r/personalfinance • u/cop-disliker69 • Oct 18 '18
Just discovered my credit card's "Cash Back" program. Is it really just free money? I find it too good to be true. Credit
I was paying my credit card bill online and I found a link on the Bank of America website said I had unredeemed cash rewards, several hundred dollars. I had never noticed this before. It gave me a few options for how to redeem it, it said they could send me a personal check in the mail or I could deposit this money directly into my savings account with the bank. It says I get 1% cash back for every purchase I make, and 2-3% for certain purchases.
Is this really how it works? I get paid a small bonus every time I spend money using my credit card? And it's just free money no strings attached?
I was always taught if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I suppose it's not that much money, because I think these hundreds of dollars were earned over like five years since I first got this credit card. Still, what's the angle here?
EDIT: Disclaimer. This is not native advertising. Bank of America is a racist, redlining, predatory-lending, family-evicting pack of jackals. This was a genuine question I asked in good faith and did not expect to get huge like this.
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u/amrakkarma Oct 18 '18
Actually not knowing about this might be the best way to actually benefit from it: the psychologic push to spend more because of the cash back is a real thing