Mar 6th, 2008
Hunting for Discounts: NMFA, Pentagon FCU, and GEICO
With one major exception (Costco), I have not been of the “spend money to save money” crowd. However, given the constant up tick in the price of gas the last few years, I decided it was worth my while to do whatever I could to reduce that expense. I already had a Discover Open Road card that would give 5% cash back on gas purchases–but only up to $1200 a year in purchases, and there’s no question that averaging about $45 a week in gas, even if I’m traveling for a week or two a year, I’d be way over $1200. So I found the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Platinum Visa which gave 5% back on gas and 1.25% on everything else; recently, they also added 2% back on groceries. One of the features of the card I found appealing was that there was no threshold of reward to meet (unlike Discover’s $20 redeemable amounts); the reward was deducted from your bill every month; there was also no annual fee.
Unfortunately, I didn’t easily qualify for Pentagon FCU, so I registered with the National Military Families Association ($20 for a year, $50 for three years, or $300 for a lifetime–I opted for the middle and three years), which allowed me to open a savings account with PenFed (with $5!) and apply for (and get) the credit card.
The card itself has been well worth it. This year to date (and this is the February statement), I’ve received $14.94 in combined 1.25%, 2%, and 5% rebates; multiply that by six and over twelve months we’re talking about $90 in cash, which is substantial–and far more than the NMFA membership.
Additionally, NMFA offers many other discounts, including The Apple Store and others, but the only one I’ve used has been GEICO. I have been getting my vehicle insurance through GEICO for quite some time and been very happy with their rates and service; when I learned that GEICO offered a discount for NMFA members, I emailed them and received that discount. This was during the middle of my term, so I wasn’t quite sure how much the total discount would be (the amount I was given as a reduction was prorated).
I just got my GEICO bill for six months. It’s $67.50 less than last time. So $135 a year less from the NMFA membership.
As I said above, I typically don’t advocate spending money to potentially spend less money elsewhere, but in this case, it’s clearly worked out. I’m very thankful to be part of the NMFA, and a Pentagon FCU and GEICO customer.
