Has anyone ever had a cash back credit card and charged all their mystery shopping expenses to it?
Would you consider this beneficial? That way, not only are you getting reimbursed for those expenses (obviously if you did a shop which the company states they'll reimburse you), you're also getting a little money back for it?

We have a Discover right now, we have a promotion where they double our cash back for the first year. Before that I used Amex Blue Cash everyday.

Chase sapphire reserve, 3 times the points on dining and hotels

I use my Costco Citi Visa card. I get 4% on gas (all gas stations, not just Costco) and 3% at restaurants and travel. Travel includes air tickets, hotels, escorted tours, etc. 1% on all other purchases. You get a yearly check for the rewards value that is only redeemable at Costco but you can get cash for it rather than merchandise.

I intermix between my PayPal debit Visa and a Credit Card I use just for MS.

I use my business debit card 100% of the time.

I use a Bank Americard Visa Rewards card that gets 1% back on everything, with a bonus for gas and supermarket charges. The card also gives a bonus when you transfer the rewards $$ into your Bank of America account. I opened both the card and the account on mystery shops, so I consider it doubly rewarding.

Before deciding on a credit card, I went to nerdwallet.com. They have a calculator where you put in estimates of the amounts you spend each month, and how you use the card (i.e. do you pay the balance off each month? carry a balance? Take out cash advances? do you have a balance you want to transfer, etc.). It calculates current rates and promotions, fees, etc and gives you a suggestion about which cards are best for you and your spending. I'm sure there are other sites like nerdwallet that do similar calculations.

BoA Travel Rewards card is used the most, since it provides the best cash back from ANY travel related expenses. But I also use Marriott and Hilton rewards cards and a SW Airlines card. I build up a LOT of rewards points and travel cash back.

Whichever of my 12 credit cards maximizes my return.

I just returned from a shop and picked up a BOA Travel Rewards Visa card. I will add it to my Samsung Pay account (point per transaction), scan my receipts via Receipt Pal ($0.06) and add BOA Deals for additional cash back.

I'm curious for those of you who attempt to maximize your rewards how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

@bgriffin wrote:

I'm curious for those of you who attempt to maximize your rewards how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

Sometimes the little extras are reward enough. I have tons of reward cards, I do not keep track, I just enjoy the moments. Could be $8 credit towards my next purchase, maybe exchange points for a $10 Amazon gift card, a free cup of coffee, a free meal, paying down a CC balance. I have no idea what I can get from using Samsung Pay but I enjoy earning the points for now on top of the cash back on my linked cards.

I use an American Airlines Citibank card for all expenses. I purchase a lot of airfare for my assignments and it pays double miles on that, plus as part of the Dining Rewards network when I use the card on shops, I'm getting 5X miles at certain restaurants that I shop.

@bgriffin wrote:

how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

I sometimes use the card for personal expenses as well, but the majority of charges I put on it are fine dining, hotels and airfare for shops. I earned a little over 72k miles that way in 2016, from around $54k in purchases. I spend 65k miles in January to offset the cost of a $1,800 flight, not to mention the fact that the card allows one free bag per flight ($25 each), plus a $100 flight voucher each year, and a 10% return on all miles cashed it (up to 10,000 miles, which I capped out). I feel like I'm well over $2k for the year in benefits from the card.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I feel like I'm well over $2k for the year in benefits from the card.

I would guess that you would be in a serious minority and VERY few shoppers would be getting back as much.
I would also guess that MOST of those who do not know how much they get back from those are probably not getting back much at all, and most likely the card costs them more in extra purchases and fees than they get when risk is factored in.

I am also probably seriously more risk averse (or perhaps better at understanding risk?) than most.

I have had a Diner's Club card for years. At one time it was on its own, now it is a MasterCard issued by BMO. I use that almost 100% for mystery shops because it must be paid in full every month and I earn points that are very flexible. I use the points in the summer when we take an extended road trip for a few weeks...I use the points to pay for some hotels on the trip. All I have to do is call them and say I want to pay the charges for XYZ hotel with points. The only exception to the above, is I will use one of two hotel credit cards when staying in those chains, because they give more points for staying in their properties. Right now I have enough points for about $600 in hotel stays; I will combine that with reiumbursable hotel shops I will hopefully get (last summer 6 or 7 nights, but that was more than the normal 3 or 4), a free night from my Marriott and IHG card annual renewals, free stays using points with Marriott and IHG and a free night for listening to a Hilton time share promo (not a shop)---that will take care of probably 14 nights of travel! (I am always trying to better my skills at this, so open to hearing suggestions!!).

@bgriffin, I think we are both in a serious minority, but I do agree with you.

I just started doing shops where I have to spend money and get reimbursed. I use my bank's (BB&T) debit card and up to 5% cash back.

It's not across the board, just certain places.

Crappy credit union offers 1% back on everything, but it's at the end of the year. bgriff, in 2015, I "made" about $20.

@bgriffin wrote:

I'm curious for those of you who attempt to maximize your rewards how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

I put about $100,00 a year on credit cards, minimum, depending on what I have going on that year. They are paid off every month .

Always $20,000 + on my Hilton Am Ex. That gets me gold benefits at Hilton for the year.

I use Chase Southwest Airlines for flights. I still have 100,000 points right now, after spending a ton of them for my family to fly in the last 12 months. I trade luxury for free airfare (sorry SteveSoCal - I'm slumming it on the plane).

Target Red Card (5% off at Target). I get 95% of the groceries there now. No sense in doing grocery shops for $17. It's a complete waste of my time to overpay for the same stuff, have to go during a certain time frame, and then write a report.

