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2007 Credit Card Usage Totals

December 26th, 2007 at 11:44 pm

As I start doing the year-end financial stuff, one thing I always do is tally up the credit card charges.

Marriott Visa: $36,068.81
AOL Visa: $3,206.25
Discover: $1,176.39
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Total: $40,451.45

As far as rewards earned, we got 41,384 Marriott points. That's enough for up to 7 free nights with some points left over. At $80/night, that's about $560. We got $40 cashback from Discover. We haven't redeemed our AOL reward points yet but they're worth a few more dollars, so total rewards are a little over $600 for the year. We also got one free hotel night from Marriott that we get every year on our account anniversary. That saved us over $200. We used that when we went to New York for our anniversary in July. So really, our rewards were over $800.

I was a little surprised to see the total is nearly $9,000 more than last year. Looking back, I can explain most of that. My wife had surgery in 2006 that I didn't pay for until 1/07. That was a couple thousand. She then had surgery again in 07 that cost another $800 and some. We also started planning my daughter's Bat Mitzvah which is in September and gave deposits to the caterer, the DJ and the photographer totalling a few thousand dollars. Add in a couple of costly car repairs on our two 100,000-plus mile cars and that accounts for almost the whole $9,000.

All in all, not so bad. No late payments. Every bill paid in full each month. Zero interest charges. And only the Marriott card has an annual fee ($65) but as you can see, it is well worth paying for what we get in return (over $760 in free stays earned this year).

6 Responses to “2007 Credit Card Usage Totals”

  1. koppur Says:
    1198713078

    First I was flabbergasted that ther was $40,000 in CC charges from you in one year; but then I read that they were all paid in full, with no interest, each month and I became very impressed! You definately earned some great rewards! Smile

  2. collegemomma Says:
    1198713868

    Congrats on paying those off every month. And the rewards are fabulous!

  3. tripods68 Says:
    1198718714

    I never imagined to use my cc to earn points. Congrats!

    I'm afraid that I won't pay it off at the end of every month even if I have the cash for it, but I guess it works if you want your rebate cash.

    Congrats!

  4. disneysteve Says:
    1198720038

    tripods68 - Used intelligently and responsibly, reward credit cards can be a great financial tool. We charge everything we possibly can including many bills that we would be paying anyway like home phone, cell phone, alarm fee, auto insurance, gasoline and more. At least this way, we get something worthwhile in return. This past August, we redeemed Marriott points for 10 free nights in New Hampshire, for example.

  5. merch Says:
    1198729439

    I agree with you disneysteve. I have a Delta AE. I charge everything on it (gas, groceries, alarm, etc). I also have Discover and get about $100 back a year. My airfare is always paid by the points.

    I also did a lot of traveling and am a platinum priority club member. Free air and hotel, not a bad way to vacation. Now to just find the time.

  6. Ima saver Says:
    1198767203

    WE get cash back from all of our charges. It is so nice to get that check. Like you, we pay off every penny every month.

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