Tip to remember rotating credit card rewards

If you’re like me, you have a couple of rewards credit cards. And you try to pick the best card for a given purchase.

This used to be easy. Rewards cards used to have fixed rewards categories–like 5 percent cash back on gas and groceries–and you could get in the habit of using the right card.

Now some of the big cash back rewards have moved to rotating categories. Discover, Chase, and Citi all offer cards with rotating quarterly (and sometimes monthly) rewards.

With rewards changing so quickly among so many categories, who can remember them all?

I, for one, cannot. In my brief experiment of “I’ll just remember them,” I charged all of my gas and groceries to the wrong card, losing out on a 5% cash back deal. It hurt, and I decided I need a better answer.

I figured I should have the rewards information when I make a purchase. That way I could just pick the right card.

And then it hit me: I could just write the categories and dates on the card itself!

I put masking tape on the bottom right corner and just wrote in the categories. Here is what it looks like:

As a footnote, it took a little bit of experimenting to come up with a decent system.

I settled on putting masking tape in the bottom right corner of the card and writing with a dark ballpoint pen. I chose masking tape since it does not leave much residue, and it is thin enough so the credit card still sits nicely in my wallet. As for location, I settled on the bottom right corner. This is one of the few blank areas on a card, and it’s also far from the magnetic strip on top. Finally I used a ballpoint pen. I wanted something that could write tiny words without the risk of ink running.

When the rewards change or a new offer comes, I replace the tape and write in the new categories and details.

Now it’s a lot easier to remember and rake in the rewards!