Good afternoon everyone, before I begin, I wanted to remind everyone that my giveaway ends tonight at 8pm PST. If you haven’t entered the giveaway yet, please do so. Good luck to everyone! With that said, let’s get to the topic that is on my mind today.
Lately, I have been thinking about the best way to reload my Redbird Cards. Assuming I can only use credit cards for Redbird reloads (no gift cards), which credit card is the best for earning cash back? Is the new “3% cash back” Discover It Miles credit card the best for Redbird reloads?
If you are not familiar with the Discover It Miles Credit Card, check out Doctor of Credit’s post for all the details. Here is how the credit card works:
- Earn 1.5 miles for every dollar spent on the credit card
- After the first year, Discover will double all the miles you earned
- You can redeem 100 miles for $1 towards statement credit / cash back
The concept is simple, I will essentially earn 3% cash back on all purchases, I just have to wait until the end of my card member year to receive the full 3% cash back. If you know anything about me, you know I don’t like waiting and I will definitely not wait an entire year to get my bonus points. On to the next credit card…
The next contender is the almost unknown Golden1 Platinum Rewards Credit Card. I learned about this credit card at the OC TravelCon and was interested in learning more, luckily, Doctor of Credit also reviewed this credit card on his site.
This credit card is issued by the Golden1 Credit Union, which appears to only have branches in California with a few branches in the San Francisco area (how convenient…). Here is how the credit card works:
- Earn 3% cash back at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants
- Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases
Since this credit card is issued as a Visa, Redbird reloads and other Target purchases should post as a grocery store purchases, therefore earning 3% cash back. That sounds fantastic, it is 50% more rewarding than the 2% Citi Double Cash and I receive the full 3% right away, not at the end of the year. I would only use this credit card to reload my Redbird Card and nowhere else. I would use my Citi Forward Credit Card at restaurants (5x) and my AMEX Old Blue Cash at grocery stores (5% cash back). But is there an even better credit card out there?
Last but not least is my US Bank FlexPerks Credit Card. I have had this credit card since the Winter Olympics promo back in February 2014.
Since this credit card is issued by US Bank, you may have a hard time getting approved for this credit card if you have a few credit inquiries on your credit report. To get around that, I recommend freezing your ARS and IDA credit reports (smaller credit bureaus that US Bank uses) before applying. Here is how the credit card works:
- Earn 2 FlexPoints for every dollar spent at grocery stores
- Earn 1 FlexPoint for every dollar spent elsewhere
- Redeem 20,000 FlexPoints for a ticket up to $400 (more info)
- Receive a “$25 airline allowance” on each award ticket (more info)
- Annual fee is $49 or 3,500 FlexPoints (I was able to get a retention bonus to offset the annual fee)
If you redeem your FlexPerks for a flight that costs almost $400, you are getting nearly 2 cents per point. Since you earn 2 FlexPoints per dollar when you reload your Redbird Card at Target, that equates to a “4% cash back rate.” I crunched the numbers and as long as you redeem your FlexPoints for flights costing $300 or more, you will be earning greater than “3% cash back.”
After doing the calculations, I have decided not to apply for the Discover It Miles and the Golden1 Platinum Rewards Credit Cards. Even though US Bank can be extremely difficult to work with (trigger-happy fraud alerts, long hold times, etc.,) I will continue to rack up FlexPoints. What do you think? Did I make the right decision? If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
The Amex Everyday is also a great credit card to use for reloading the Target Redcard. It offers 1.5 points per dollar spent. So, if you can get 2 or 3 cents of value out of each point, it rivals the US Bank Flexperks card. Also, the Wells Fargo cash back card or the Wells Fargo Visa Signature card would be great cards to use.
Seeing that you’re currently living in the Bay Area, where did you get your Target Redcard? I’m living in Tuscaloosa, AL right now, and there are several participating Targets nearby.
I’ve traveled out of state to find my Redbird Cards, but I also have friends in other states that sell temp Redbird Cards, if you are interested. As far as Membership Reward Points go, I value them at around 1.5 cents a piece, so not quite as high as you.
Correct call. I currently have the FlexPerks Visa and Amex. Also Club Carlson and Lifemiles from US Bank. I was a little surprised they recently approved me for the Amex, as I had more than a few inquiries in my past.
