Then why bother?
I am not trying to be snide at all here, I am trying to show that this is the fallacy that many people fall into.
You speak of making $1135 a year from using credit cards, but because I use cash, I get reduced rates on many, many purchases; fuel, logging supplies, building materials, chainsaws, etc.
One day I was with my wife looking at an old antique stove to go in our home that has a 1930 d馗or. The saleswoman was telling me she was having a hard time selling antique gas appliances, and thus told me, "I would sell everyone of these gas stoves for half off if I could." I happened to have $4500 in my pocket, so I pulled out the wad of cash and said, "I'll give you $700 for that stove right now."
She went for it because she had just had two stoves come back because the buyers homeowner's insurance would not cover an antique gas stove. I do not have the problem, and by paying cash, it was a "as is" sale.
That was just one purchase granted, but it happens a lot.
In another case I did not spring for the new $7000 boiler for my house, but instead bought a used one for $700; 90% savings, and they both make a house warm. The used purchase was a private person and so a credit card could not have been used.
With credit cards, the credit card company
dictates to you what the deal is going to be, and on what types of purchases as well. With cash, I can ask what the deal will be. If I like it, I can then agree to it, or not. In the case of the stove it was 50% and not 3%, but on most purchases, the vendor will knock the price back because most people pay with credit cards, so they inflate the prices by 3% anyway. But lets say the stove dealer did not go for a 50% sale, I could have asked for a 35% sale, or 25% sale...the point is, I can negotiate the savings.
I have only listed (2) cash purchases totaling savings of $7000. That is (2) purchases, yet it would take 6 years of cash back rewards to equate to just those (2) purchases. This is why credit cards in every way are a bad deal.
I want you to get angry, but not at me. Get mad at the credit card companies that hoodwink us, our kids, and our country. It is NOT a conspiracy, it is just the way the crazy system works, but it need not be so. Then realize I am not doing anything special. EVERYONE can use cash and beat the crazy system that is designed to make you think you are getting a lot of money back. You are getting some I admit, but you can get a lot more by never handing it out!
This is the stove we bought saving $700 just by paying cash.
View attachment 615854
