Even if you did the minimum 5k in there for 2.5 you’d still come out behind the Alliant card most likely.
The big difference in favor of Smartly is that, with $5k, the Smartly offers uncapped 2.5%, whereas, with $1k, the Alliant’s 2.5% is capped at $10k/billing cycle (month) spend.
The big difference in favor of the Alliant is that it has no FTF, whereas the Smartly has a 3% FTF.
The savings account interest rate doesn’t change my mind about the card. I transferred in assets to their affiliate, US Bancorp (think: VOO and chill) to get the 4%.
Patton said:
The savings account interest rate doesn’t change my mind about the card. I transferred in assets to their affiliate, US Bancorp (think: VOO and chill) to get the 4%.
This is the way.
Patton said:
The savings account interest rate doesn’t change my mind about the card. I transferred in assets to their affiliate, US Bancorp (think: VOO and chill) to get the 4%.
Again I can get 5% at Target, Walmart, Kroger (any grocery store really), Amazon (w/ Prime that I already have), Best Buy all on free cards. On gas and restaurants, I can get 5% on multiple Citi Custom Cash cards (also free).
The only places I shop I’m usually not getting 5% are Costco and Sam’s (I don’t want their credit card), so I get 3% at those places. Also home improvement stores (usually 5% for 2 out of 4 quarters of the year with Chase Freedom/Discover It) and clothing stores. Make an online purchase there and I’ll at least get 3% and sometimes Freedom/IT covers those.
I guess my car and house insurance aren’t covered by anything and fall to 2% cards. Maybe streaming services and gym membership as well get 3%.
I guess the card works if you want a one-and-done solution and don’t care you aren’t maximizing cash back where available.
@Tate
Yup, all our spending habits are different, glad it’s working out for you.
We still have 5% cards as well, just trying to see if it’s worth the mental effort. Target and Amazon are easy to keep, of course. Will keep the Redstone FCU for dining and gas. MAYBE the AAA Daily Advantage for groceries. Otherwise everything else is 4%, including federal and state income tax and property tax.
@Tate
Aggressive category spend and/or travel rewards are indeed the viable alternatives.
Could get an Elan Max Cash Preferred for 5% on utilities and, say, entertainment.
I have this card and all I’m willing to do is leave $5K in US Bank to make it a 2.5% APY catch-all card.
I anticipate the APYs at all banks will continue to fall and I’m not interested in US Bank as a brokerage over Fidelity. If I go from $5K to $50K with their noncompetitive rates what I lose in APY not picking a better rate bank won’t be made up by getting an extra 0.5% cash back on my spend.
Lastly, and I’ve said this before, if you’re willing there are too many free cards that get 5% cash back at most major stores to have to jump through hoops to get 4% cash back and even then you’d fall from 5% to 3% in many cases with the BoA Customized Cash Rewards card and online shopping as the category. Going from 3% to 4% isn’t worth any hoop jumping either.
@Tate
It looks like the 5k tier is only 2.5% APR for the savings account now, something to consider. It’s pretty uncompetitive compared to most HYSAs.
Doesn’t matter to me.
Will move over $100k from my Merrill IRA for the 4% back.
Just the difference between netting ~0.8% on tax payments with the BofA PR Visa and ~2.2% back with this card is real money for me.
@Charley
This is such a huge part of it. The amount of time, energy, and money I’ve spent over the years to reduce my tax burden by 2% is hilarious. All I needed was the right credit card… lol. Is that likely to get undone in some way at some point? Sure. But, some of these conventional tax strategies aren’t guaranteed to be good from year to year either.
It’s just too many hoops and numbers for me, not worth it.
Savor isn’t that compelling of a cashback card compared to Bread Rewards, Verizon, AAA Everyday Advantage, or Custom Cash stack.
Going with their savings account option is playing right into their hands. When I spoke with a banker at a branch, that was his first pitch. They want people to look the other way that rates will eventually fall.
No, I was planning to put almost everything in the brokerage account in the form of index-based ETFs anyway. If I were planning to commit $100k to the savings account, the 4% cashback from my credit card spend would no longer be worth the squeeze.
For what it’s worth, I’m planning to keep investments in both Merrill Edge/BofA and in US Bank so that I can qualify for the highest tier in both ecosystems. The 3.8-4.1% APY you get from US Bank is much higher than the essentially 0% you get from BofA. However, from what I’ve heard, Merrill Edge seems to have access to better money market funds than US Bank (at least from what I’ve heard, as I don’t have access to online banking in US Bank yet).
@Fable
Which money market fund would you like to purchase as USB? I can look it up for you.
No. Don’t bother with the APY in the savings account. I left $100 in my both my savings/checking accounts and just put 100K in a brokerage account.
My reason being I have a better cash management account which is both easier to use and has better interests (Fidelity). I’m doing the minimum to satisfy the 4% cashback. It works as of now. I can already see my purchases being labeled as 4% CB.
Just keeping your emergency fund in a ST treasury ETF like SGOV. Higher return and state-tax exempt.