In 2022, I was hard at work with my cash-back game. If you don’t know, there are many credit card strategies available to you. You can focus on cash-back cards like myself to maximize your cash-back rewards on everyday expenses. You can focus on travel reward credit cards to travel for free, get airport lounge access, or upgraded airplane seats. If you are feeling lucky, you can go for crypto or investment credit cards that give you cash-back in the form of investment securities, whether they are stocks or cryptocurrencies. You can even go after the initial bonus cash or point rewards with the credit card churning strategy.
In this post, I will discuss what credit cards I use for my Cash-Back strategy and how I made just over $1100 in cash-back in 2022.
My Results
| 2022 | Capital One® Quicksilver® | Chase® Freedom Flex℠ | Citi Custom Cash℠ | Discover More® |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 | $68.30 | $51.87 | $56.19 | $50.37 |
| Q3 | $140.93 | $62.93 | $60.83 | $48.95 |
| Q2 | $88.11 | $75.21 | $77.50 | $38.25 |
| Q1 | $94.73 | $144.30 | $25.01 | $94.11 |
| TOTAL | $392.07 | $334.31 | $219.53 | $231.68 |
| RESULTS | 1ST PLACE | 2ND PLACE | 3RD PLACE | 4TH PLACE |
Capital One® Quicksilver®
The workhorse of the group, I use this card more than any other. I get 1.5% cash-back on ALL purchases without any limits or restrictions. This is the only VISA card I have. Because it is a VISA, I can use this card to purchase items at Costco and I don’t need to pay any foreign transaction fees when traveling abroad. These two really convenient perks are the only reasons why I did not replace this card with the MasterCard Citi® Double Cash Credit Card that gives me 2% cash-back on all purchases.
Chase® Freedom Flex℠
Last year, I decided to product change my first credit card. The Chase® Slate card offered no cash-back or perks of any kind. I called Chase® and had them do a product change to the Freedom Flex℠. A Product Change allows me to keep my credit history while getting a new card with new perks. By default, I get 5% cash-back on travel, 3% on dining, 3% on pharmacies, 1% on everything else, and 5% on rotating quarterly categories. In addition, I get short term 3% to 15% cash-back offers ranging from 10% off StarBucks for 30 days or 5% off Staples for 10 days. Since this card offers so much,
Citi Custom Cash℠
This is the newest credit card in my wallet and the first credit card I applied for in the past decade. The special ability of this card is in the name. I can get 5% cash-back in any category I want up to the first $500 spent, then everything else is 1%. For example, the highest spend for most households fall into these three categories: Groceries, Restaurants, & Gas Stations. In Q2, Discover gave me 5% back at the pump and Chase gave me 3% at restaurants. I decided to use my Citi card for 5% back on groceries. In Q3 & Q4, none of my cards gave me rewards for groceries so I continued with using my Citi card to purchase groceries.
Discover More®
A retired product, Discover More® was replaced with Discover it® which is basically the same card. The Discover More® card is one of the oldest cards in my wallet at over 10 years old. The second quarter of 2022 gave me 5% cash-back at gas stations as fuel prices rose to $5 per gallon in most states. I also had 5% cash-back rewards for shopping at Target. In addition, I get 1% cash-back on all other purchases. Unfortunately Discover & MasterCard are not accepted at Costco gas stations. However Sams Club gas stations are happy to take any credit card if you want to utilize those gas rewards.
2023’s First Quarter of Cash-Back Rewards
- Discover is giving me 5% cash-back on Groceries, Pharmacies, and Select Streaming up to a maximum of $75 per quarter or $300 per year.
- Chase® is giving me 5% cash-back on Groceries, Target, and Fitness & Gym Memberships on top of the default cash-back benefits of 5% on travel, 3% on dining, 3% on pharmacies, and 1% on everything else.
- Because I am covered in most categories, I will use my Citi Custom Cash℠ card for fueling up our cars.
- As always, my Capital One® Quicksilver® will take care of everything else.
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