How to Maximize Your Savings with Cashback Credit Cards: Top Tips & Tricks | DansDeals Podcast Ep 2

so if if you earn three points per dollar and if you value your American miles at a penny and a half each so that's like 4 and a half% back on that transaction and then you'll get 10% rebated also on that so that'll be close to like 5% back on that transaction wow now that's if you use your miles for a penny and a half each which is really easy if you use your American miles at a value of 10 cents right per mile you know that goes up exponentially and and that's feasible it is feasible to do if you book a business class ticket on on Qatar Airways uh for 70,000 miles to the mald or to South Africa there's tons of amazing uses what are the best cashback credit cards I know they City double cash right City double cash is great because you choose between 2% cash back or two points per dollar oh wow do you need another credit card with them to be able to use the points yes that's that is the catch welcome to the second ever Dan's Deals podcast we have been posting the best deals online for over 20 years now and have saved people billions with a B of dollars as well as earned tens of billions of miles and points on their credit cards and we're here to teach you how you can do the same so the 20th birthday that was fun huh it was a crazy crazy experience it really came together in the end I've been wanting to do that for like 20 years for 20 years I having this in mind for at least a year now that I wanted to do this I reached out to your favorite companies about six months ago and it really came together yeah it was kind of dubious but it worked out out pretty well the biggest problem for me was that the designer Jack Vash shubsky who built our website we got to get him on this podcast sometime he's a super talented ux guy and he just really understands how people interact I mean he's probably like in Syria by now doesn't he usually hunt out the war zones I think he's building a Yeshiva in a sheep farm in Israel I think okay yeah tracks it's a unique place it does track well he he he got people out of Ukraine you know and that was accomplished now he's in Israel helping the people there when the war started uh he's awesome yeah and he travels to Crazy places yes so yeah so he's based in Israel so every single day we had to update the form and the the back end of it so I was staying up until like 1:00 a.m. when he started working in Israel and then I was getting up at like 6:00 a.m. to see what he did in those 4 hours to check on it and give feedback for that and so I got I got four hours of sleep and then of course we timed this for Black Friday I mean that's just what happened because I started the website on Black Friday which is also right around my birthday was on my birthday at the time in 2004 yeah so yes so exactly so it was 20 days of that and then it went straight into Black Friday saber Monday so it was really 30 days straight of uh not much sleep yeah not much impressive work thank you thank you but the feedback was awesome we got like over 10,000 new followers on WhatsApp app and tens of thousands of people signed up over the promotion so really really a great a great time for everyone I had so much feedback I'm sure you heard the same but like these are really good prizes actually like what were the top few prizes as far as entries go so I'm the number one was the the grand ultimate giveaway it was like three four times anything else okay L was number one besides that the Bugaboo it was like a pretty consistent amount until like the Bugaboo was pish posh baby I think they they shared it to their readers as well so they brought on a lot of people and that just went crazy nice the first one the zun I think was like the best prize yeah that was an awesome prize yeah maybe you should have held that back a little longer you want to start off with a bang you know yeah exactly you want to start with the bang the Friday Saturdays were a little slower you know but those were only open for a few hours so if you did it again I don't know 25th anniversary who knows no would you would you skip Friday and Saturday would you start it earlier in the cycle no I'm shaking my head no for anyone listening on the podcast never again I I would do a uh a grand ultimate maybe like one day get everyone together and just do like on the 25th this is the like here's here's 510 incredible deals the art scroll deal I think is one of their best sales day of all time that art SC they think gave us the best deal ever so was it you know it makes sense I open to something like that where it's just all set up for 24 hours or maybe even over Black Friday like we did you know it starts on Thursday or Wednesday whenever our birthday falls out next year and it runs through Cyber Monday next year you're you're going out for the 21st birthday that's pretty aggressive I've been for the 25th um maybe something like that sounds good yeah have some time to plan it out yeah we'll see how old will you be by then I mean I will be 45 right and gosh that'll be that'll be right but like by my 4 a year before year before yeah exactly cuz I'm exactly six years older than you so math checks out yeah wow that's uh exciting to think what even life is going to be like in 5 years from now I feel like with the AI changing you know I haven't yet found the best use case for AI in my work I don't I'm sure I think you have done more with it than I have but yeah there's no doubt that AI is going to give be a game changer it's just question as how exactly and and what it will mean for everybody the problem I think you have with AI right now is that you could tell it's AI right in the writing style in in a lot of I can't stand reading AI writing and news sites that are using that it's just so obvious and when you said get an email from someone it's so obvious my gosh like good morning to you I hope you are