Thrifty Mommy

Sorting through Credit Card rewards programs

by kellys on February 13th, 2007

You will never hear me recommend credit cards.  I truly believe that if you don’t have cash for it, you don’t need it with the exception of a home.  You can even save enough for a nice car.  Just make the car payment to yourself over the years and put the payment away.  That way, you have enough money to pay for a car with cash, not to mention that you can usually get a better deal when you pay cash.

But on the subject of credit cards, if you are going to use them, use them wisely.  Pay them off each month.  I went to pay on our credit card today.  I don’t use it.  My husband does.  So the lady looked at me crazy when I told her I didn’t have the card with me to give her the account number.  Using a credit card wisely can increase your credit score.

So what is a good card to use?  There are so many out there that you can get lost in the sea of cards out there. 

I recently found a great article from Parents Magazine that lays most of the credit cards and the rewards you can get from them.  It got me to thinking so let’s take a look at what you should let credit cards do for you.

• Fidelity 529 College Rewards Mastercard – gives you 2% back on all purchases up to $1500 a year.
• Citi Upromise Card – gives you 1% back on all purchases up to $300 annually, additional rebates at certain retailers such as 5% at onestepahead.com and 2% at dell.com
• Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa – gives you 1.5% back on all purchases up to $1500 a year
• Citi Home Rebate Platinum Select MasterCard –  gives you 1% back on all purchases plus 6% back for every dollar spent on cable and utility bills for the first 12 months
• GM Card – gives you 5% on all purchases towards the cost of most GM vehicles
• Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select Card – gives you 6% back for the first 12 months and then 3% after that on purchases from supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations and 1% on all other purchases up to $1000 a year
• Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard – gives you up to 5% back at certain places and 1% on all other purchases up to $300 annually
• American Express Blue Cash – gives you 5% back at certain supermarkets, gas stations, and drugstores and 1.5% back every where else after you charge $6,500 each year.  Before that, you get .5% – 1% on all purchases
• MBNA World Points Visa Signature – gives you 1 point for every dollar spent to be used to trade for airline tickets
• Citi PremierPass Card – gives you 1 point for every for every dollar up to $100,000 per year plus 5,000 points upon sign on.
• Discover Platinum Card – gives you a rotating 5% back in different categories, and then .25% back when you spend up to $1,500, .5% back when you spend $1,500 and $3000, and 1% back when you spend more than $3,000

Be careful to only select credit cards that will give you the rewards you will use and don’t go hog wild with your spending.  So be smart with your spending and choose wisely which credit card you decide on.

Here are some related links you might want to check out when choosing your credit card reward program.

Things to think about when choosing a rewards program

Credit Card rewards program review

Cash in on Credit Cards

Credit Card types and rewards

Share This

Related Stories

The Carnival of Credit Card
Frugal ways to spend less
Credit card rate reduction
Dear Mrs. Weideman
Carnival of Credit Card

POSTED IN: financial matters, free stuff, money saving idea