I've retired 2 credit card accounts in favor of 2 new cc accounts that offer cash back with $x in spending in the first 3 months. The new flooring goes on one, the 6-month car insurance on the other and boom, $400 saved off the top. A penny saved is a penny earned, right?
Not bad with the 2nd one - their $200 cash back on our car ins nets a 26%+ savings! Another 2% back in reward $ to be used toward the balance, but I failed to read if that's calculated before or after the $200 reward is figured in. Either way, it'll be another $11 - $15ish back, so yay.
The games you have to play these days...
I was really surprised that the flooring place didn't offer a discount for cash, since it costs them to process a cc transaction - however, 1) the guy I was talking to and I have different first languages, and I suspect our wires were crossed and 2) I think overall between the cash back for the purchase and the % back in rewards $, I think we've better off having used the card, strangely enough. We're doing so much of the work ourselves in terms of tearing out existing flooring, taking off baseboards, yada yada, that overall the expense is just the flooring product and the labor involved in just installation (I say 'just' installation, but what it's going to take to put this stuff in is a skill I hold in high regard. I imagine our learning curve would be pretty expensive by the time we buy enough extra product to cover potential "oops" moments. To say nothing of the chiropractor visits afterwards
).