The Sallie Mae card gives 5% cash back at bookstores (Amazon counts as a bookstore) up to $750 a month and 5% on groceries/gas for up to $250. 1% on Everything else after that
you get 5% on ANYTHING at amazon
Amazon counts as BOOKSTORE to credit card companies.
Make sure it's not a third party selling on amazon and sold through Amazon directly. As long as it's sold directly from Amazon, the discount applies. It's a classification by the credit card company on the vendor as a whole and not an item by item situation.
I use the Citi double cash (2% back on everything) for everything else or if I'm over the monthly limits on Sallie Mae.
Sallie Mae Mastercard - run by Barclay's - gives 5% back at bookstores, limited to $750 spending per month, and groceries+gas, limited to $250 in spending per month. Amazon is considered a bookstore for most spending, except for electronic goods and anything sold on the marketplace.
Alternatively, Discover IT, which has Amazon as one of it's 5% selected categories for at least the next quarter, no limit on that I can recall, AND is currently running a promotion for the first year where after a year you get your reward doubled, making it an effective 10%. But the rest of the year Amazon is not a special category. It's not a set it and forget it card.
I believe Discover caps the purchases qualifying for quarter cash back at $1500. After you've bought that much it starts being the normal 1%.
I use Discover, the 5% changes quarterly, 1% on everything else.
Should look into cards like Chase Freedom with rotating 5% categories, Chase Sapphire Preferred (only if travel, annual fee), Discover IT, and Citi Double Cash, depending on goals: cash back vs travel rewards.
I also have some big box store cards that give 5%, like the Redcard from Target or the Lowes card. Those are nice for a lot of general purchases.
Because you have multiple cards so you always have something that's getting you 5%. plus you often times can buy gift cards from a place that gives you 5% in a rotating category. so while you are earning 3/2/1, i'm earning 5% on pretty much everything and at least 2% when nothing else hits (discover, freedom, sallie mae, Citi Forward, citi double cash, amex blue cash, etc). combine freedom with csp's miles transfer, and it becomes 7.5% effective, much higher than your 1.5%.
Applying for a lot of cards in a short time will slightly ding your credit.
Having a lot of outstanding debt at the moment will ding your credit.
Having a lot of recently opened accounts will lower your average age of accounts, which will ding your credit.
There's a few good threads you might want to check out:
When I got my first credit card, my parents told me to only use it for gas and groceries. When you feel more comfortable, you can use it for other things.
As long as you have a balance on your card when your monthly statement is issued, and you pay it off in full before the due date, it will show that you have debt/are paying it off. You should NEVER carry a balance just to build credit, as there is no added benefit to carrying a balance vs paying off in full.
What the salespeople talking to your dad were likely referring to was seeing different kinds of debt. A credit card is revolving debt (meaning the balance can fluctuate up and down), while something like a car loan or mortgage is a type of installment debt - the balance only ever goes down, by a set amount each month/week/whatever the payment schedule. Creditors like to see multiple types of debt to show that you can be responsible with making payments on different types of debt.
If all you have in your credit history so far is just a cc, your credit score will be lower than if you have both a cc and a type of installment debt (and obviously, never have a late payment on either).
You dont pay interest if you pay the balance in full each month.
I have 780+ credit and got approved for a $225k house (on a $42k/year salary).
Just because you get approved for a certain amount doesn't mean you have to get a house that costs that much. For example, I bought a house for $100k less than the amount I was approved for.
I feel like a credit card would give me a false sense of having actual money.
And it absolutely does, too. Living on cash can really give you a sense of where your money is going. You might consider the "envelope" method.
My wife and I did this for years - essentially make an envelope for each of your bills, one for rent and phone, one for insurance, one for christmas presents, etc, and one for "play money". I would write on the envelop how much needed to go in each one each paycheck (and to savings). Some envelopes would then get emptied to pay bills each month, some envelopes would collect money and only get emptied to pay bills once every 6 months (car insurance) or once a year (christmas presents). Anyway, it's probably better explained here: http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/envelope-system-explained[1]
Really, unless you are already a good budgeter, the idea that you will only use a credit card for essentials and pay it off every month will end up costing you more than you will ever make up in bonus points. I wouldn't say it's absolutely a terrible idea to pay recurring bills-only with a card and pay it off every month, just be cautious. And if you feel compelled to live without a credit card, don't let others talk you out of it.
Recently discovered my all my major grocery stores were now offering physical cards that could link to their app where you could scroll through and just tap the coupons that you wanted and they were loaded onto your card just like that. Them charging me less. I was over the moon.
EDIT: (in case it's a little muddled, get into the grocery stores and see which ones pay you back and which ones help keep track of what coupons are coming up to expire and some also suggest coupons based on other coupons you've clicked before, my fiancee and I saved about $50 everytime we grocer between coupons and sales. just my two pence worth.
I can do that with my Safeway card. I try to set aside a few minutes every Thursday night to load all the personalized coupons, it's legit.
Dude, Safeway, target, baker's/Krogers/Dillion's (whoevers on the company logo at the time),Walgreens is heading that way, the commissary if you're a vet or active duty, hy-vee just rolled one out, the list is pretty long. Definitely worth looking into to save a few bucks. Digital coupons are my forte. I love saving 30-40 bucks on a grocery bill for something I was doing while waiting on my wife to decide what kind of frozen pizza we should get for dinner.
I use a tampermonkey safeway script that auto loads everything on the website to my card every time I load the site. It's one of my background tabs that open by default on my work computer, so it runs a few times a day usually.
