| | It's 5.06PM...
I  my Discover card. We have a Discover Reward cards that give us Reward points for every dollar spent. Our card also has a program that gives higher reward on certain items. For example, this month (June 2009), we signed up for 5% rewards on all restaurant expenses and from July-September 2009, we get 5% on gas, hotels and theme parks.
But, the most important thing about Reward credit cards, is what you can spend your reward points on! I mean, what's the point of earning rewards, if you can't use it on things you need, right?
My favorite rewards on the Discover card is probably Bed Bath and Beyond. We redeemed so many points to get BBB gift cards. We get a bonus too, if we redeem for BBB because it takes $20 worth of points and we get a $25 gift card, that's an extra $5!
I've made a post before on how we got our Zojirushi mini rice-cooker this way. Vince really didn't like our old rice cooker, he thinks the rice tastes funny. But we didn't think we'd be able to afford a Zojirushi (they usually go for about $150-$200, some even more expensive, depending on size and features). So, I went on a rice cooker hunt about a year ago and I came across the Zojirushi Micom Fuzzy Logic rice cooker. "Micom" is micro-computerized and "Fuzzy Logic" is... something I can't explain! Here's a link to the Zojirushi site and a page about Fuzzy Logic rice cooking.
Anyhow, I'd be one to say that Fuzzy Logic rice cooking works! So, after much searching, I found this cutie at BBB:
It's a 3-cup Zojirushi rice-cooker. For the two of us, it's perfect. And the even better part? We got it for nearly free! I redeemed $100 of our Discover rewards, got $125 worth of BBB gift cards in the mail, I went to the BBB store and they ordered it for me! I had a 20% off coupon from BBB too but because it was not available in store, I had to pay for shipping. In the end, I think I paid less than $10 out of pocket! A Zojirushi that was originally $145, for $10 out of pocket is quite a spectacular deal, I think! 
Our Discover card is our "everyday" card. We use it as much as possible and nowadays, most places accept Discover. Some local restaurants in our area still don't take Discover but for those purchases we have our Mastercard. The thing is, for our household, having a credit card that gives us practical rewards is really helpful. We wouldn't have been able to afford the luxury of a high-quality rice-cooker (it gets used literally 3-4 times a week) if it weren't for the Discover rewards.
The Discover Rewards program also includes other stores. For us, we redeem the points mostly on BBB because we use the rewards as a way to improve our home (for me, mostly the kitchen!) and to get gifts for others. But, we have also redeemed points at Omaha Steaks (they had an awesome deal last summer!), Dave and Busters restaurant (for a birthday gift) and Ace Hardware (we got our awesome vacuum with HEPA filter this way).
I've never been shy about using credit cards for everyday purchases because we hold to the rule of paying off our balance no matter what. In fact, I've been trying to limit our overall spending a bit more so we have been spending even less. But, by paying off our balance each month, we benefit from the Rewards points and we don't pay the finance charges
**Disclaimer: I don't work for Discover, and I'm not paid to do this review. I just that our credit card actually helps us stretch our money a bit further!
Back to normal programming tomorrow... (which means an update on this month's expenses... I will tell you what one unplanned trip to Costco did to our budget  ) Have a great day everyone! |
| | Posted 6/22/2009 5:50 PM - 30 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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