Adam_Schwartz

Just saw this promo Discover will be running - not bad if you have some big projects coming up. Might not be bad to get a card if you know you are going to spend a nice chunk of change on a deck, etc.

From March 1, 2005 through May 31, 2005, you’ll get 5% Cashback Bonus® when you use your Discover® Card to make purchases at:


Ace Hardware

Bed Bath & Beyond®

Lowe’s®

Menards®

Pier 1 Imports

Restoration Hardware

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS®

Smith & Hawken®

The Container Store®

The Home Depot®

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Ooh...I'll wait until March 1st and stop by the container store. I've been meaning to buy something from there for a while now...

Professor

Hey, could you buy like $100K at Home Depot, get your 5% on Discover for $5K, and return all the crap the next month for a refund?

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Why don't you try it and let us know how that turns out?

Professor

Man... there's a small faction on this site that wants to see me do time for my honest scheming!

Adam_Schwartz

I am pretty dam sure they know what is paid on what, so you wouldn't be able to net $5,000. But go ahead and try it.

You could, however, buy $100K in goods, get the $5,000 and invest that $5000 in something short term, return the $100K in goods and pay back the $5000 to Discover. Too bad you'd probably spend more in gas and time than you'd make on the $5000.

Professor

I dunno. Does an online order of 14000 hot water heaters for pick-up at the local HD seem suspicious? I could then use my AMEX to pay-off the Discover and tell HD I need a cash refund for some gifts people bought for me online.

Slimey

There's always a limit to these promotions. The max you'll get back is $75 in 5 weeks.

TLover

Here's another offer, but I can't guarantee you'll get it. Since I have too many credit cards -- most of which have no balance -- I decided to start canceling some, including my Discover card. So I call Discover to say I want to cancel. They say, "What can we do to keep you." I said I already opened a new card -- I got an offer for a CWA union card at 1.9% for transfers -- and transfered all my balances to that card. So they offer to waive all balance transfer fees and give me ZERO percent until the balance is gone as long as I charge $25 a month on the card.

Adam_Schwartz

Ah, there's a catch, so Professor cannot do his scam!

I need to get my wife signed up for this too just in case our deck supplies are more than $1500. I guess the good part is that $75 > $15.

Slimey

Agreed, as a home owner I'm always at the Home Despot anyway. I'm sure I'll benefit from this campaign.

The only caveat would be if Home Despot has a campaign of their own with their credit card. They often have 6 months same as cash and other discounts that vary with the season on their card.

Adam_Schwartz

So which is better? 6 months same as cash or getting 5% back on your purchase through Discover? Let's assume $1500 of crap is bought from HD.

It depends on the person, but I'd rather take $1500 I have sitting in a 2.5-3% savings account and use that to pay off the deck and get 5% cash back, take that 5% and throw it in my IRA. The way I see it, the $75 would be as if I had earned $100 before taxes (assuming 23% tax is taken out). Just thinking out load.

Adam_Schwartz

BTW, I like Lowes more than Home Depot overall, but HD is closer to me than Lowes. HD often times is out of products, which blows my mind. How could such a big company not have their inventory control together?

dallison

my 0% for 6 months is almost over, i need to call next month to see if i can get a lower apr again

Slimey

It depends if you have $1500 lying around for the purchase anyway -- which really gets at how people use their credit cards. I basically use them as cash advances -- I never buy anything that I couldn't otherwise afford. Obviously many people use their credit cards as a rolling (high interest) loan. Not for me. I never carry a balance.

I'd take the cash too, but in reality I won't be investing $75. That's spending money.

Adam_Schwartz

You and I are the same - I only put big purchases on a CC assuming I have that in cash in some account. Only in emergencies or really bif purchases would I finance something.

Adam_Schwartz

BTW, I the reason I mentioned the $75 going into an IRA is because my wife and I have decided to take any types of cash back awards, etc and just invest it for retirement as if we had never seen it. But that's just what we are doing now, not what is the correct thing to do. We built up about $800 in cash awards through Discover over long time and dumped all that into an IRA.

Slimey

That's very disciplined. Kudos to you both. I take my cash back and spend it.

Adam_Schwartz

Well, I will tell you it is a somewhat new thing for us - we had a lot of new home expenses in 2003-2004, so now we can save some. So if anything we are playing catch up. But we are trying our best to live a good life and save some for the future.