First, decide what type of reward card you’re looking for – are you looking for air miles, cash back, save money on groceries, home improvements, or gas for your vehicle? Or, would you like to gain points to ‘purchase’ items? This primary question will start you off on the right path to finding the right reward credit card for you.
Perhaps the best place to look for a reward card is on the Internet – it is ripe with offers for reward credit cards and can even offer you a comparison all on one site. However, there are many things that you need to look for, especially when dealing with online offers for credit cards.
Here are the top 5 ways to help you make sure you score the right credit card with best rewards.
- Is the credit card company legitimate? You can double check this by calling the main company (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, etc) and finding out if the company is sanctioned to give out a credit card.
- What is the interest rate to start, what does it change to and when? Most credit card companies offer a low starting interest rate for six months to a year, but then it changes to a very high interest rate after the initial time period. There may also be some requirements by you to maintain that interest rate for the time period, such as not missing a payment, or making more than the minimum payment throughout the time period.
- Do the points/rewards/miles have an expiry date? Many reward credit cards will offer a great rewards system, but have an expiration date, which means you have to use the rewards before they expire or you lose them completely.
- Are there blackouts for the rewards? This especially applies to air miles or air fare rewards – one of the chief complaints of customers is that they battle black out dates and times that they can not purchase their air plane tickets with miles/points.
- What type of reward are they offering? Is it what you want, or are you settling for something you don’t really want, or wont really use? It’s important that you get the reward card that meets your needs, has a reward system that you will actually use, or you might as well not bother having a reward system at all.
You can also call companies directly and find out what reward credit cards they have to offer, or call the bank that you deal with to see what they have. Even newspapers, television and magazines offer advertisements for reward credit cards that may be right up your alley.
Regardless of where you find the reward offers, you need to compare the basics of each card, based on the information listed above. You want the rewards you will use, with a good interest rate from a legitimate, reliable company that is allowed to offer you the credit card.
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