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Credit Card Rewards
Credit rewards cards are nice to have. It’s
a little like getting your money to work harder.
There is considerable competition between credit
card companies. In order to get your business
some offer different types of rewards. The choices
are many, some give cash back, some air miles;
you can get points toward a car or gasoline, hotel
rooms and trips as well.
There are a variety of rewards programs they
fall into the categories seen here:
Cash-back rebate.
You get a percentage of the money you spend back.
Variants include programs that give the money
to a charity or deposit it in a college savings
account.
- The affinity rewards program.
Pick something you like and earn points toward
it: this can be airline miles or cars, fishing
gear or restaurants. These can be great but
only if you are interested in the item
- Airline Miles
- Gasoline
- Restaurant
- Automobile points
Some airline cards let you combine miles from
purchases with those you accumulate by flying.
This helps infrequent flyers earn a free ticket.
If you are not loyal to a particular airline,
consider a "points" card, which lets
you accumulate discounts on any airline. One
drawback with the airline cards, however is
that most come with a steep annual fee.
- The general rewards program.
Increasingly, card companies are offering their
own rewards
Frequently rewards cards have higher interest
rates. If you carry a balance or are not interested
in the rewards these may not be the best card
for you.
Always remember to read the fine print to make
sure you want the card and the rewards
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