Remember that frivolous World Series of Poker tourney I played in last month? As I wrote in A Colossus Breakdown, WSOP-style it cost $565 to enter. I splurged 565 BUCKS on a long-shot. How did I justify doing that? Would you like that kind of MAD MONEY? With a little planning, here’s how you can get that much tax-free money to blow with a clear conscience.
Right now, get 2% cash back on everything when you use Capital One’s Spark Cash for Business credit card. Its current promotion gives 50,000 Bonus No Hassle Rewards points if one spends $4,500 in the first three months the card is open. That’s a lot of dough, but I knew I had some big bills coming up. I got the card and spent $4,507.21. When my statement dropped, I received 2% cash back on those purchases ($90.14) PLUS the 50,000 bonus points ($500).
That’s a grand total of $590.14 for using a credit card to pay for things that I otherwise could have paid for with cash or a check. Click to Tweet this! Read my 11 Ways To Meet A Spending Requirement.
If you’d like your own windfall, click on “Chip’s Favorite Credit Card Offers” at the top right side of this website then “Business Cards” to get all the info and to apply. Email me if you have any questions. You may already be a “business”. Check out How To Fill Out A Business Card Application. Here’s my card’s screenshot:
There are no foreign transaction fees. The $59 annual fee is waived the first year. If I decide to keep the card, my $500 bonus will certainly pay for a lot of annual fees.
They also have a version of this card that never has an annual fee. That card only pays 1.5% cash back. The bonus is $200 when you spend $3,000 the first three months the card is open.
Redemption!
The redemption options boil down to either a check in the mail, account credit or gift cards. Merchant specific gift cards are a joke. Cash can be spent anywhere, so why get a gift card and limit where you can use that money?
Sometimes, usually around late October to early November, some of Capital One’s gift cards go on sale at 10% off. No joke there. THAT is a good deal if you plan to do some business with one of the merchants. You can get a $100 gift card for $90 (9,000 points), $50 gift card for $45 (4,500 points), or $25 gift card for $22.50 (2,250 points).
It’s fun to receive a check in the mail. This is old hat to me, so I just have them credit all of it to my account before I pay the bill off in full. I don’t need a check to know I just got $590.14 tax-free! Here’s my actual redemption screenshot:
See the screenshot below of the $590.14 credit to my account. I always pay off my cards in full every month. I even pay them off before the statement drops to bring the balance due to zero. That improves my credit score slightly by lowering the debt-to-available credit ratio. Anyway… pretty cool $590.14 windfall. Pretty darn easy too!
