A Personal finance blog for saving money and earning more and thus having a better life
You must be getting periodical mail offers to earn $100, $200 or $300 by applying for credit cards? Sometimes they may have even appeared on your Facebook wall or instagram or in your email box
If you were like me, you’d been putting them in trash. But they are not spam or phishing attempts. These are offers from genuine banks.
In the last post, I touched upon the idea of credit card rewards and sign-up bonuses. Now I am going to expand it a bit and share my experience with you. For those who’re joining late, this is about travel hacking to get (almost) free airfare and hotel stays, multiple times a year. Let’s embark on the journey now.
I was near 100% credit card user for the last 10 years. I used to pay only mortgage and utility bills using my bank accounts. For everything else, I used credit cards. As a result, I earned a lot of credit card rewards and cash backs.
This is the first of a series of posts I am going to write on credit cards and travel hacking. I started with this hobby recently and I want my readers to get benefited by what I have learned so far. If travel is your thing and you can use credit cards with ease, this series is just for you!
Often we, personal finance bloggers, ask our readers to limit credit card usage. That’s only applicable for people who have had a bad history is handling credit cards. Typically if you are a person who likes to carry credit card balance month to month you shouldn’t use a credit card at all. financially it makes no sense!
In order to get a good credit score, you need to be using credit, but many can be wary when using credit cards, all too aware of the potential problems that they can cause further down the line. However, with some savvy shopping and a good understanding of how to build up your credit rating without ranking up a debt too, you can start to reap the rewards that many credit card companies will offer.
Whether you’re looking to apply for a new card, or you want to start using your existing card more, below you’ll find some top items to purchase that can help you to build your credit.
Many view credit cards in wrong way, for them using credit cards is a sin. Credit cards encourages people buying things that are not affordable. True, the same way carrying gun is a sin. But, in reality neither is a sin. As long as you know how to use them and most importantly, how and when not to use them, you should be doing wonders. One will protect yourself from evil and the other will bring your comfort.
As I discussed in how to handle your credit cards, to make most from your credit cards, you first need to pay entire balance each month. If you don’t do that then you should not use a credit card, period! Credit cards should not be used as personal loan. There are other reasons to get personal loans. So, in order to enjoy all the good things a credit card offers, you’ll need to maximize the rewards and make the charges and fees zero.
It’s no secret that travel rewards cards are the most-appealing credit card options available to consumers today. And why shouldn’t they be? Free miles simply for making the purchases you’re already planning on making; where else can you get a deal like that?
That said, not every travel rewards card is created equal, and not every travel rewards credit card is right for everyone. When researching and applying for a travel rewards cards, there are a few things consumers need to consider.
Credit card companies use sign-up bonuses in order to entice new customers. Depending on the credit card market, sometimes you will find much more enticing sign-up bonuses than other times. A credit card company may dangle a sign-up bonus out there to convert a bunch of new customers, and then they may pull the offer depending on market fluctuation and other factors.
For example, Chase has re-released their stellar British Airways Visa Signature Card and the huge sign-up bonus that comes along with it: 50,000 Avios points just for spending $1,000 in the first three months that you have the card. If you spend an additional $20,000 throughout the year, that gives you 100,000 Avios points which is enough for two free round trip flights to Europe from the United States.
This review will be third in series of reviews for products we use. The previous ones were Credit Sesame Review and Yodlee money center review.
I have used Chase Freedom credit card for last 5 years. First applied when the solicitation mail came in my mail box. That time card was offering 2% (sometimes more than 2%) return on all spending.
2% cash back was welcome break from my otherwise no-reward secured card from Bank of America. I readily accepted the offer.
I would like to start by mentioning that, I never paid a late fee or interest while using credit cards. I earned $1000’s in rewards and cash backs so far. This goes on to prove that wise use of cards can help you financially while providing all the ease of using card vs. cash.
Credit cards can apparently seem to be convenient for the consumers. But the susceptible consumers are exposed to high risks due to bad spending habits as they spend more than they can afford. A considerable number of US consumers have multiple credit cards, and each card has a large amount of outstanding dues on it. So, the debt stricken consumers opt for credit card debt settlement programs to pay off their owed amount.
