars, other ones too. The way this is calculated is through the merchant category code, any stores that identify themselves with the above codes qualify. AMAZON IS INCLUDED!!!
  • 10 points/qualifying purchases for the 3 months.
  • 1 point otherwise (might as well use your PenFed for non-qualifying merchants).
  • Points are redeemable at http://www.thankyou.com/ You'll notice that most of the redeemable prizes are not a 1 point : 1 cent ratio. I know this.. There are some, however, that are. Flights are very cheap with this system, also.. amazon.com gift certificates are 1:1. There's also student loan discounts, which are basically checks written out to your bank. A lot of people have successfully cashed these, and this is without a doubt the best way to spend your points.
  • Bonus points for paying your bill on time.
  • Bonus points on a tiered system for faxing in your grades.
  • Bonus points for referals.
Here's the link for applying: http://creditcards.citicards.com/us...2&ProspectID=D08AE5CF4F7B4D29A51EFF3168A6B9F1

Here's a picture:

citi_student_mtvu.gif



As you can see, it's hideous. I'll most likely be applying for this card very soon. If you also want to apply.. let me know and maybe I can refer you? Well, that's all for now. If you have any questions or wish to add anything, post. :)

Extra MTVu info from fatwallet:

You cannot get this card if your total debt(clarification) on all your revolving credit lines is above $10,000. They will not care about the amount of income you have. -Rushnrockt
For GPA bonus:
Grade submission form

5% Qualified Merchants:
Bookstores


          • Amazon.com (certain purchases)(doesn't work on Music store)
          • iTunes
          • Barnes & Noble (in store only, not online)
          • Fast Food (alphabetical)
          • Arby's
          • Burger King
          • Carl's JR
          • Checkers
          • Chick Fil A
          • Dominoes
          • DUNKIN DONUTS
          • Good Times
          • Little Caesars Pizza
          • Jack In The Box
          • Jersey Mikes Submarines
          • Oregon Coast Aquarium Cafe
          • McDonalds
          • Popeyes
          • Qdoba
          • Quizno's
          • Skyline Chili
          • Sbarro
          • Starbucks
          • Subway
          • Taco Bell
          • Taco Del Mar
          • Waffle House
          • Wendys
          • WhataburgerRestaurants
          • Carrabba's Italian Grill
          • China Grand Buffet
          • Dante's Cafe (Portland, OR)
          • Godfather's Pizza
          • Hometown Buffet
          • Olive Garden
          • Papa Johns Pizza B&M / PapaJohns.com
          • Pizza Hut
          • Shari's
          • TGI Fridays
          • Movie Theaters
          • Rave Motion Pictures
          • AMC
          • Edwards/Regal
          • Video Rental Stores
          • Blockbuster online
          • Movielink
          • Music/Video Stores
          • FYE
            face-icon-small-mad.gif
          • Did NOT qualify for 5%
            face-icon-small-mad.gif
          • NetFlix
          • half.com
          • Certain bars (pub in the name has nothing to do with it, it's how an establishment codes itself w/the CC comp.)
          • restaurant.com
          • yourmusic.com
          • Red Robin
          • ch.com
          • DeepDiscountDVD.com
          • Tuna Town (Huntington Beach, CA)
          • Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream(merchandise)
          • TextbookX.com
          • Krispy Kreme (Classed as Merchandise - BAKERIES)
Why didn't my purchase qualify?
Go to Statements-> "Purchases" and click on the amounts that were charged
That will pop up a window with Transaction Details:

Merchant Category Restaurants - DRINKING PLACES-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Categories that appear to qualify (among others)
Entertainment - VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT RENTAL STORES
Entertainment - MOTION PICTURE THEATERS
Restaurants - EATING PLACE,RESTAURANT
Restaurants - FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS
Merchandise - BOOK STORES
Merchandise - RECORD STORES
Note that some book stores (e.g. B&N online, TextbookX) do not qualify because they categorize themselves as "BOOKS, PERIODICALS, AND NEWSPAPERS" rather than "BOOK STORES".
Rewards Network/I-dine Cash Back rebates do not count against Restauarants Categories -- only 1TY/$1 not 5TY/$1.
Click to expand...
 
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I was checking my points statement just now and it seems to me i haven't gotten as many as i should have. For example, i spent $179 on textbooks, i believe it's supposed to be 5 point per $1 spent at bookstores, which this was. 179 x 5 should be 895, but i don't think i received that many. It doesn't say how many points you received for each purchase unfortunately, but under "Cardmember Bonus Points Earned" it says 832. It also has nothing listed under "Bonus Points by Category Earned," which i thought would be things like food, movie rentals, and other things that qualify for the 5 point bonus.

I wish the points statement showed the points earned from each purchase, instead of just overall points earned.
 
