I just finished up my full review of the Sallie Mae rewards credit card. Unfortunately this card doesn’t get a lot of publicity around the place, I think there are two main reasons for this: it doesn’t pay an affiliate commission and a lot of people wrongly believe you need a Sallie Mae loan to make use of the card. The first explanation is self explanatory and something that I try to avoid, the second is plan wrong. This card earns points which are worth 1¢ and can be redeemed against Sallie Mae loans, to a Upromise account OR as statement credit.
Here’s my three reasons why I love this card:
- It earns 5% on gas purchases on the first $250 per month
- It earns 5% on grocery purchases on the first $250 per month
- It earns 5% on bookstore purchases on the first $750 per month
I love books, but I don’t spend a lot of money at traditional bookstores anymore. I do spend a lot of money on Amazon purchases and the majority of these are considered to be a bookstore (all purchases from Amazon directly are, orders that are fulfilled by Amazon are a 50/50 as to what they’ll code as).
I also don’t spend a lot of money on traditional grocery stores (I try to shop at discount grocy stores instead) but when I do it’s nice to get 5% cash back. This also frees up a bit of grocery store spending, meaning I can focus my blue cash preferred on manufactured spending. $250 per month also more that covers my gas purchases and means I don’t have to apply for a card that is for gas only.
[Read: Tactic for getting free gas]
What’s your favorite underrated card? I’m going to try and write a full review and intro piece every week on under utilized cards so let me know in the comments section here or on twitter. And one final reason I love this card: it’s issued by Barclay’s who almost always pull your TransUnion credit report rather than your Experian or Equifax!
