The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
You would have seen it time and again when waiting to pay for groceries, a wallet with at least five different credit cards. Wondering why there is a need to have so many or more than one credit card at all? Credit cards work through sales and marketing of reward points more than anything else. When a person spends a dollar on a participating store or at a hotel that is part of the program they earn reward points. There are many attractive credit card rewards in the market where people get as much as 12,000 or 18,000 points on first usage which can be redeemed for a minimum of at least a night or two at a participating hotel.
The thing about credit card rewards is it is most often for marketing. You can earn frequent flyer reward points by using the credit card from the airlines. What people complain about most is when it comes to redeeming the points, most often there are no seats available on the dates desired. For the average traveler such credit card rewards seem like a loss. However there are the right types of cards available, which can change that. Today you can get credit cards where you can redeem points off all airlines and then convert it into the cost of an air ticket. The difference here being you are not redeeming points against a free ticket, but buying the ticket, and hence you will find that you get the seats you want on the dates you want.
Before choosing the rewards on your credit card, research in order to get the right card for your needs. Most often people just get a card from believing in a marketing campaign that talks big but does not deliver. You need to be sure that you are taking a card with rewards programs that will be useful for you. For the average family a wal-mart credit card with rewards will make much more sense than a frequent flyer card. You can also look at cards that give you points on the gas used each time. Credit card rewards like cash back offers often come with an interest rate that can be higher and an annual fee so see that you can afford it before going for it. If you splurge thinking of the cash back offer, you will find it difficult to meet with the payments when additional fees on the cards add up at the end of the month.
When looking at credit card rewards you also need to look at the additional clauses on the card. Check when you have to pay every month and how much it will come to. Check if they are lenient when it comes to giving a grace period and also if you pay late. If your card will add up fees each time you may find some problem in paying up the amount you are going to end up with a very low credit score when the reports go in to the credit bureaus.
