Why the rewords programs?

According to some credit card experts, credit card companies have figured out that consumers are more loyal to cards that have reword programs than those without.  On average a customer will hold on to a rewords card about 40% longer than a card without a rewords program attached.

The increased consumer loyalty is very significant, especially if you consider that the cost of acquiring new customers averages about $150.

To prove the popularity of rewords cards, about 2 in 3 consumers now hold at least one reward card, compared to an average of 1 in 6 just 4 years ago.

Cash back cards are the way to go

For most people out there, cash back reword credit cards are the best option.  The reason being is that most people don´t spend enough to take advantage of the airline ticket rewords or even those cards that let you accumulate credit towards the purchase of a new car.

Most credit cards will pay you back about 1% to 5% of your purchases (gas, food and clothing just to give a few examples) with a yearly limit.    For most people the limit is not a problem, since it is very hard for the average consumer to spend enough money to go over those limits.

In the future we will be reviewing some of the best best rewords cards on the market.

When choosing the right credit card for your you, it’s important to think about which type of rewords you will benefit most from. For that reason, I’ve put together a list of the top reword credit card offers:

Gas & Fuel based rewords cards

With rising gas prices, many people are drawn to credit cards that offer rebates on gas and fuel purchases. If you drive a lot, this can be a great reword card for you. Some gas credit cards offer up to 10% cask-back. But there are other things to keep in mind. Many cards only offer cash back on gas, some at just one type of station. All other purchases will get you either nothing or a lower rate. Also, these cards tend to have higher interest rates so you’ll consider paying your balance in full.

Cash Back on purchases

These cards are for big spenders and can get you up 5% to 20% cash back on purchases made at select shops. The limitation of these cards is that the cash back offer is only valid at specific retailers. But if that´s not a problem for you, or if you are already a regular customer of these stores, then you can take advantage of the significant cash back rewords.

Travel and Airline Miles based rewords

If you are a frequent traveler, you may find that bigger bang for the buck comes from airline miles rewords card. Rather than cash-back, you earn miles that can be applied to certain flights (sometimes limited to domestic flights). You can question if the value of the miles earned for travel are as valuable as pure-cash back cards, but the ability to earn bonus miles from your purchases can make these a good credit cards to have if you do a lot of traveling.

Balance Transfer Offers

If you are carrying a balance on another card that carries a high-interest rate, and could use an interest free grace period to try an pay the loan off, then consider taking advantage of a balance transfer offer. The best balance transfer offers around waive the transfer fee, and either offer 12 months interest free on the transfered amount, or offer very low rates with no time limit other than minimum monthly payments. So if you currently carry a balance on a high-rate card, you’ll probably be better of not from a rewords type card, but with a low-interest balance transfer offer.

Interest free offers

If you’re going to be making a big ticket purchase, and want to stretch out the payments for a long period of time, then you might consider interest free offers. While not earning you cash back rewords of any kind, these type of card can save you money on interest.