US Bank has also started allowing Cash+ online applications, if you are looking for another US Bank credit card. I only have 3 at the moment :)
My goto card is Club Carlson for loading Redbird. Here is my reasoning. You get 5x per $. It seems the consensus is that Club Carlson points are worth 6/10th of a cent. 5x 6/10th = 3 cents per $. When you use the bogo that comes w/ the credit card, that doubles the value to 6 cents per $. I can’t think of any other card that gives such value.
I would take a look at the redemption value for club Carlson properties before I called that real value.
That is my thought exactly. The value of Club Carlson points is pretty subjective based on the hotels you stay at.
Where did you get the redbird?
Daughter is @ Udel in Newark, Delaware. 1/2 hour South there is a Target in Aberdeen, Maryland where I get Redbird.
My friend is getting his Ph.D at Udel :)
Agree Club Carl is awesome value. Just booked a trip to Aruba and getting over 8 cents per point. Also just got a targeted extra 5 points per dollar at restaurant for the next 2 months on the business card.
Dang, that is a really good promo on the US Bank Club Carlson Business Credit Card. I haven’t used my business credit card in a while, I hope US Bank sends me a generous spending offer soon.
I am also going back to Aruba on 03/21 for another 8 nights. Was there over Thanksgiving for 10 nights. Both Wife & I have card so we rotate 2 night stays. We were upgraded to a $700 per night suite last stay. It would have cost $7K plus tax if paying cash. We used 300k points … a combination of 50 & 75k bookings. This time we are all in @ 75k points per booking which = 300K for 8 nights. I asked for a club level upgrade. The value is tremendous and the points come easy.
Did you request the upgrade prior to arriving? Also did they have no problem with merging multiple 2 night stays into one? I am definitely looking forward to it. Let me know if you wanted to meet up. I will be there from March 18-24. a NJ native also over here
I asked when I made the reservation on-line in the comment box. I might have called also and asked, but don’t remember. I had no problem w/ rotating the 2 night booking. Had to go to the front desk every 2 days to register but it was quick and I got to know all the peeps @ the front desk. They just left us in the same suite for 10 days. Yes, I’d like to meet up. I’m also a Jersey native from the Shore … Pt.. Radisson Aruba is excellent!
I can send you guys an email so you can figure out a time/place to meet. Let me know.
Much appreciated, Grant! It will be fun talking miles and points to somebody in person, especially in Aruba. I find most people cannot grasp what we do. Most want to know if it is legal.
I just sent an email to both of you. Sounds like a fun place to meet up :)
Sounds like an epic use of Club Carlson points. I was in Aruba in 2004/2005 with my family. It is a nice place. I’m not sure if there are any Club Carlson properties on Curacao, but that is a nearby island that is a little bigger with more activities. You might want to consider Curacao in the future :)
Barbados and Grenada have some Club Carl properties also, want to check them out next time. Yeah feel free to send me over DavidNJ’s info via email or twitter. My email is same as my twitter handle @gmail
I just sent an email to both of you. Sounds like a fun place to meet up :)
Club Carlson points are hard to value. Assuming you stay at their second to highest tier hotels, the price is 50,000 points a night. With the Club Carlson Card Card, you average cost per night is 25,000 points a night. Divide that by 5 points per dollar and you need to spend $5,000 on the card to get a free night. Since you are forgoing 3-4% cash back on your Redbird reloads, you are giving up $150-$200 in “cash back.” As long as your Club Carlson stays are worth more than $150-$200 per night, you will come out ahead. Some Radisson Blu hotels are definitely worth that price.
I stayed two nights in New York at the Radisson for 50,000 points at a hotel that would have been $400/night. There are also some great values (based on points per dollar) for award stays at some expensive properties in Europe.
I agree, most of the Radison Blu properties in Europe go for $400+ per night.
Another perk of flexperk is the $25 credit for baggage or other expenses. But my best card for redbird is still DC Elite at 3x. I use it and flexperks to reload.
I heard the Diners Club card was a bit iffy for MS, but if it works for you then keep using it.
it is working for me no problems (finger’s crossed) so far. Just using a quarter to half of my balance per month (which isn’t hard since they gave me a ridiculous balance). Also spreading around spread to multiple stores, not just hitting up Redbird.
why can’t I just use onevanilla visa cards or Metabank visa gift cards as credit card to load redbird? I just signed up for redbird and looking forward to use up the old blue cash first 6500$ on to catch up to the rewards zone. but beyond that I was going to buy gift cards and use them as credit card to load the card
You could…but then you are losing out on using a CC directly. If only you could liquidate pin enabled gift cards some other way. A way that is barred from credit cards…
old Blue cash gives me 5% on Onevanila at CVS the fee is 1% at 4.99 for 500
so I am left with 4% profit.. seams like the best cash back on redbird.
