You may or may not prefer to use credit cards for many of your purchases, but if you do use them, even occasionally, you might want to consider looking into cards that offer rewards.
You’ve probably seen advertisements and offers for rewards cards — they come with as many different types of awards as you can imagine, at many different spending levels. Like all credit cards, they also come with many different terms and conditions that are important for potential card holders to research and understand. And any credit card can get you into financial trouble if you don’t budget and plan to be able to make the payments and carry little or no debt on it.
If you do decide you’d like to use a rewards card, you’ll have to consider several things in order to determine which type of card might give you the most benefits:
- How often do you plan to use the card? Would you use enough to earn enough rewards to actually redeem for something you need or want? You don’t want to feel tempted to increase your spending on items you don’t need just to increase your benefits on a rewards card.
- What kind of rewards would be valuable to you — airline miles? Cash back? Hotel points? Discounts on certain specific items? Other benefits?
- What terms are acceptable to you? Some rewards cards may require annual fees or very high interest rates on any balance you carry. Some may cap your rewards at a certain limit or require you to use them within a certain amount of time.
These are just a few of the factors to consider when thinking about signing up for a credit card with rewards, and you’ll want to carefully compare any cards that seem to meet your needs. Fortunately, you can research and compare most cards online, and many objective sources even offer guides that can help. For example, MSN Money, Consumer Reports, and Kiplinger all offer helpful comparison information on rewards cards, and you can find even more sources through a simple online search. And, of course, you should read all of the fine print and details from the card issuer before actually signing up for any rewards card.
Do you use any rewards cards? Have you found the rewards to be worthwhile? Have you encountered any traps or terms you weren’t expecting? Let us know.
Leave a comment: