We carry the right combination of credit cards to maximize the rewards that we can obtain each month.

I currently carry my original Discover Card, which offers 1% back on all purchases, in addition to a rotating 5% on various other categories. This has always been my go-to card with more than enough of a credit line, and I love watching my cash back account grow. I can instantly redeem my cash rewards for account credit, which I typically try to use for travel related expenses or any other larger purchases to help ease the cost.

In 2008, I was in search for a travel related credit card, but I was not too fond of the annual fee cards associated with specific airlines. In addition, I had concerns about opening up a credit card just for the bonus mile incentive, and then never being able to easily redeem them. Then along came Discover Miles, which teamed up with an outside source to offer a free Garmin GPS with a new credit line. I did not have a GPS unit in my vehicle, so I quickly signed my wife and I up considering the retail on the GPS unit was in the $150-200 range, a decent incentive to sign up at the time. We sold the extra GPS to a friend (my wife already had one installed in her vehicle), and quickly used our new cards to maximize our travel rewards. My Discover Miles card has been another great asset to have in my wallet.

We earn one mile per dollar spent, plus rotating categories, just like my other Discover Card, that offers double miles for select periods of time. For a good deal of time, this was my new go-to card because I enjoyed building miles in my account that could be used for ANY travel related expense. No longer was I concerned about blackout dates or being able to get on a specific flight. Now I could shop around for the travel deals I wanted, use my Discover Miles card, and then easily redeem my miles, in 10,000 mile increments ($100 credit).

Overall, we are loyal Discover Card members, and always try to maximize our rewards dependent on the incentive. Maybe it is the fact that my parents are also long time Discover Card users and they rubbed off on me, but I love my Discover Card, and it is always my first recommendation to others when they ask which card to get.

Lastly, I also carry around my Sony Rewards Chase VISA credit card that I opened in 2006. This was really the first credit card that I opened just for the bonus and only after I knew how it would impact my credit. I think I received an initial 10,000 bonus points for opening the credit card. What I did not know was Chase, maybe only at the time, or because of my excellent credit history, gave me a hefty credit line, the largest I had ever received. It has definitely come in handy where my Discover Card was not either accepted or because it had a larger credit line. I have found that I really have little use for this card though because I am not really all too interested in redeeming for their over-priced Sony products (even though I like Sony products) and their gift card options have been horrible once they increased their redemption values (3,500 points = $25 gift card; 6,250 points = $50 gift card; or 11,000 points = $100 gift card). They used to be 2,500 points = $25 gift card; 5,000 points = $50 gift card; or 10,000 points = $100 gift card. Like I said earlier, I carry this card around as a “just in case my Discover Card is not accepted” card. I would close the account and open up a more valuable Chase card, but I have had the card for a while now and since the credit line is large, there is a chance closing the card could negatively impact my credit scores.

Besides some other minor stores credit cards I still have open and never use, we also currently have the United Airlines Chase credit card, where we were given 50,000 miles each for opening a new card. We learned about the credit card here, on FatWallet.com. Opening up a line of credit for my wife and I to each obtain enough for two domestic round trip tickets was a no-brainer. Come this April 2011, we will have to cancel the accounts so we do not get charged the annual fee, but it should not impact are credit scores any. We do not actively use these cards though because the accrual is only 1 miles/$2 spent, not a great reward benefit.

After we sell our home and obtain a mortgage on a new property, we will have to consider closing some of our obsolete cards and possibly opening up some more valuable reward cards if the bonus is worth while.

I’ve been with Dish Network for about 5 years now. I used to have local Cox Cable, but their prices got out of hand, and I made the switch in an effort to save money. I’m always looking for new offers to try and keep Dish Network honest on their fees.

I’ve been really happy with Dish Network overall. Their customer service is good, and I’ve usually been able to negotiate a reasonable deal. My best deal was when I was able to get the higher priced package for the cheapest package price. After two good years on that plan, I no longer could get it extended. A little over two years ago Dish ran an excellent offer of Cinemax for a penny per year if you signed up for automatic payment. I was luckily able to get the Cinemax offer for two years. Recently, Dish automatically gave all of their users 7 free Starz channels until Feb. 2012 since they are celebrating their 30th Anniversary. The movie lineup on Starz I already see if way better than those that were offered on Cinemax.

Recently someone posted an unadvertised deal on FatWallet that intrigued me, called the American Welcome Package. The package includes the following stations:

Channel Station
107 COMEDY CENTRAL (CMDY)
110 FOOD NETWORK (FOOD)
112 HOME & GARDEN TELEVISION (HGTV)
120 HISTORY (HIST)
127 OXYGEN (OXYGN)
128 WE: WOMEN’S ENTERTAINMENT (WE)
130 AMC (AMC)
134 ShopNBC (SHNBC)
137 QVC (QVC)
139 TURNER BROADCAST SYSTEM (TBS)
161 MUSIC TELEVISION 2 (MTV2)
166 COUNTRY MUSIC TELEVISION (CMT)
175 BOOMERANG (BOOM)
179 THE HUB (HUB )
183 LEARNING CHANNEL, THE (TLC)
185 HALLMARK CHANNEL (HLMRK)
203 BLOOMBERG TELEVISION (BITV)
209 MSNBC (MSNBC)
214 THE WEATHER CHANNEL (TWC)
222 HSN (HSN)
230 ICTV (ICTV)

The best part, it is only $14.95/month. Add in locals and DVR, and the user’s total was $20.95/month. Currently I pay over double that rate with the Top 120 package. I considered switching to the package above, but chose not to because we also watch the Travel Network and the Disney Channel for our son. It’s a lot to pay for those two extra stations considering all the other stations in the 120 package are worthless, but the little our son watches tv, the Disney Channel is worth the extra cost to us.

I’ll continue to watch for other future offerings that would make it worthwhile for us to switch. One thing to note though is that some of the offers want the customer to sign up for a new long term contract. While we are happy with Dish Network, I’m reluctant to sign any new contracts since we hopefully will be moving within the next 6 months. I am also intrigued to eventually go cable free in the future, like my sister has done. They watch everything over the internet, and use RedBox for movies. My wife has even offered that she will let us get rid of cable if we sign up for NetFlix. It’s all options we may consider after we make our move to a new home.

I’m beginning a new series of discussions to determine if membership to Costco really is worth the savings they state. We have been a member to Costco for a little over a year as of this post. I won our initial basic Gold membership through my work. We happen to have a new Costco open in the area, so when we initially signed up in 2009, we also received a bonus $10 gift card. Over the years we have learned that there are various pluses and minuses to shopping at Costco (or other Wholesale stores).

I have three major gripes with the big box, Costco.
1) I hate having to show a member card at the door just to get in. Seriously, what is the point? Even if I wasn’t a member, you would still let me in to look around. On top of it, I can’t even buy anything without scanning my card, so there is no reason to inconvenience me at the door to see my card.

Every time we visit Costco, I ask my wife if I can walk right through without showing my card. She never seems to willing to be seen with my tough guy persona, or to deal with the ramifications, so I pull out my card and give the greeter a fake smile, like I’m going to enjoy the onslaught my bank account is going to feel at the end of this shopping experience.

Even though I don’t like being stopped on the way out of the store either, I at least understand the concept. It’s usually a quick count of the items in my cart and to make sure all items have been accounted for on the receipt.

2) Why do I have to pay a membership fee to shop at your store? I’ve never understood why Sam’s Club, BJ’s, Costco, etc. decide to charge me admission just for the privilege to shop. I’m coming to your store to spend money, and yet I need to shell out $50/yr. We need to save a substantial amount of money, and thus spend a lot of money, to make up the $50 annual fee. I’ve evaluated the benefits of the Executive Membership, but we do not spend enough there in a year to make it worth our while.

3) My third major issue with Costco, and what I will be evaluating in this and in future posts is, is there really a savings by buying in bulk? Since becoming members at Costco, every month when we go in to shop, (because the coupons draw us in) I feel a sense of buyer remorse as I leave. We never seem to get out of the store without spending under $200. I find myself picturing what $200 could buy at equivalent grocery/general merchandise stores.

We normally go into Costco anticipating buying only items we have coupons for, but then end up buying all kinds of other items that entice us. We are big fans of food and don’t mind paying a premium for better, healthier options, especially when it comes to organic. So if there is something that looks good or is different and convenient, we definitely will buy it to try.

So I decided to try and experiment yesterday. We needed some toilet paper and the latest Costco coupons had $3.50 off the price of 30 rolls of Quilted Northern. Normally I purchase all of our paper products through Target because if I watch for a sale, sometimes with a free bonus gift card, and use both manufacturer and store coupons, the deal is usually unmatched. So I went into Costco and found the Quilted Northern toilet paper. Normal price…$18.79. Price with coupon…$15.29. I then went next door to Target to see 1) if they carried the same quantity?; and 2) how much was it?

Target did carry the same 30 roll package; their price without a sale…$16.99. Therefore, what I proved to myself was that with the Costco coupons, there is a substantial savings over their everyday price compared with the competitors. Even if I had a Target store coupon and manufacturer coupon, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the price down to Costco’s coupon cost.

I realize the business model that a single store can not have the best prices on everything, but I will continue to see if the savings of a Costco membership really pays off in the end. I have a feeling that buying items at Costco’s normal price will not produce any savings for the equivalent quantity or unit cost when you can go elsewhere, use store and manufacturer coupons, and stack with credit card rebates.

On the flip side to all the negatives discussed above, we have to admit we really enjoy the shopping experience at Costco. The products that they carry are of a higher end quality than what we have seen at other big box wholesalers. In addition, there are lots of items that Costco carries that appear to be unique, and thus present a value to the consumer. For example, there are several food items that are always new and worthy of a sample.

I will discuss the pros and cons of Costco Travel in a future post.