I recently applied for an Old Mutual Credit Card.
The idea was to benefit from the unit trust rewards scheme
- however I'm finding it tricky to benefit...

1% of all AMEX card swipes (and only swipes)
0.5% of VISA card swipes

The first problem came when I discovered (by trying) how many places don't accept AMEX.
About 50% of my swipes go through on the VISA (which is only 0.5%)

The second problem came when I couldn't find any way to swipe for my rent or car repayments
(if anyone has any advice here please let me know)

And the third came without having any visibility on the account until the statements come through.

Currently I'm with Absa and all my accounts are visible via my online banking.
I could active online banking with my Old Mutual Nedbank card, but then this happens...

currently the monthly cost of the Old Mutual Nedbank credit card is R35 a month. In order to make a gain I need to swipe more than R4800 (50% of swipes at 1% on amex. 50% at 0.5% on visa) which will give me R36 in Old Mutual unit trusts.

If I chose to activate online banking (to have visibility of my transactions) it will cost an additional R15 a month. Now I need to swipe around R6800 in order to start making a gain.

However that's the money going in.
What happens when we want to cash the unit trusts out.

The Unit trusts cash value will be deposited into the credit card account at a fee of R80 (except in December when it's free - hmmmm, that's suspiciously around holiday/shopping time)

Then once in the credit card account it's going to cost to transfer or withdraw that money. The costs can be viewed here
http://www.oldmutual.co.za/documents...andCharges.pdf

Taking into account the admin costs and withdrawal costs I'm looking at monthly swipes (and only swipes) of around R12 000 in order to start making a small gain. That's a lot of money passing through Old Mutual Nedbank for not a lot of win.

Others experiences may be different.
I'd love to hear what others thoughts are on credit card rewards and whether anyone has found a way to swipe for rent or such things as car repayments?