So I Took My Cat to the Vet Emergency... and When It Was Time to Pay the Bill, I Remembered Something

My cat is old and wasn’t eating at all and I got really concerned. So I took her to the vet emergency after hours. They checked her in and then I went to pay the bulk of the emergency bill up front. It was going to be a $350 up front charge.

So I open my wallet to pull out a card to pay. I’m thinking I should probably just use the Chase Freedom Unlimited, that’s a safe choice

Then I remember something.

Chase Freedom Flex earns 5x on vet services this quarter

So I pull out the CFF. In the moment, it was just a moment of levity to ever so slightly brighten up my mood.

Don’t know why it’s funny, but I thought I would tell the story.

Oh, and my cat ended up being fine, she was just in pain from arthritis so we gave her pain meds and she started eating again.

Glad your cat is ok and that you didn’t use a different card. It sucks to have a head-slap moment when you got home after realizing you could have easily gotten X more amount back if you had just swiped a different card.

@Alexander
I did this sort of head slap moment yesterday. Needed last minute items for Thanksgiving from Costco, so I ordered two Instacart gift cards to use for Costco Same Day ($100 gift card for $80). The delivery of the gift cards was slow and the delivery window was getting dangerously close to the cutoff for the day. So I panicked and went through check out, accidentally clicking submit with the saved payment method of my last SUB card that I already hit the MSR on. It only earns 1 MR so I missed hitting MSR on the latest Ink from P2. Now I’m sitting with $200 Costco same-day credit, less progress towards the MSR than I should have (at least the gift cards went on the Ink), and poor earning on the actual order. Oof.

@Noble
Bummer! I had a similar experience getting Thanksgiving groceries yesterday.

This is why I use CardPointer haha I’m not going to memorize this.

Del said:
This is why I use CardPointer haha I’m not going to memorize this.

What’s CardPointer?

Jean said:

Del said:
This is why I use CardPointer haha I’m not going to memorize this.

What’s CardPointer?

It’s a great app that tracks your cards, tells you which is the best card to use for any given store, and auto adds offers for Amex, Chase, Citi, BofA, and perhaps others I’m forgetting.

Del said:
This is why I use CardPointer haha I’m not going to memorize this.

I keep a little note widget on my phone that lists out my cards in case I ever forget.

Del said:
This is why I use CardPointer haha I’m not going to memorize this.

I just put little labels on the cards so I can see them in my wallet. Works well enough my parents and brother started doing it as well.

I just had the exact same experience last week with my cat! Thankfully, she’s ok, too.

I once accidentally used my OG Freedom instead of my CFU with double Cashback bonus (so 6x dining) when paying for a large meal ($450). Felt horrible afterwards, but then realized my OG Freedom was linked to my AA dining whereas my CFU wasn’t. Got a healthy sum of miles that night!

@Chase
I had never heard of AA dining before. I just looked it up, and most of the restaurants around me in the AA dining program are the same restaurants from the Bilt program. Is double dipping available if I link my card to both?

@Zyler
I had it work once when Bilt Dining first launched (I believe in Beta). Now when you link a card to a different program Bilt will give a warning saying “you aren’t earning at all restaurants.” Now it codes for one or the other, never both.

@Chase
They’re all using the same rewards network API (https://www.rewardsnetwork.com), so that’s why you see the same restaurants on all the same cashback sites, i.e., Rakuten, etc. It also explains why you can’t double dip on card linked cashback through that same network.

You should have asked if they take PayPal also.

Thane said:
You should have asked if they take PayPal also.

I don’t think the category would stack that way.

Fisher said:

Thane said:
You should have asked if they take PayPal also.

I don’t think the category would stack that way.

Probably not, but worth a try.

Thane said:

Fisher said:
Thane said:
You should have asked if they take PayPal also.

I don’t think the category would stack that way.

Probably not, but worth a try.

Sadly they don’t stack together, only time it has stacked is if it’s a sign-up bonus. Example when Chase had the gas sign-up bonus and the gas quarter running that stacked so you were getting 9% back. 4% from the sign-up + 4% for the quarter + 1% = 9%.

Fisher said:

Thane said:
You should have asked if they take PayPal also.

I don’t think the category would stack that way.

Two 5% categories do not stack. PayPal purchase at McDonald’s earns the PayPal 5% only, plus the restaurant 2%.

I had some expensive vet bills this month, and my only solace was getting 5% with CFF lol.