Mine is also somewhat confusing.

http://xs135.xs.to/xs135/09044/sf4226.jpg

I get the standard rate.. 125 points for 125 dollars spent.
I get the category bonus 34 points for (4 points extra for $8.53 at Chipotle). Although I thought I was supposed to get 9 extra points for the first 3 months. I'll have to call and ask.
I have no clue how they got 626 bonus.
 
I've bought lots of food, but i don't know if i got any extra points for it. They really need to show how many points you received for each transaction.
 
Yea Jake that's weird.. take all your food purchases and multiply times 4 to get your category bonus points. Also, I actually updated the original post (wow) with qualifying merchants. Take a look.

By the way, you didn't like Bioshock? :whistle2:s
 
I just haven't had time to play it, i was messing around with the defuser.ini file and i think i screwed something up, need to reinstall it.
 
I'm not extremely happy with my MTVU card. I'm not sure that Citi is giving me the proper number of points, plus it will only let you do one online payment every 15 days. Since i've already done one, i guess i'll have to send a check in for the remaining amount.
 
Why not just pay when they send the bill online? I think my MTVu card is giving me 6 points for regular purchases and 10 for qualifying ones... also, I shopped my transcript to show 4.0 and they sent me a letter congratulating me on my grades. :D
 
That's good to know at least :)

Oh and is there a grace period form the bill date to when they start charging interest? Meaning if i wait and pay when i get the bill, how long do i have before they start charging interest?
 
[quote name='JolietJake']That's good to know at least :)

Oh and is there a grace period form the bill date to when they start charging interest? Meaning if i wait and pay when i get the bill, how long do i have before they start charging interest?[/quote]

You're fine as long as the bill isn't late (past the due date). You basically have like 2 or 3 weeks after the bill is issued to pay it.
 
Since not many people can apply for that Pen Fed card why not give them other options for cash back?

http://www.fivecentnickel.com/blue-cash-from-american-express/
http://www.fivecentnickel.com/trueearnings-from-costco-and-american-express/

And a quick question for anyone with a Capital One card. Do you know if I can call up Capital One and ask them to put some kind of rewards program on my card? Right now I have nothing on it. No rewards program at all, no cash back program at all and it downright sucks. I'm always using my card too. Pretty much all my purchases are done through my card so I can keep a detailed record of what I bought and when I bought it.
 
So if if the due date is Feb 16 like it says on my account page, i'll have until around the end of February to pay it before interest is charged? I'd rather wait til my 15 days are up and do another electronic payment then send a check.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']So if if the due date is Feb 16 like it says on my account page, i'll have until around the end of February to pay it before interest is charged? I'd rather wait til my 15 days are up and do another electronic payment then send a check.[/quote]

I'm not really sure man... I just charge whatever to the card and make one payment whenever my bill arrives. What's the purpose of multiple payments anyway?

[quote name='DarkRider23']Since not many people can apply for that Pen Fed card why not give them other options for cash back?

http://www.fivecentnickel.com/blue-cash-from-american-express/
http://www.fivecentnickel.com/trueearnings-from-costco-and-american-express/

And a quick question for anyone with a Capital One card. Do you know if I can call up Capital One and ask them to put some kind of rewards program on my card? Right now I have nothing on it. No rewards program at all, no cash back program at all and it downright sucks. I'm always using my card too. Pretty much all my purchases are done through my card so I can keep a detailed record of what I bought and when I bought it.[/quote]

I think you should be able to do that... tell them to convert your current card to a cash back card. It works with a lot of other vendors such as Citi... keep in mind this might change your APR rates and other terms/conditions as well.

Also, the reason why I'm touting PenFed so much is that many users on this site are students. It's a lot easier for students to get the PenFed card than non-students.
 
I sent my first payment, but it hasn't cleared yet so waiting to see how that works.

thankyou points haven't been added to my thankyou account, but I assume it will probably go in there monday or tuesday.

Worst part about the card was it showed me all my spending over the entire month.

Frightening actually. It was almost better on my debit card with stuff being added and stuff being taken off all the time.

total for the month:

Base Points Earned 1047.00
Bonus Points by Category Earned 5236.00
Merchant Bonus Points Earned 0.00
Cardmember Bonus Points Earned 1637.00
Points Adjusted 0.00

Total ThankYou Points Earned This Billing Period 7920.00
Points Transferred to Your ThankYou Member Account 7920.00

Ahh... over a 1000 dollars!?! :(
 
[quote name='JolietJake']So if if the due date is Feb 16 like it says on my account page, i'll have until around the end of February to pay it before interest is charged? I'd rather wait til my 15 days are up and do another electronic payment then send a check.[/quote]


If the minimum payment is not made by whatever-specified-time on the due date, you will be charged a late fee and your interest rate will likely jump to the default rate. Any balance not paid by that date will be charged interest based on the average daily balance. The grace period is only from the day you make your purchase until that due date. Be sure to find out when payments are posted to your account. If the due date falls on a holiday or weekend, and/or you don't pay early enough, it might post after the cutoff time.
 
