That’s always the case, nothing odd about it.
So, are you saying Citi deal would really be paying 7.9% for $10k after 3mo time? Or the 2% as originally mentioned?
What am I missing?
What was happening was comparing an interest gained rate (over 2 months) with an APY (gained over 12 months). With a 2 month timeframe, to make a comparison either that APY needs to be reduced to 1/6, or the gain needs to be extrapolated over a full year.
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If you wait until the end of the initial time to make your deposit, your money only needs to be tied up for 60-65 days.
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I just received a requested credit limit increase from Citibank where they did a soft inquiry, not a hard one.
I did credit limit increases for 3 other cards. The credit score dropped 3 points each on two credit reports.
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Bilt has a rent payment system without their credit card that also offers points (1). My apartment is starting this system with the January payment. The Bilt payment system will be on the apartment website and everyone paying online must use it.
I currently pay 3 months rent for a $50.53 fee but get $125 in rewards. What I’m not clear on is whether Bilt lets you pay through their site with my existing credit card, rather than theirs. From a cursory reading it sounds like they do and there may be no processing fee, but it’s not perfectly clear.
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Nope. You need the Bilt card to pay. For sure.
You should get one fast and then refer all of your neighbors. I think you get 2500 points per referral.
What is the catch? What type of rewards are those? Can you convert the rewards into cold ca$h?
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2.5% Cash on the Alliant Visa Card. No catch other than the fee. I gain $74.47 after the fee.
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A Bilt point is worth about 1/2 percent, .055 cents, i.e 0.55%. Not such a great deal.
You don’t need the Bilt card to pay through the Bilt payment system. You get rewards, but even with the cards, the rewards are 1/2 percent. No fee. I currently pay with Alliant Visa where the rewards are 2.5% but there’s a $50.53 fee. After the fee the reward works out to 1.49%, way more than Bilt’s 0.55%
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This is somewhat OT but I gotta ask – why do you pay 3 mo at a time? Does it save you on fees or give you a rent discount? Did you account for the interest you could be earning on that 2 extra months rent instead (about $20)?
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The fee is $50.53 each payment. 3 monthly payments would be $50.53 each time, or $151.59. I would lose money paying monthly.
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Sounds like a good candidate for harvesting signup bonuses. Pay the $2k or $5k or whatever the spend requirement in one shot for $50 fee, and score the $300-$700 bonus. Once you are back to having rent due again, open the next card with a signup bonus.
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I’ve done this several times in the past. I was able to repeatedly get the Navy Flagship card which had a $400 bonus for $4K spend in 3 months. It also paid 2% cash back. There was a $49 annual fee and the $50 payment fee, but close to $500 in rewards, so I saved about $130 a month in those periods.
After multiple times obtaining the card and canceling after a short time, I was declined a new card so haven’t done it since. (I’ve had 7 closed accounts with NFCU, and 2 currently open. Most of the accounts were open 4 months or less. I also got part of the annual fee back. This was in a 2 1/2 year period.)
I don’t want to open too many cards, so I haven’t tried it with other cards.
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I don’t want to open too many cards either, just 3-4 per year 
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Is that just a fee that your apartment complex online software charges?
Yes.
I received a notice last week they are switching to the Bilt payment system. So there might be different fees.
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I checked the apt. payment system today which has switched to Bilt. If I pay online I have to use this system. The fee is a flat 3% for another credit card, so my long-time payment method where I get 1.4% cashback is gone. Bilt can be used without a credit card linked to a bank account and there are some minor rewards but nowhere near what I was getting. The Bilt system is through Wells Fargo which is one reason I’m reluctant to get their credit card, as there have already been users complaining of fraudulent charges appearing on their bills, sometimes even before they receive the card.
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I’ve had a WF card for years, no fraud.
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Hope this helps someone. The best reward/cash back CC is Discover Miles. 1.5 % back, doubled after 12 months, 100.00 referral bonus using Doc’s referral page or any Disc. referral page, plus I am on my 3rd!! Its churnable. I have a reg. Discover card for the 5% cats, that I keep. They only allow you to have 2 Discover cards. My last match came out to about 4100! Spent enormous amt on Vanilla Gift.com. They don’t care. Also, in CVS Secure Spend cards. Plus, other spend (insurance for 3 cars, HO, NY Post subscription. Love that paper. 495.00/ year 7 days delivery in upstate NY, Wife’s dental bills/ etc.) So, I cancel card via phone 1 week after getting cash back. Wait 1 month and reapplied. Approved! Will receive it in about 5 biz days. Of course, you need a reliable liquidation for all these 500.00 cards. And yes, after all the vanilla Gift cards I buy, I had 3 500.00 cards hacked. Balance of 1.00 left. cards used at Best Buy in Ca. and gas stations in Nevada. I’m in NY State. They make good but takes about 6 weeks of waiting for replacement. Also 1 order of 8 cards sent FedEx never made it to my home. They replaced those in 2 weeks via a check for 4k plus the 5.95 fees. Then after 2 months the package shows up and the cards were already deactivated. That was good. I would never use them. Fraud!! Discover pays the 3% on the fees so my only cost was 9.00 shipping of 8 or 10 cards per order, and the MO liquidation fees. Cvs is the best for buying the gift cards, no shipping. Now I have to hope I live another year. I’m 75 and healthy, but you never know. Retired 3 years so I have the time. i do everything in the AM to avoid busy times in stores. I also am working on 2 OBC cards!!!
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