How to make money on paying bills..

[MrsDM]

No, I'm not kidding. We met with our loan officer tonight and while this has more to do with a mortgage, I'm going to try doing this with our everyday bills.

The company is United First Financial. http://www.unitedfirstfinancial.com/index.html I don't think I could spend the price for the program - $3500, yes I know. However, she explained how it work and will print out an analysis based on our finances.

The only way this would work is by using a cash rewards credit card. Because you don't pay interest on your credit card if you pay it off in a month, you put all your bills, cable, cell phone, electric/heating, etc. on the card and pay it off when your statement comes. You are then spending money on the card and getting your cash rewards back. So the company is basically paying you to use your credit card.

Also, the other trick to this system is by putting most of your money into a savings account and therefore gaining interest.

As I said, the bigger trick in program figuring out your mortgage. Our loan officer said that she has been on the program for almost a year and she's already paid of $7,000 of her principle mortgage.

I don't think I'd pay for the program, but I might try doing our bills that way. With wedding planning and the way the economy is, I think we are going to try it and just see how it goes.

There have been people online saying its a scam. It may or may not be. The concept itself is good, thats all I'm passing along! :)

[Kirby]

Your post just gave me a great idea! We have been thinking about getting a cruise rewards card so that we can earn points towards free cruises. We don't want to build any debt though, so we haven't. I also didn't see how we could build many points when we don't put much on cards.

But what a great idea to use the card to pay bills, then pay it right off! We pay all of our bills online anyways, except for rent. I just talked to DH and he thinks it's a great idea, as long as we don't charge anything but bills that we can pay off at the end of the month. I am excited now!

[Kirby]

I just looked into the SeaMiles card and even with the amount we pay on bills, it would take us like 4 years to earn enough points for a cruise. Unless I find a much better deal, I'm not even going to bother.

[Danielle9608]

Actually DH and I do this now. We have an American express blue card. There is no fee and you get to choose between points and cash back. We do the cash back. It's 1% on most purchases, and 3% on certain things. The interest rate is something god awful like 17% but we never pay interest because we pay it off to a zero balance every month. We have a budget for everything, spending, gas, and groceries. With that said we have a lot of wiggle room in our budget, any money left over we put into savings. We save our receipts and track EVERYTHING. We never spend more then we have on hand, we always never "pre spend" our next paycheck. Last year between the two of us we go over 1200 cash back. This is completely legit but you must be extremely organized and have control to only spend what you have cash for. Anyway I have been doing this for years so if anyone has any questions feel free to pm me. :)

[WebLady]

I worry about this sort of thing, especially the way some cc companies are these days. Like Kirby said, I'd figure it would take a while to actually see anything.

But then Danielle's plan seems to be working for her; good going there!

I just don't know how it would work with us; we don't want to open new cards and those we have don't have balances we could pay off each month.

[SerendipityCrafts]

We have one card that I use for my biz purchases. It earns us "points" that I can use for merchandise, food, movie tickets or even give to charity. Just after we bought the house, we had enough points to get $150 free food, which came in handy :)

[MrsDM]

Actually DH and I do this now. We have an American express blue card. There is no fee and you get to choose between points and cash back. We do the cash back. It's 1% on most purchases, and 3% on certain things. The interest rate is something god awful like 17% but we never pay interest because we pay it off to a zero balance every month. We have a budget for everything, spending, gas, and groceries. With that said we have a lot of wiggle room in our budget, any money left over we put into savings. We save our receipts and track EVERYTHING. We never spend more then we have on hand, we always never "pre spend" our next paycheck. Last year between the two of us we go over 1200 cash back. This is completely legit but you must be extremely organized and have control to only spend what you have cash for. Anyway I have been doing this for years so if anyone has any questions feel free to pm me. :)

Thanks for posting that! We keep a zero balance on everything too. $1200, that is a lot of money! I was wondering if 1% cash would be enough cash back, because the cards that we have currently have aren't rewards and I am considering switching to a card with rewards.

[Danielle9608]

Thanks for posting that! We keep a zero balance on everything too. $1200, that is a lot of money! I was wondering if 1% cash would be enough cash back, because the cards that we have currently have aren't rewards and I am considering switching to a card with rewards.

1% is not a lot but when you use your card for everything, between two people is adds up fast. The only thing we can't charge, is our mortgage. Of course the mortgage company who frown upon paying credit with credit lol. But we were able to charge most of the wedding and honeymoon so that certainly helped a lot!

[candars]

DH and I have been doing this for a while. One thing to keep in mind too is that doing this will also build your credit. I started out with no credit at all. Eventually got my first credit card and now I have really great credit. My favorite credit card is from MyPoints. Basically, for evey dollar you spend, you get points. If you use vendors through their website, you get way more points. Eventually when you have enough points, you cash them in for a gift certificate - which could be from just about anywhere. Unfortunately, Chase bought the company and now it will be a completely different system, but I loved it before and I'm sure it will still be worth it.

[neurotika]

We do this, too. FH and I are both working and going to college, and I have an Amazon Visa where the rewards program is credits at Amazon. I pay our tuition with the credit card, turn around and pay it off immediately, then use the Amazon credits to buy our books. Saves us hundreds of dollars.

Word to the wise - don't try anything like this if you aren't 110% committed and able to pay off the balance in full each month - otherwise you can end up in a major fix where you are racking up hundreds in interest and finance charges every month.

[Danielle9608]

Word to the wise - don't try anything like this if you aren't 110% committed and able to pay off the balance in full each month - otherwise you can end up in a major fix where you are racking up hundreds in interest and finance charges every month.

I couldn't agree more!

[Nekochanpurr]

Actually DH and I do this now. We have an American express blue card. There is no fee and you get to choose between points and cash back. We do the cash back. It's 1% on most purchases, and 3% on certain things. The interest rate is something god awful like 17% but we never pay interest because we pay it off to a zero balance every month. We have a budget for everything, spending, gas, and groceries. With that said we have a lot of wiggle room in our budget, any money left over we put into savings. We save our receipts and track EVERYTHING. We never spend more then we have on hand, we always never "pre spend" our next paycheck. Last year between the two of us we go over 1200 cash back. This is completely legit but you must be extremely organized and have control to only spend what you have cash for. Anyway I have been doing this for years so if anyone has any questions feel free to pm me. :)


Tell me more. I use American Express as well. Is it something you can pick on the webpage? :bbredface:

[Danielle9608]

Tell me more. I use American Express as well. Is it something you can pick on the webpage? :bbredface:

Do you have the blue card? Or your statement it will say either just "Blue" which is rewards or "blue cash". I think you will have to call them to change it, to one or the other. I don't know about the other incentive programs on the their other card though.

[Jacobs_Girl]

I have an airtran credit I use for things like this.

I have money for the bills but I pay the bills and transfer the money over right away. Every year we get about 5-6 round trip tickets. I keep them for emergencies, since my parents live 900 miles away

[Nekochanpurr]

Do you have the blue card? Or your statement it will say either just "Blue" which is rewards or "blue cash". I think you will have to call them to change it, to one or the other. I don't know about the other incentive programs on the their other card though.

I think so? I got it a long time ago.. Its the clear one with the blue square in the middle. lol! Thats all i know~