My Ideal Wallet 2015 Q2

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Credit Sesame

These are the Credit and Debit cards that will either be in my wallet from April 1st until the end of June 2015


Make sure to sign up for Credit Sesame and/or Credit Karma to monitor any changes in your credit history for free (I have both).

• American Express Blue Preferred – 6% cash-back at groceries (up to 6k a year), 3% at gas and 1% everywhere else.  There is a $75 annual fee so it is only for those who spend a lot of money on groceries or for those who have a close Supermarket that sells $500 Visa Gift Cards.
• $200 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
• You get 6% on gift cards you buy at the grocery store as well.

• Citi Dividend - 5% cashback on Hilton Hotels and Airlines.
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).
• I might use this for airlines, but I am sure many of you can use this.
• You can't sign up for this card, but many people have reported that you can product change from a different Citi card to the Dividend.

• Chase Freedom – 5% cash-back at restaurants, bed bath and beyond, H&M and overstock.com 
• $75 maximum cash back per quarter.  You need to activate the 5%.
• Chase Freedom 2015 5% categories
• $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days, you will get another $25 bonus if you add an authorized user who makes one purchase in the first 90 days.

• Discover it® - 5% cash-back on Restaurants and Movies.  
• 5% cashback for Discover is actually more than 5%
• Must be activated before purchase to qualify for cashback bonus
• Discover points are not as valuable as Chase Ultimate Rewards currency so only use it for restaurants if you have already maximized your Chase Freedom frist.

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• Chase Ink Classic (Business Card) - 5% cashback at Office Supply Stores, Cable, Phone (Landline or cell) and Internet bills.
• 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual Fee

• Bank of America Better Balance Rewards - $25 back for every quarter that you pay your full bill or more than the minimum balance in every month.  Another $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account.
• Best Usage - Set up a monthly bill on this card and auto pay the full balance. You never have to think about it and then every three months you will get $30.
• You can try to get multiple of these cards as well.

• Bank of America Cash Rewards - 3.3% on Gas into a Bank of America Checking account - 5.25% on gas if you have preferred rewards

• Fidelity American Express Investment Rewards – 2% cash-back everywhere else.
• This card is always in my wallet
• Alternatively, you can use the Discover it Miles card for 3% cashback everywhere during your first year of the card.

• Charles Schwab Check Card – Unlimited Free ATMs Withdrawals at every ATM in the world
• This card is always in my wallet

Free $15 Fandango Gift Card from Top Cashback or $11.25 Free - New Members Only

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Top Cashback and Cardpool


Top Cashback has a decent offer available for a Fandango Gift Card.  Buy a $15 Fandango gift card and Top Cashback will give you $15 within 7 days.

That's either a free $15 Fandango Gift Card or you can resell the gift card online.   According to Gift Card Granny, you can resell Fandango Gift Cards for 75% of their value at Cardpool.  Top Cashback will also give you 4% cashback on the value of the gift card if you go to their site before Cardpool.


The offer is only available to people have never made a transaction through Top Cashback before.  The offer is available until March 26th.




Terms and conditions

IMPORTANT: Transactions must only contain one $15 gift card to ensure $15 cashback is credited to TopCashback accounts. If another item or value is purchased or additional items are purchased at the same time, the cashback amount awarded will be 2% or less or $2 (depending on the item(s) purchased) instead of $15. Cashback might initially post in TopCashback accounts as $2 but it will be corrected to $15 within a few days. 

This TopCashback Fandango offer is available:

- for purchases made until 23:59:59 PT on Thursday, March 26, 2015; or supplies/availability run(s) out 
- to new TopCashback members only. This is defined as someone who hasn't ever made a transaction through TopCashback.com, regardless of whether they have already created a TopCashback account or not. If an existing member is found to have created more than one account, TopCashback reserves the right to terminate their accounts and withhold all cashback earnings
- to new, current or past Fandango customers
- for online sales only, for purchases made directly after clicking through TopCashback.com

Free $20 from Top Cashback and Raise - Today Only

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Top Cashback

For the rest of today, Top Cashback will give you $20 if you are a new member and spend $1 or more at Raise which is a gift card reseller.  They have gift cards to tons of merchants so you are sure to find something you want.

Sign up for Top Cashback from my link and I will receive $10 as well.  Enjoy!


HT - Doctor of Credit

Register Your Visa Gift Cards with Go Wallet - My Phew Moment

I buy a lot of Visa Gift Cards for various reasons.  Some are for every day spending and some are for Manufactured Spending purposes.

When I get home from the store, the first thing I do is register the card on Go Wallet.  Well, sometimes it isn't the first thing I do ;)

Go Wallet is free software that tracks all of your Visa Gift Cards and automatically updates their balances, at least the ones issued by Metabank (think Gift Card Mall) and Sunrise Banks.  You can also save your name and address in your profile and register a card to add your name and address for online purchases.