(till Amex closes my blue cash again lol)
That is definitely true. If that works for you, then go right ahead and load the gift cards to your Redbird Cards.
again? how many old blue cash did you have?
It sounded like he had one that was closed by AMEX and then he opened up another OBC.
You can certainly use gift cards to load your Redbird Card if your local Target allows you. I wanted to keep this post somewhat short so I didn’t include credit cards used to buy gift cards.
Seems to me that to maximize FP rewards, you’ll have to find tickets in that sweet spot, plus the hassle of dealing with US Bank’s fraud department may be just 1 too many hoops to jump through for me… I like DavidNJ’s reasoning, especially if you like to do the short weekend trips… otherwise, Golden1 seems golden to me.
I believe over time, US Bank is easier to use, but their system doesn’t like nice round numbers ($1,000). It is a constant struggle with them.
My experience with them, also. Once the card is “trained”, can put 1000 charge on at Target with no problem. First time I did it, it was declined. I called and let them know it was me, and charge cleared. Thereafter, no problems. BTW, I am using the Chase SW card to load to keep my companion pass. We travel all over on SW, so the pass is very valuable. SW points worth 1.5 cents (roughly), so getting them for free worth it, even if give up 2% FP, or other card CB.
As long as you get good value out of your SWA Companion Pass, earning SWA points is a good plan.
I’m using SPG for redbird. I can use it for hotel or transfer points to airlines. It’s my favorite card. Haha
SPG is good, but I am not sure an SPG point is worth 3-4 cents.
I am still having luck with the Amex GC method. I just finished a 10K spend for Amex Business Platinum so I am ready to shift gears for cash back. I will use the Ebates Visa to get 4% on Amex GC then unload to Redbird as usual.
I saw the Ebates Visa but have never considered getting one. Do you get much value from the credit card?
Does ebates give you any issue with making large purchases online (amex gift cards $2000)? Also did they give your a decent limit so you can purchase a couple at a time ($4000+)? Does the 4% actually get credited on the Amex GC purchases. I personally am a fan of ebates because I have never had an issue with something crediting. They have the best customer service of any cashback portal online IMHO (quick responses too).
Today I offloaded most of my GCs from the Staples promotion back in December onto my Redbird. It was really refreshing loading Redbird with GCs, avoiding all the fraud alerts, which I seemed to get at least 50% of the time for the first 2 months of having Redbird. But hopefully now that my cards are “used” to seeing large purchases from Target, I won’t have as many…
The eBates idea sounds pretty good, since that can all be done online!
I definitely prefer using gift cards since the loads are “a sure thing” and never result in any fraud alerts or declined transactions.
P.S. everyone that’s asking where we got our Redbirds…just check your local craigslist (sfbay.craigslist.org definitely has at least one seller), ebay, or reddit! You’ll find them sold anywhere from $20 to $50. I was able to buy one in store (in CA too!), but then the store never came in stock again, so I bought my second one online. Well worth not having to check frequently if my Target was back in stock.
I definitely recommend buying a temp card online. Plenty of sites to choose from or I can recommend a few people.
Can you recommend please, I’ve been trying to get one, but our Target sells out fast! (Roseville) thanks!
I just sent you an email.
Can you load Redbird card with Vanilla reload? Sometimes, I can still find VR at my local grocery stores.
I don’t think you can load VRCs to Redbird, but I have never tried.
Grant, can’t you use the Discover card to purchase Amex Gift Card via rewards sites and get 1.5% CB on top of it?
Yes, there are lots of ways to stay gift cards into the mix, but for simplicity, I wanted to talk about only using credit cards for redbird reloads.
I got your point! Good post as always.
Thank you Kay!
Do you have a link to the US Bank Flex Perks Travel card available where you receive perks? I looked, but could not find one.
Yes, you can find the link here: http://travelwithgrant.boardingarea.com/credit-cards/credit-card-referrals/
Thank you for your support!