maximizing your day no stop stop and like an airline wrote to us a whole long email and it was clearly AI yes a nasty gram email from theine for sharing a deal that was too good too good to be true they didn't I mean they made the promotion they set the terms yeah absolutely and I it was it was a lot of fun actually I I wrote up a response through AI that was also obviously clearly Ai and uh that was yeah maybe we'll share that one day but um that was funny they did not answer after that I think they realized uh yeah you know and that was a top level person too it was like head of customer relations I'm not sure why they would come to us instead of just changing the promotion right I mean like just change your terms yeah like yeah we found this great deal out of your promotion there's a reason why every promotion says terms are subject to change at any time exactly so for example GPT the the number one AI right now grock might take it over it depends if Elon is successful in suing them I suppose that's right course Elon co-founded it with Sam all man that's right and they're supposed to be non for-profit now they're obviously for-profit well they're trying to be they're trying to switch to for profit right they haven't switched yet they're trying to and everybody is suing that they shouldn't be able to so threw his hat in there and other companies as well don't want him to switch to meta doesn't want them to switch to for-profit so everyone's got their uh their own motives obviously keeping them a nonprofit because as a for-profit Enterprise they're going to be huge yeah of course and and obviously elon's been blowing the trumpet for at least a year or two now that we need government regulation so while he's doing the Doge removing right which is interesting right I wouldn't be surprised if we see AI regulation in the next four years but he's not just someone who wants no regulation he wants sensible regulation right so you could understand where he's coming from but yes it is kind of ironic that he's going to be leading the effort to remove regulations but does want to see regulation AI because he sees it as an existential threat absolutely and I think anyone that understands just how fast AI has grown over the past five years has to see it as an exential threat yeah yeah I mean personally I see the Boston Dynamics dogs more as an existential threat but that maybe Black Mirror talking okay so what I was saying is GPD has a $200 a month paid version yeah and you tell it to not talk like AI to talk like human and it does and this is supposed to also replace video right you could get rid of film directors just make movies from AI I don't see it happening anytime soon I don't see that happening anytime soon but for example I think with a $200 version and it might not be there yet but in 5 years from now write the blog post on this credit card based on my writing format well I mean they have AIS now that'll make a podcast out of information right so instead of us doing these podcasts we could just feed it a blog post and say hey make a make an hour podcast on this information right when will AI creativity surpass our own and what will that mean for everyone Well for now it's just what you feed into it right but it gathers more knowledge than you have right now it's definitely about the prompts and people are making whole businesses about their expertise in AI but the question is when it goes when become smarter than us exactly it's going to be an interesting future that's for sure so yeah 5 years from now I don't even know what the world looks like in five years from now self-driving cars are they going to pass I mean with Elon and Republicans all controlling the laws being passed over the next two years right is he gon to get full self-driving past Nationwide is like oh I don't think that's a matter of Regulation if he can get full self-driving going he would it's just the technolog is not there yet but but he will face eventually regulatory problems yeah it's possible but I don't think he's had too much you know I've seen Tesla stock kind of go crazy because of that but I'm not sure I'm not convinced that it's regulatory as opposed to technological even with no driver in the front seat they're not there yet they're just not it's not there it it's gotten much better and it keeps getting better right you know 5 years from now we'll see mhm but I'm not convinced that my 2018 model 3 is going to be driving New York to LA like they promised when I bought the car you know I'm not convinced that's ever going to happen okay I thought it was really interesting that the winners of the ultimate danals giveaway there was like in the terms like a cash alternative prize yeah and they all chose the cash alternative prize I think all three winners one of them's I don't know he's like not going to answer my emails exactly but I know um well we're not going to force you yeah exactly but two of them chose the cash option yeah the 20 favorite things I could understand the GU like from Brooklyn or whatever he doesn't have room in his house for a bigger place I get that but but the trip around the world like I was looking forward to planning that thing you know would have been fun yeah but uh it's interesting Cas King cash as king mentioning Cash's King what is your take on cash back credit cards so cash p credit cards are great there's certainly a use for them everybody could use the extra cash right right but there's a limit to what it's worth it's worth whatever the cash back that you get so with a mile if you don't use it well it's going to be worth much less than the cash back but if you use your miles well it' be worth much more than the cash back so it's pretty much that straightforward where a mile can be worth one cent or it could be worth 15 cents per mile right whereas the cash back is if you have a 2% card you're getting 2% cash back and that's it or if you