I Have a Rewards Card?

One of my credit cards, an American Express, is actually a rewards card. I kind of knew this, but never really paid much attention to it. That card is the one I paid off a year ago. Since then, I've put a few things on it, but nothing I couldn't pay off immediately. It was more of a "The Princess has my debit card, and I need gas/groceries/etc." type thing. So, since paying it off, I've used it very sparingly.

Then, during one of my visits with my Mom, she was telling me that she used her credit card points to pay for some of Christmas. It was then that I realized I too, had points accumulated on my card. So, I decided to look into what I could do with them.

While perusing the rewards site, in which I realized they had some really cool crap that I just didn't need, I noticed that there was a cash back option. Hmmmmm. Well, I looked into it, and realized that the "cash back" would be directly applied to the card. Well, pooey. I was wanting the cash back to pay onto the card that I'm still paying off!

So, I came up with this idea: Use the "points card" for groceries and gas and such, get the cash back I've accumulated as credit on the card, then use the cash that I would normally be using to pay for those gas and groceries, and snowflake them to the card with debt.

Clear as mud? Yeah, I had to explain it to myself 3 times to be sure I was understanding. But it worked. The "points card" has a zero balance, and the card with debt has an extra $100 paid towards it. I'm going to experiment with using the points card on a regular basis. I will be paying it off each week though (instead of each month) just to be sure I am keeping myself in check. I'm hoping that although its a SMALL cash back reward (just 1%), I'll accumulate a few extra debt snowflakes to move that balance down faster. Wish me luck!