Not a master yet…
If someone offers me something for free, I tend to take it. If it’s junk, I’ll avoid it, but cash works. So when I get credit card offers in the mail, I act on them if:
a. They’re easy to get out of
b. There’s no annual fee
c. They offer cash or something easily actionable
The other week, one came in offering $100 bucks for opening an account. All I had to do was make a purchase on the card within 3 months. No fee, no real catches (aside from a 30-some percent rate, but there’s no way I’d carry a balance on the thing). So I filled out the offer, and got the card.
Now it was just a matter of using the card. Coincidentally, there was some kind of benefits fair at work (discounts on cell phones, gym memberships, vision care, that kind of thing) this week. I went over, figuring it was something potentially productive I could do while waiting for a build to finish. (Needed to get Lasik info anyway.) Turns out there was a Costco membership table there.
This could be useful, but how much were they scamming memberships for? The usual cost is $50 bucks, but here they gave you a bag, $10 bucks off, and a credit card offer for $25 bucks. Really, it boiled down to $15 bucks for a membership, which really is worth it if you go to Costco a couple times a year.
Why not use the credit card I have in hand to make a purchase, so I can get my free $100, and have the purchase get me another card with a new check?
No such luck. Wrong kind of card. I still have a long way to go at this.
I might have a yellow belt at being cheap, but if I was really together, I would have had an in-flight offer on the right kind of card, and could have had that ready to use right at that moment.
Maybe next time I can prove myself worthy, but for now I’m still just a young grasshopper.