USAA Visa. 1.5% cash back when I hit a certain threshold. I needed this when I had some purchases exceeding $30,000 at a time.

JetBlue Barclaycard and Carnival Barclaycard. I use them for my fun trips. I have a bazillion points. Probably going to fly to the Caribbean again.

Most of these have promotional categories, so I try to keep track of which one to use for 5% on any given month for restaurants and gasoline etc.

I don't really go out of my way to maximize. For example, I won't spend an extra $20 to get 1.5% back. That's a foolish waste of time.

AMEX Gold/ Blue Cash/ Delta. I love AMEX.

@bgriffin wrote:

I'm curious for those of you who attempt to maximize your rewards how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

In another post, you said that it was considered rude to ask someone how much they make mystery shopping. Wouldn't it be considered rude in this case also?

:shakes head:
Sure Sybil. Sure.

Can't answer a simple and real question?

Ok fine. It's not the same in the least bit. It's like asking how much do you allot per mile for car costs. It's just a measurement of how a certain activity enhances your business. Asking a full time shopper (and if you read my post I specifically said full time) how much they make is akin to asking a doctor or lawyer what their yearly income is. In no society I have ever been in is that considered polite. If perhaps a person ONLY had income from credit card rewards then absolutely this could be construed as being rude to ask, but I doubt seriously this is the case.

@bgriffin wrote:

I'm curious for those of you who attempt to maximize your rewards how much per year you actually "make" doing that?

Just like MSing sometimes the perks outway the pay.

This coming Tuesday Raising Canes Rewards card holders get a free Box Combo with a Box Combo purchase.
Shopkicks paid for my laptop.
mPlaces paid for 75% of my TV.
Perks TV app paid for the remote starter for my car.
BOA rewards pay an extra 10% if you transfer the balance to your savings.
Cashback sites, Samsung Pay go towards Visa gift cards.

Thanks. I love company rewards. I'm specifically referring to using a credit card for rewards instead of just paying for the costs of shopping.

Asking socially how much money someone makes is rude. I think that's widely accepted.

In the case above, I think it's easier to understand why it's not rude if you realize it's simply a poor word choice by BG. Since any credit card reward are based on how much you spend, you are actually saving money, not making it. We all knew what he meant, but the real questions is, "How much can you SAVE in a year using one of those cards."

Exactly Steve, hence the reason I put make in quotations. Some people just want to find something to argue about though.

I'm a risk taker, but I haven't got much to lose since my house and car are paid for and I have no bills, really.

I have several cards that I use. I never pay interest as I carry a $0 balance--I pay my bill in full for each card that I do use every month, other than one card that has a 0% promotional rate going right now (the balance is only about 2k and I will have it paid off by June when the promotion expires). I don't earn as much as some others do by using their cards, but I would say I get $300-$500 a year in gift cards, cash back, airline points, and more. It depends on the year/month on which earns the most. I have one credit card that I get 25 cents for every purchase made. I always use that card if my purchase is $5 or less. I have a BOA card that I use that gives me $25 per quarter for paying off more than the minimum amount due (no brainer there, since like I said, I pay off the amount in full each month). My new TD Ameritrade CC allows me to apply a percentage of earned cashback to my investment accounts. Chase and Discover both have quarterly category rewards as most people in here already know. My only card that has an annual fee is my Southwest card, but it more than pays for itself in flights. Oh, and many of the cards I have had some sort of promotion where I earned a certain amount during the first 90 days by spending a certain amount (like spend $500 and get $100 statement credit, or something similar).

@bgriffin wrote:

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I feel like I'm well over $2k for the year in benefits from the card.

I would guess that you would be in a serious minority and VERY few shoppers would be getting back as much.
I would also guess that MOST of those who do not know how much they get back from those are probably not getting back much at all, and most likely the card costs them more in extra purchases and fees than they get when risk is factored in.

I am also probably seriously more risk averse (or perhaps better at understanding risk?) than most.

I also use a variety of cards Amex Starwood Hotel card for many things this one points transfer to airlines so it's prob the most valuable points this card does have an annual fee though. The rest don't : Chase Freedom has rotating rewards each quarter so right now all gas is on there for extra 5% back. Amex Everyday card has 20% bonus on purchases over 20 transactions and 2x at supermarkets. Citi Thank You card is good for restaurants and entertainment 2 x the points. Costco citi card also 3% back on restaurants. Yes, it's a lot to keep track of but I enjoy the points from the cards, and there are apps out there to tell you which card to use. I also have a few airline cards, don't use them much past the initial bonus miles offered after opening or unless they mail me special promos where I get extra miles for certain $ spent etc.

I don't want to have too many cards but currently I have three credit cards due to the Costco change to visa. My Costco visa thru Citibank I use for restaurants and gas and travel where the cash back is higher. I also periodically check on my Blue Am EX and my BoA Visa as both of those have periodic deals for certain vendors...for instance with my AMEX I got $10 back in Dec for spending $40 at The Body shop and I got $20 back for spending $100 at a Landry's location. My spend at Landry's was for a $100 gift card which gave me a $20 voucher to use in the future as well as the $20 rebate and 100 Landy's rewards points. That was not a shop but used to be. My BofA visa had recent promotions with 10% back at Five Guys and other places that I know many of you shop. Usually they have 20-25 deals running at the same time and most seem to run for months. They send me emails when they add someone and if it is a place I know I go I click on it and then try to remember to use that card if I shop there. None of these cards have an annual fee for me.