How to Make the Most Money Out of Credit Card Rewards Programs
11 August 2006CNN has a new article up by Gerri Willis with an ominous bit of news for people who have been relying on credit card rewards programs as a way to earn a little extra cash: several of the companies are planning on cutting back on the benefits. It’s long been a well-known way to get a little extra: you spend all your money each month on the credit card, pay it off each month before the interest kicks in, and pocket the rewards benefits. But now, American Express is eliminating most double rewards points. And it may get harder and harder to earn these benefits.
Gerri points out that many of these cards have already started to rely on the fine print to force you to spend quite a bit of money to even get any rewards at all. The cash-back cards are a better deal than the frequent flier miles or the points cards, but many of them have caps in the amount you can be rewarded each year that are pretty low. Luckily, there are so many credit cards out there that you should be able to find at least a few with good rewards programs. But the trend is definitely not in a good direction.
Discuss this on the Free the Drones Forums here.
2 Responses to “How to Make the Most Money Out of Credit Card Rewards Programs”
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:50 am
I knew that would happen. People are becoming too smart. No banks need to think of something else. I think 0% transfer option is now becoming the main thing to induce people to get credit cards.
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:15 am
Sometimes people pay too much attention to rewards programs and are hung up about them. As a consequence they are impatient to get several cards. But that demand on-time payments.