July. My new Discover checking account came in handy this month. Discover offers 1% back on debit purchases up to $3,000 each month. I ended up putting that to use paying my rent. I could’ve deducted it right from my bank account without any fee, but it’s just $9.95 to pay with a debit card (unfortunately they raised the credit card fee from 2.1% to 2.95% this month so I’m definitely going to look into using Bilt which has a 3% fee) so I can come out ahead using the Discover debit card. I paid a little extra on my rent to get a few more points for the same fee, so I now have $20.05 in cashback on that account. And without a bonus to work on, I used my very old Discover It (referral link) card because one of the 5% back categories for the quarter is utilities. My electric company annoyingly charges $2.65 for credit cards, but with the 5% back it makes sense especially in the summer. I earned $15.71.
The 50,000 American Airlines miles from the new Barclays Aviator Red I got last month posted. Another purchase there added 41 more miles. I ended up accepting a retention offer on my American Express Business Platinum (referral link) card–for spending $5,000 in three months, I’ll get 15,000 points. I expect I’ll close the card next year unless they change the benefits. I earned just 388 Membership Rewards in July. With Chase, I added 877 Ultimate Rewards. Finally, with the Citi card that’s been changed to a Strata though still earns at the Rewards+ rate for another year, I added 80 points.
With my credit card points not adding up to much this month, I was really glad to get a huge return from the no alcohol spend required beer rebates. This month came in at $39 in prepaid MasterCards! I also got the usual $25 MasterCard from Swagbucks (referral link) since they offer a 13% discount for one each month; that was turned into a Disney gift card because I’m going to Disneyland! A few years ago I went to their Halloween party when it was held at Disneyland, so now that it’s at California Adventure I want to check it out again especially with it be the 70th anniversary. I’m excited for that trip in September, but haven’t booked my hotel or flight yet.
I also had two PayPal (referral link) redemptions–$5 from Checkpoints and $50 from MyPoints (referral link) after playing some games. I added to my Amazon gift card balance as well with $3.80 from their Shopper Panel program, $10 from a Chase client survey, and $77 from Microsoft Rewards (referral link).
My last bonus of the month was a good one–$300 for signing up for a new Capitol One checking account. It was an easy one to complete with just two direct deposits of at least $500 required. For August, I signed up for a $200 bonus from Ally. This one will take longer to do as it’s $2,000 in direct deposits every month for three months.