Damn dude... that's nuts. For this month mine is probably going to be close to that though hahaha. I would describe my spending this month as abnormal though. I bought my mom a TV and bought myself college books.
 
Applying for MTVU now.

If the bill is due on the 16th and I want to pay early can I pay the 14th? And if I do that when does the next billing cycle due? The 14th? Or 16th again?
 
Well.. you should always pay your bill at least a few days before its due (processing time). The next billing cycle due date doesn't change as a result of your payment date.
 
Payment date doesn't change what shows up on your bill. Your bill will always look the same. It'll have all your charges since your last bill as well as your payment.
 
[quote name='pbnate88']Def. paying early but if I pay say the 10th do the purchases till the 16th go on the same bill or next months?[/QUOTE]

What bill purchases go on depend on your statement date, not your payment date.
For example, my card has a statement date on 14th, and I receive the bill on the 16th. It's due on the 4th, so I pay around the 1st.

Anything before the 14th goes on one bill, and anything after goes on the next. So you can get a little extra grace period by waiting till your statement date to purchase stuff..
 
Just pay whenever you can, but be sure that it's paid before the due date. It's not that hard to understand. I like to pay my bill off all at once every weekend. I use my card for pretty much everything. Even for $2 payments... I just find it easier to pay with my card and have a record of everything then paying it all off a couple days later.
 
So, I just got my bill.. $788 or so charged.

Base Points Earned 1043.00
Bonus Points by Category Earned 5238.00
Merchant Bonus Points Earned 0.00
Cardmember Bonus Points Earned 484.00
Points Adjusted 2000.00
Total ThankYou Points Earned This Billing Period 8765.00
Points Transferred to Your ThankYou Member Account 8765.00

Looks like I almost got 10% off all my purchases. Don't know how that happened but I'm not complaining. Now to order one of those $50 checks. :D
 
Got my MTVU card in and like it so far but just wondering one thing.

I got it on the 17th and have used it since then. I just checked and so far the only purchase I see is the one I made on the 17th. Does it usually take a few days for all the purchases to show up?
 
I'm still not sure they've calculated my points right. I don't know if i'm getting the extra points for the category stuff like food.
 
Yeah it should take a few days for purchases to show up pbnate. Joilet, how much did you spend and how many points did you get?
 
Well it isn't quite that easy, some of the stuff should be 1 point 1 dollar, some should be 5 points to a dollar. I may be wrong, it's just that i don't have any under the "Bonus Points by Category Earned" entry, even though i've used it on plenty of food and even my textbooks. I think it got the textbooks however. It seems that they just lumped everything under "Base Points Earned" for me.
 
That's pretty strange.. it seems like I was getting 1 for base points, 4 for bonus points, and then 5 more for the promotion. Except, I think I was getting 10 points for qualifying purchases and 5 for everything else... weird.
 
I may end up having to call them, as much as i hate the idea of it. I don't think i've gotten ten points on anything, didn't know i should be.

Edit- Just checked my points for this billing statement, now i have points in the "Cardmember bonus points" category. Reading the description for the category though, it seems like those point should be in another category. I don't know what i did to earn 645 points in that category. I wish it told you how many points you earned for each transaction.
 
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Ah, wonder why i didn't get them during the last billing period.

Btw, i don't know if you ever noticed, but thankyou has XBLA games for 1,000 each.
 
Yea man.. it's a good deal IF it has what you're looking for. :D

I think I forgot to mention that I requested a $25 student loan rebate made out to Bank of America. We'll see how this goes! I'm crossing my fingers!
 
I finally got the PenFed card. They made me send in paystubs as proof of income which was unexpected. I'll probably get one for my mom too. Thanks OP!
 
You're welcome.. the PenFed is sweet and after my 3 month MTVu card promotion is up I'll start using the PenFed as my main card again.
 
[quote name='PhrostByte']10 points/qualifying purchases/3 months[/quote]

How long is that promo going on for? I plan on applying for a card around May/June so I can buy all my books/calculator/other supplies on Amazon and then pay it all off at once and get 10 points per dollar for all of that which could be around $600. :D Think it will be around then?
 
That's hard to say muffinman.. if you need it for May/June why not apply 3 months before that? So you can order during the tail end of your promotion period?
 
[quote name='FloodsAreUponUS']How much is the credit limit on that MTVU card?

I want to get a Kuro, and if I could get some nice cash back I would be pleased.[/QUOTE]

I would think it varies from person to person. Mine's at $5500 right now.
 
I applied, but they said they need to look into it more.

Here is to hoping.

Is the points thing something that works on all purchases from amazon?
Getting 1950 dollars worth of points would be sweet.
 
For the first 3 months you'll get 10 points from amazon, after that you'll only get be getting 5 points/$. This also only applies to buying from the Amazon company itself, not specifically Amazon-sponsored merchants. Although it may work for some merchants too.. dunno.. I think it depends on how they report their business merchant code to VISA.
 
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