REI dividend

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bergsteigen
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Re: REI dividend

Post by bergsteigen »

Jay521 wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:41 pm
bergsteigen wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:35 pm I put all $223K of my grandmothers nursing home care onto my Visa card. Figured if the family was gonna bleed, I was gonna get something back. Boom!
You're credit limit is a helluva lot higher than mine! :bow: :bow:
Memory care is $11K/month. Plan ahead...
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Re: REI dividend

Post by nmjameswilson »

Everyone should use the REI mastercard if they can. I have one with 0% for 18 months. I put EVERYTHING on it and end up with a lot of rewards at the end of the year.
The card will still give rewards regardless of REI's dividend status. It's almost like stealing :-)
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Re: REI dividend

Post by ker0uac »

stephakett wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:31 pm
ker0uac wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:34 pm Well if your dividend is high then you are buying way too much at full price
time out-

or you use your REI Mastercard to pay for everything, including reimbursable work expenses
<deleted, misunderstood>

Well if you have the card then you get 15% in dividend when paying full price which is pretty good for some items that rarely go on sale or that are excluded from the 20% coupons. At the same time, there are other cards that you give you 2% or more on every all purchases, so idk. I've had the REI card and the $100 signing bonus was pretty sweet!
Last edited by ker0uac on Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: REI dividend

Post by ker0uac »

nmjameswilson wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:15 am I have one with 0% for 18 months.
that's a surefire way to rack up debt
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Re: REI dividend

Post by d_baker »

ker0uac wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:39 am
nmjameswilson wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:15 am I have one with 0% for 18 months.
that's a surefire way to rack up debt
Pay it off monthly. No debt.
If one can stay inside their means, but for some life happens and can't always avoid. I've been on both sides of spectrum, but thankfully for the past 7-8 years, no debt!
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Re: REI dividend

Post by ker0uac »

d_baker wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:42 am
ker0uac wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:39 am
nmjameswilson wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:15 am I have one with 0% for 18 months.
that's a surefire way to rack up debt
Pay it off monthly. No debt.
If one can stay inside their means, but for some life happens and can't always avoid. I've been on both sides of spectrum, but thankfully for the past 7-8 years, no debt!
Right but to those who already pay it off monthly, they should continue paying it off monthly. Don't use the 0% APR to change your spending/paying habits.

The 0% APR is a bait that banks use to get you to rack up debt past the promotional period when the APR shoots to 20%+
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Re: REI dividend

Post by Scott P »

ker0uac wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:38 amWork expenses? I wanna know what kind of job requires you to shop at REI so I can apply!
Since they give you dividends on non REI purchases those who travel out of town and use the cards for work expenses can really rack up dividends. I used to use my REI card and would rack up a $2000-$3000 dividend every year. I eventually ran out of thing I could buy so took the cash, but then I switched to a miles card. Now I have more plane tickets than i can use. I'll probably find something else to switch to.

Of note, my REI dividend (literally) saved my wife's life once.
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Re: REI dividend

Post by nmjameswilson »

ker0uac wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:39 am
nmjameswilson wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 6:15 am I have one with 0% for 18 months.
that's a surefire way to rack up debt
LOL I pay by balance every two weeks ... I have zero debt unless you count by investment properties that renters pay the mortgage on. :-)
I would think if someone is not responsible they would not qualify for that 0%.
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Re: REI dividend

Post by ker0uac »

Scott P wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:18 am
ker0uac wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:38 amWork expenses? I wanna know what kind of job requires you to shop at REI so I can apply!
Since they give you dividends on non REI purchases those who travel out of town and use the cards for work expenses can really rack up dividends. I used to use my REI card and would rack up a $2000-$3000 dividend every year. I eventually ran out of thing I could buy so took the cash, but then I switched to a miles card. Now I have more plane tickets than i can use. I'll probably find something else to switch to.

Of note, my REI dividend (literally) saved my wife's life once.
Oh right, I misread her post.

I switched cards from miles to cash back/reward points last year, obviously lol... but now I gotta pay baggage fees and stand in line with all the peasants
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Re: REI dividend

Post by ker0uac »

nmjameswilson wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:26 am I would think if someone is not responsible they would not qualify for that 0%.
You would think that should be the case, but unfortunately it's not. Your credit score goes up as you accumulate debt as long as you pay it on time. The rationale is that having debt and paying it on time gives them information on what kind of borrower you are. Not having debt means they have no idea of what kind of borrower you are. I think it's a messed up system.

I have been told it's better to finance/lease a car before buying a home so you can get better mortgage rates. But I don't know coz I don't own property.
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Re: REI dividend

Post by JChitwood »

[/quote]Of note, my REI dividend (literally) saved my wife's life once.[/quote]

Don’t leave us hanging. Let’s hear the story.
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Re: REI dividend

Post by Scott P »

JChitwood wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 3:56 pm
Of note, my REI dividend (literally) saved my wife's life once.
Don’t leave us hanging. Let’s hear the story.
Excerpt from an old trip report:

The roots of this trip stem from our big REI Dividend we received in March. Since I have most of the outdoor gear that I need, I also had a bunch of unused REI gift certificates that have been given to me over the past couple years (birthdays, Christmas, etc.).

I had my heart set on a new pair of skis, but while visiting the REI I couldn’t find any I liked and I was disappointed. The clerk asked if I wanted to look at anything else, but I told him (and only half jokingly) that I already had as much gear as the REI store had. He then suggested that we spend our dividend on an REI trip. In my head I dismissed the idea as preposterous. I already knew that those types of trips were expensive and that I wasn’t a very big fan of guided trips anyway.

Not long after the above event, Kim and I discussed doing something for our anniversary in August. Because we weren’t quite as shorthanded on our summer project, it appeared that this might be the first year in several years that I could actually get our anniversary off work, if but only for a few days.

Since I didn’t know how to spend our dividend, just for the heck of it, we looked at the REI trip offered for the year. We noticed that there was a Mount Shasta Trip right around our anniversary. As mentioned, I’m not that big of a fan of guided trips, but the Hotlum-Bolam had been on my list for a long time. Kim hasn’t done much snow climbing over the years (she is nervous on glaciers and steep snow), but she feels comfortable doing it on a guided trip.

Maybe going on one of the trips for our anniversary wouldn’t be such a bad idea since we could kick back and let someone else do the hassle and planning for our anniversary and could make it a more laid back trip. Furthermore, using your dividend nets a big discount on the trips and our dividend and it just happened that our gift certificates were enough to pay for the entire trip for one person and part of the trip for the other. We also had two discounted plane tickets we had to use. The trip also left a couple of days after our anniversary so we could kick back in a romantic hotel somewhere for a couple nights before we joined the group to climb the mountain.

What at first I had dismissed now sounded very appealing.


To put it briefly, the trip above required a physical and doctor's note. It was then we found out about my wife's heart problem.

The full story is here:

https://www.summitpost.org/love-bombshe ... sta/698612

We were also planning to climb/attempt Aconcagua the next season. The cardiologist told us that if my wife would have gotten high on Aconcagua (the cardiologist was also a climber), it likely would have killed her.

So, yes the REI dividend that year probably in a literal sense saved my wife's life. If it weren't for that big dividend we wouldn't have booked that trip, she wouldn't have taken that physical, and we would have headed for Aconcagua later that year. She might not be alive today if not for that dividend.
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