A Good Cash Rewards Credit Card Is A Wonderful Thing

A good cash rewards credit card is a wonderful thing. But often they will cost you more than you get back. by far.

Getting money back on money you have spent can be a real treat. So it's important to know if a cash rewards card is right for you. The most basic thing to look at is the interest rate. And that means you need to look both at what it will cost you to own and use it, and what you will get back from the card. While you will get the most benefit by not carrying a balance, most people will at least occasionally carry a balance. However, the rates will vary from card to card, and that is one factor you should consider. Your typical cash back card will have a higher interest rate than a card without any rewards attached.

But don' t fool yourself into thinking only the interest rate matters when looking at the expenses of your cash back card. Some will have annual fees. The fees matter quite a bit too. It is pretty easy to find cards that do not have an annual fee, so I would suggest dismissing those just offhand. Watch out for the limitations placed on your rewards. Otherwise you risk the annual fee being more than what you get back each year.

Getting cash back means you don' t have to worry about travel blackout dates or other such limitations that other kinds of rewards may have, but they can still limit what you get. If you' re likely to spend more than needed to get to that point, you won' t want that card. A common limitation is what you can earn per time period. The percentage you get back may also vary. 1% is no longer the only possibility. If you spend a lot in the areas that you get extra back from, these can be well worth your while. Sometimes the card will give higher rates back for certain types of purchases, or if you, such as gas buy from certain stores. If you have a balance to transfer, check for special deals on transferring that balance.

You' ll need to watch for balance transfer fees, but if there are no fees, this will be an excellent deal. Sometimes you will find deals offering a 0% interest rate on balance transfers. You will need to figure out what is most important to you. If you only spend a little, limitations on what you can earn won' t matter so much. If you pay your balance off every month, the interest rate will be less important than what you get back.