Thankfully I Registered My Cards!

A couple of weeks ago I logged in to my account and I saw that I had two old Visa Gift Cards with $500 on each card.  It shows the last four digits and I started searching through my box of old gift cards to see if I could find them, but they were missing!  Manufactured spending has big time allotments with razor thin margins.  If you lose $1,000 that can really set your profits back a few months.

I called up Gift Card Mall (888-524-1283) and told them I lost two cards.  Within 5 minutes they were able to look up the gift cards through my name ("You have a lot of gift cards with us!").  The cards were "retired" and new ones were sent out to me within a week.  Phew!

Time to Start Paying Cash for Gas?

I don't like it when gas stations have a different price for cash and credit, especially when it is hard to tell the price until you get in the station.  I usually go to stations that have the same price because I have the Bank of America Cash Rewards credit card that gives 3-5.25% cashback on gas depending on how much money you have with Bank of America.

Every once in a while I go to a gas station with a different cash and credit price and I still pay credit. The difference is usually 8-10 cents a gallon.  When gas is $3.00 a gallon, it is still a better deal to pay by credit card and it is much easier.


I live in New Jersey and gas prices are approaching $2.00 in some areas.  The difference between the cash and credit price is the same 8-10 cents a gallon.  That changes the entire equation.  If you are getting 3% cashback on your gas purchase, that's 6 cents a gallon.  If you pay 10 cents a gallon for the privilege of using a credit card it's actually more expensive.


Every person's situation is unique to their credit card and the price of gas in their area.  The moral of the story: As gas prices decrease and the difference between cash and credit does not change, there comes a time when it is no longer cheaper to pay with credit card.

Serve and Fidelity Becoming Best Buds - Buy a RedBird on Ebay!

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Top Cashback



As reported in many Blogs over the weekend, starting April 16th you can no longer load funds to Serve via Visa, Mastercard or Discover cards.  American Express cards still work, but most do not earn any rewards for loading, though they may count towards minimum spending for sign up bonuses.

The one exception is the Fidelity American Express which is my favorite everyday expenses credit card.  If you still want Serve, you should get a Fidelity American Express.

Put Serve Aside and Get RedBird

In case you live near a Target, but not in a state that sell RedBird cards, you are in luck.  An entire business has sprung up on the internet of people buying temporary cards with $1 loading on them selling them on Ebay for $30-$50.


You will even get Ebay bucks for the purchase and 1.5% cashback from Top Cashback if you go there first.  I bought three myself for various family members.  It was quick and easy.  You will usually get a picture of the card the same day and that's all you need!  Here is one example for $37 until it is sold.  Update: Reader Coptermedic points out that Reddit User HonestlyTho has a very good reputation on Reddit and sells RedBirds on his site for $25.

If you have no other way of getting one, it's worth it.  1 month of loading RedBird with a Fidelity American Express will net you $100, $160 if you load via American Express Gift Cards at the current rate.



HT - Doctor of Credit, Miles to Memories, Frequent Miler, Travel with Grant, Running with Miles

Bank Of America Museums On Us - This Saturday and Sunday

Bank of America Museums on Us program gives Bank of America card holders free access to select museums on the first Saturday and Sunday of the month.  March 7th and 8th are the dates for this month so that means this Saturday and Sunday are the free days this month.


You need to have a credit or debit card in the name of each person so you still have to pay for kids, unless you get a credit card for you child, like I did.

Sign up for email or text alerts to remind yourself of the dates here.

Here is a list of the museums in the New York/New Jersey area:

• NJ
• Liberty Science Center (Jersey City)
• Montclair Art Museum (Montclair)
• Morris Museum (Morristown)
• Newark Museum (Newark)
• NY
• Suffolk county Vanderbilt Museum (Centerport)
• Long Island Children's Museum (Garden City)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (Manhattan)
• Staten Island Children's Museum (Staten Island)
• New York Historical Society (NYC)
• Whitney Museum of American Art (Manhattan)
• Brooklyn's Children Museum (Brooklyn)
• Queen's Museum of Art (Queens)
• Guggenheim Museum (Manhattan)
• Old Westbury Gardens (Old Westbury)
• Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carraiges

Today Only! - Save $0.40 a Gallon off Shell Gasoline with Fuel Rewards Network

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Fuel Rewards Network



Update: The offer has gone down to $0.25 off a gallon for your second fillup, not terrible.


Sorry for the late notice, but I only read about this yesterday on Frugal Hack.


Sign up for Fuel Rewards Network today (3/1/2015) and you can get up to $0.40 (and possibly more) off your 2nd purchase of Gasoline at Shell.

Please feel free to use Frugal Hack's referral link instead.


Here is how it works: