Fearless Money

Due to my recent debit fraud experience, I no longer trust debit cards. The risk is simply not worth the reward to me. After I move banks to finish closing down the endless fraud drain, I don’t want to have to do that again for a long while.

With a tip of the hat to pfblog and the Fat Wallet forums, I present this roundup and summary of credit-card cashback offers.

Citibank Dividend Platinum Select - 5% cash back on purchases at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations, plus 1% on all other purchases, capped at $300 per year.
Citibank UPromise Platinum Select - 10% of purchases at UPromise grocery & drug stores. 2% at Exxon/Mobil, 1% elsewhere (1% purchases capped at $300), all goes into UPromise college savings account. This might really pay off if you shop at one of the participating grocery stores.
Citibank Driver’s Edge Platinum - 6% rebates on supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations for 12 months, 3% after that, 1% rebates on other purchases, Rebates for the miles you drive. All redeemable for a new or used car, or repair on an existing car.
MBNA Cash Back - Simple card gives unlimited 1% cashback in $25 increments with no cap.
MBNA Ty Card - Earn a free beanie baby every year that you charge more than $5000! Wow, that’s quite the deal.
American Express True Earnings/Costco 3% eating out, 2% travelling, 1% elsewhere, $300 cap, paid as a Costco certificate (which can be cashed at return counter). Requires a Costco executive membership, which nets a 2% cashback on all Costco purchases as well.
MBNA/Fidelity 529 College Rewards Card - 2% contributed to your Fidelity 529 plan, capped at $1500.
MBNA/Fidelity Investment Rewards Card - 1.5% contributed to your Fidelity account (includes retirement accounts).
Chase Cash Plus Rewards - 5% at grocery, drug stores and gas stations, 1% elsewhere. Uses a point system with $50 increments. $300 cap.
Bank of America Power Rewards - earn points and spend them on various things, the best of which is $1000 for 50,000 points. That would be 2% if you get 1 point per dollar spent. Unfortunately the rules for earning points aren’t spelled out as clearly as I’d like.
Discover Platinum - 5% on “Get More” purchases, exactly what that merchants participate is carefully not detailed online. 1% elsewhere.

There are a few more options, but I am skipping all variable or tiered offers, and almost every “points” based card, since the cards change the rules too often to make those cards terribly useful.

I am planning to apply for the Citi Dividend card to back-up my American Express True Earnings card. I’m going to use them instead of my debit card, every time that is possible. Not only will I “earn” a small amount of money, my account will be much simpler to fix the next time some jerk scammer gets my card number. I will carefully pay off the balance each month. These are for safety, convenience and a little earnings, not for running a balance. I’ve had enough of that!

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