How To Get More Rewards From Your Credit Card With These 5 Tips
Charge card rewards programs are hugely popular with today’s consumers. They allow you to benefit from a wide range of rewards simply for using your charge card.
Here are our top five tips to getting more from your charge card rewards program.
1.Use your card regularly
The vast majority of charge card rewards programs award points based on the amount that you spend using your card. Most schemes award between one and two credit card reward points for every dollar that you spend on your card.
The more you use your card, the more rewards points you will accumulate. If you want to amass as many points as you can, the secret is to use your charge card as often as possible. Use it for large items but also for day-to-day purchases such as fuel and groceries.
2.Use ‘bonus partners’
Most credit card providers have a range of retail partners with whom they offer bonus reward points. By using your charge card to spend with these bonus partners, you will also benefit from additional points in addition to the reward points you make through your card provider.
Sometimes you can make up to an additional four points per dollar spent by using your card with ‘bonus partners’.
3.Pay off your balance regularly
One of the biggest mistakes that charge card rewards customers get is to maintain a balance on their reward card.
If you maintain a balance on your card there is a good chance that you will be paying interest at anything between 15% and 20%. You could therefore be paying hundreds of dollars every year in interest charges.
Whilst the value of your rewards may be good, it is probable that you will be paying far more in credit card interest than the value of the rewards you are earning. So, where possible, you should pay off your rewards card balance every month. If that is not possible, consider transferring your balance from your rewards card to a ‘balance transfer’ card before using your rewards card in future.
4.Consider upgrading your card
Most card providers offer a range of cards affiliated to their credit card rewards schemes. These typically include a standard card, a gold card and a platinum card.
Whilst you may find that you pay a higher annual fee for a gold or platinum card, they will often offer enhanced benefits. For example, most gold and platinum cards will award more points per dollar spent than a standard card (it is not unusual for platinum cards to award two points per dollar spent). You could double the points you earn just by upgrading your card.
5.Use ‘points plus pay’
If you haven’t collected enough points for your chosen reward, most providers will allow you to buy the item with a combination of reward points and cash. You can therefore benefit from your chosen reward by using a mixture of your points and paying the balance using your card.
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Filed under Finance by on Feb 19th, 2011. 