have let's say a Bank of America retirement account or IAS you have $100,000 that you could set aside between all of your Investment Portfolio that's not 100,000 liquid that's 100,000 invested whatever yeah it could be 401K it could be everything all your assets that you have combined as long as it's $100,000 with Bank of America then you could earn 2.625% cash back anywhere so that's good that's great for cash back it's really good for sure but if you could beat that if you earn two mon miles per dollar on a card and you're using your miles to be worth 10 cents a piece that's 20% cash back right not cash back but 20% back value towards travel compared to 2.625 so right it just depends what you're doing with your miles and you have to you know just evaluate that and see what makes the most sense for you I saw there was a new cash back credit card from I forgot the bank it was like 4% cash back everywhere right yeah US Bank US Bank simar what were the earlier reports on that card well had some a lot of negative feedback with uh small credit lines and a lot of fees there's mandatory fees even if you have a lot of money with them so the monthly yearly fees yeah annual fees um for the for their accounts so and a lot of fees to if you want to do any stock trading there's fees that other banks in make of America don't have right so with the low monthly credit limit and an annual fee yeah it's the balance of yeah I'm getting 4% cash back but on how much money and is that over another card even going to make up the annual fee correct got it but it's something definitely to pay attention to for sure right I I guess maybe a new card they want to intentionally start with small credit limits probably yeah or it's a bent switch and they're trying to get people on the 4% and then next year they do 3% yeah I mean like Robin Hood has a 3% credit card if you sign up you pay an annual fee for Robin Hood gold it's 50 bucks a year but the problem is that they don't give you 3% on tax payments and they don't give the 3% on large purchases and they say it's a non-qualifying purchase so there's a lot of it's kind of gimmicky so you could actually end up coming out behind even though the initially it sounds so much better but when you get into the details of what you're actually spending what you're utilizing it on you may come out behind with these smaller Bank higher offers yeah you have to watch out for the gimmicks for sure and Bank of America has with stood the test of time so it's an impressive offer if you have the assets to do that mhm besides for that what are the best cash back credit cards I know they City double cash right City double cash is great because you choose between 2% cash back or two points per dollar oh wow do you need another credit card with them to be able to use the points yes that's that is the catch so used to come 2% cash back that you could convert over to points now it's actually you earn two points per dollar okay and you can cash out those points at a cent a piece like with all points well it depends on the bank some banks let you cash out at a cent a piece American Express doesn't let you cash out like that but a lot of banks do so you could cash out your points at one cent a piece with City or you can transfer those into miles if you have a city Premiere Card or which they call the strata Premiere Card now okay what's the annual Fe on that $95 okay yeah by default it gives you points you get two points per dollar MH uh and then you can cash them out one sent to Peach you get 2% cash back right or you can if you have a card like city premere city strata Premiere you could transfer those points into miles and pretty soon American is going to join that thank you points program so you can transfer to American which which are pretty valuable miles and they're hard to get oh wow that's a huge benefit it's going to be a game changer yeah right they actually allowed that for a little period of time during covid and then they cut it off and we haven't seen it in several years so it should be a real Boon uh for for Miles right wow yeah it'll really make those City points more valuable and give more value to the city double cash card and the Str Premiere Card and then if you have the city rewards Plus card you have a little Trifecta going there okay can you just explain Trifecta cuz I don't think most our listeners familiar with that term it's a term that I coined like 15 years ago to have multiple credit cards from the same bank that will optimize your spending sobody having like two or three or four cards from the same bank that each have their own tools each have their own benefits that will get you farther than where you are if you just have one card or just two cards so for example if you have the city double cash card that'll get you two points per dollar everywhere right and you add in the city's Str Premiere Card which gets you three points per dollar on travel and dining and entertainment on gas and it lets you transfer all your city points over to Miles and then if you also add in the rewards Plus Card which is no annual fee similar to the double cash has no annual fee okay so those cards can't transfer points to Miles directly you need the premier card to allow you to transfer those points into miles but by having the Plus card you get 10% of your points rebated back to you so if you would transfer over and let me just ask you e so you're earning two points per a dollar on the city double cash you're able to transfer them to Miles because you have the city Premier correct and now by having the rewards plus when you do transfer those miles you get a 10% bonus or 10% rebate rebate so in other words if American becomes partners with them I assume in the next year let's say then if you transfer over 100,000 miles over to American and you have a rewards Plus card you would get 10,000 points put back into your city account oh wow yeah so