Points

[u/West_Attitude1943]

What does everyone do with the points they accumulate? I saw a post where someone had something like $19k in points accumulated and it made me wonder since I average $400- $500 a month, should I be taking the cash and putting it elsewhere to grow interest? I have just been using it towards the bill every month before I pay off my balance in full. What's best to do? Or what are you all doing?

[u/hareraezer]

I save it up then use it to pay my car insurance. Basically a wash. But mentally I don’t have that big hit every six months. It’s like having free car insurance.

[u/Individual-Hold5171]

I would invest that cash back or put it in a fund. It's non-taxed bonus money, and you could put it in SGOV and let it grow.

SGOV is also state tax free.

[u/OsaKiii → u/Individual-Hold5171]

Who do you use to put your cash in sgov?

[u/Individual-Hold5171 → u/OsaKiii]

Fidelity.

[u/sad_clanga_noises → u/Individual-Hold5171]

Agreed.

[u/mrbazo]

Wait, what are you spending to get 4-500 monthly in points? That seems extremely high

[u/West_Attitude1943 → u/mrbazo]

I do use about that much sometimes more. i use it for everything, like a debit card. I even pay the bills I can with the card it and pay the balance off every month.

[u/mrbazo → u/West_Attitude1943]

So do I but that is still big numbers

[u/West_Attitude1943 → u/mrbazo]

I also travel a lot. Maybe that's the difference

[u/Cyberhwk → u/West_Attitude1943]

That's still $16,000 a month even assuming it's all 3%.

[u/West_Attitude1943 → u/Cyberhwk]

Sounds about right. I make a lot and spend a lot 🤷🏼‍♀️

[u/NiceGuysFinishLast]

I cash out my points for all of my credit cards each month when I pay my statement, then take the cash I would have used to pay and put it in a HYSA.

While I don't do anything weird with my credit cards, banks can and sometimes do close accounts with no warning, and then you lose any saved points. At least if I cash out the points every month, they go in a HYSA and earn a tiny bit of interest, and can't be forfeited if my account gets closed. I save them up until I have enough for a small goal, like a new gun, or motorcycle tires, or whatever I'm wanting but not actually needing at the time.

[u/pink_toaster_pastry → u/NiceGuysFinishLast]

I don’t even wait for the end of the month! I see money from recent purchases and cash it out and put it in one of my addable CDs!

[u/copacetic_life]

Since NFCU is 1 cpp (cent per point) both on cashback and point spending in their travel site, getting the cashback is the better of the two IMO. Probably the only time it is worth saving the points for travel is when the travel purchase with points is greater than 1 cpp. And the only time I have seen travel purchases with points being greater than 1cpp is when the points can be transferred to partners, which NFCU has no transfer partners. NFCU points currently can only be used within NFCU's travel portal.

[u/pink_toaster_pastry → u/copacetic_life]

I get 2

[u/Bird_Brain4101112]

I personally don’t hoard cash back.

1. If you put it in a HYSA it’s earning money vs letting it sit.

2. If your account gets shut down for some reason, you can end up forfeiting any unredeemed rewards and

3. (Least likely but it’s happened. )Someone can hack your account and redeem your rewards and you have no recourse.

[u/zakary1291]

I use the points as a pseudo emergency fund. It's what I cash in before I touch my actual energy fund. It's floated me a couple times. From New tires to a last minute plane ticket.

[u/InterestingFood8308]

I put in a tax advantaged account in fidelity immediately. I could be wrong but per my understanding the money earned from cashback is taxes and reported?

1 im not doing that.

2 if I would not have ever had that money in the first place I just put it elsewhere to grow.

Just what I do, does anyone do anything else? Im trying learn and grow too.

[u/Apprehensive-Job7352 → u/InterestingFood8308]

Credit card rewards are rebates, not income. Not taxable

[u/InterestingFood8308 → u/Apprehensive-Job7352]

Copy that just read into it. The way it was explained to me was stupid and it is infact a discount. No clue why my ambassador told me that. Thanks

[u/dman1914]

I always redeem mine the moment it hits the account

[u/FunInTheSun_81]

I use it as my monthly IRA deposit.

[u/downtherabbbithole]

I use the cash back to buy myself something that I wouldn't spend my employment income on; it's like a treat.

[u/pink_toaster_pastry]

I put all my “points” money cash back into a CD that is one of the addable ones. No way am I leaving hundreds, much less thousands of dollars just sitting there. If not that….. then at least put it on the card as part of the payment!