Adding a Discover Credit Card Income Stream

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Gas Prices - How they have affected me. In that post, I detail several steps that I planned on taking to help manage the amount of money that my family is spending on gas. I noted in Item #4 that I planned to - Get a gas credit card. My wife and I currently have a credit card that you can earn rewards on purchases made, but we wanted to maximize the rewards/savings on gas purchases given the high price of oil. After writing that post, I set out to find the best offer available that fit with our spending habits. I was fortunate enough to come across the following site - Cash Back Ideas , that includes a calculator to help you figure out which cash back credit card is best for you. I would highly recommend visiting if you have any interest in obtaining a new cash back credit card.

The Card
After reviewing the calculator on Cash Back Ideas, along with some additional research, I ordered the Discover Open Road card. The following list details the rewards potential –

• 5% Cashback Bonus on your first $100 in gas and auto maintenance purchases that are posted to the account each billing period, up to a maximum of $1,200 per anniversary year. All other gas and auto maintenance purchases earn 1% back.
• ShopDiscover Purchases will earn 5% - 20% Cashback on purchases made through the ShopDiscover program.
• .25% - 1% back on all other purchases depending on how much you spend per month.

How we will use the card
Now there were other cards available that could have possibly earned more savings on gas purhcases, but I felt the Discover Open Road card was the best for our family. We plan on using this card only on gas purchases. The following list details how we will use this new card -

• 1 Card holder - I purposely only signed myself up for this card and did not include my wife. Since we spend close to $200 per month on gas purchases, we wanted to maximize our Cashback potential. I will begin using this card and will only charge exactly $100 per month in gas purchases. We will use our other rewards credit card after the first $100, as that card returns higher than the 1% rate the Discover card pays back after the first $100 gas purchases per month. We may eventually sign my wife up for her own card so that she can purchase the other $100 in gas and car maintenance expenses we have budgeted.
• Rewards Card - We will continue to use our existing rewards card for all other purchases made.
• $60 in savings - Using this method, we plan on receiving a Cashback bonus each year for $60. That is based on earning $5 per month for the year. If we decide to open up an additional card in my wife’s name, then we could potentially earn $120 back in a year.

I believe that using a credit card to earn cash back and rewards is one of the most passive ways to earn money. This is provided you keep track of your monthly purchases and pay off the balance each month on a credit card. I will always pay off the balance on this card each month to ensure we don’t pay any late fees or interest on the card. We will use the Cashback received from the card to purchase more assets that will help us on our long journey to become financially independent.

Do you have a cash back credit card?

Tagged as: Credit Cards, Passive Income