effectively it'll cost you 90,000 miles for that transfer and plus those points of course you earned at a rate of two points per dollar every with double cash or three points per dollar with a premier card and that's three points per dollar like category specific how does that work on the premier card so the premier card earns three points per dollar well it earns 10 points per dollar actually on hotels and car rentals directly through City travel if you book it through the city portal okay um but if you book airfare anywhere you'll get three points per dollar if you book anything through a travel agency you get three points per dollar yeah three points per dollar in any hotel is booked anywhere also on um especially cool when we open that Dan deals travel agency we talked about yeah that's true we have to make sure we're coded as a travel agency so that the bonus points post correctly that's our lead uh so you also earn three points per dollar on gas or EV charging even uh you're earn three points per dollar on dining and also you learn three points per dollar on uh grocery shopping oh that's very cool so what's the math on that three points per dollar transfer to points get 10% back how much were you now earning on that dollar right so if if you earn three points per dollar and if you value your American miles at a penny and a half each MH so that's like 4 and a half% back on that transaction and then you'll get 10% rebated also on that so that'll be close to like 5% back on that transaction wow now that's if you use your miles for a penny and a half each which is really easy if you use your American miles at a value of 10 cents right per mile you know that goes up exponentially and and that's feasible it is feasible to do if you book a business class ticket on on Qatar Airways for 70,000 miles to the Maldives or to South Africa there's tons of amazing uses so and last minute flights obviously could also be that high so with the city double cach let's just make it super basic every single day what you're actually earning with that rewards plus trifacta so you're ignoring the premier categories just right exactly it says every single day purchase because the real key is to make sure you're using those bonus categories so if you're buying gas or you're buying groceries or you're dining you know you're going to a restaurant you're buying airfare or hotels or travel you want to make sure you use that premier card I feel like let's just zoom out for a second there are people that are going to use their credit cards in the best way possible for every single purchase they're going to know which one I need for electronics which one I need for high-end Electronics which one I need for groceries right and that's that's you but I do think that the vast majority of people are not doing that and they want to know I'll put a little sticky note on my wife's credit card and I'll say hey this is yeah this one you only use for gas this one use for groceries like all right that's great um even you can even write it on the signature line nobody checks a signature anymore so you could write in a pen on that secondary line gas groceries dining right so again that's great if you're married to Dan right anybody could do that I agree and usually have one person in the relationship who's focused on this kind of thing so they can take care of that for their spouse okay I agree that's optimal and I agree it's within reach of anybody to do it with just minimal everyone's going to do it not everyone's going to do it so what I like to tell people is focus on what your everyday purchas is that you know this is a good thing that you're getting out of using your credit card you are getting a good benefit no matter where you go no matter what you buy you're getting a good benefit sure so the city double cash let's just focus on this right now the city double cash you're earning two points per dollar let's say in your example you spent $50,000 ignoring the signup bonus you now have 100,000 City points with thanks to your thank you point thank you thanks to your Premiere you're transferring those to a partner Airline and hotel or hotel and thanks to your rewards Plus Card you're getting 10% back on that up to 10,000 miles per year but yes up to 10,000 miles per year rebated rebate okay great so this is perfect so you you you made that you spent the 50,000 you made your 100,000 Point transfer for the year and now your two points everywhere is worth how much after that rebate I mean I guess effectively 2 point 22 right because if you transfer that over and get a 10% rebit you'll have 02 back and then if you transfer those point2 over you get point2 back so I would say 2.22 right okay that's amazing because like going back to that Bank of America example where you said it's 2.62 yeah right so now you're 2.2 to 2.62 but you have the option to transfer to Miles correct so I mean that's just right if you need the cash back for something you know you have emergency repair and you need cash or you're doing an incredible amount of spend people are spending millions of dollars you don't have enough travel to fulfill that yeah that's a sweet setup yeah that's a really sweet setup because you really could get exponentially more as miles but you don't have to you could always cash it out you also don't need to have $100,000 sitting with Bank of America yeah which makes it accessible to 99% of the rest of the world yes that's awesome wow thank you guys so much for joining us and I can't wait to see you on the next one yeah it's been fun as we have this conversation we realize how much more we have to talk about how much more time we need so yeah absolutely abolutely we got to get into other mileage programs we got to get into other trips that we've been on we didn't even get into any of like the deals from the past month there things going on right now so really excited to talk again yeah let's do it