little surprises
I was reading Tired of Being Broke’s blog, and it reminded me that I should check to see if any of my credit cards could help me with my July trip. To be honest, I’ve spent so long worrying about how to pay off the evil credit card bills that I haven’t thought much about the positives of having credit cards. I was, for the most part, ignorant of the benefits of having my cards outside of the ability to get a high interest loan when I want to buy something. Last night, I found out a few things.
I found out that there are rewards points on two of my three cards, just waiting to be redeemed and put into a savings account or applied against my (nonexistent) credit card balance, or paid to me in cash. The amount of points I have will go up the more I use the cards. Hmm… maybe I should be using my cards for more routine expenses, like gas, groceries, bus tokens, etc. (And paying the entire balance at the end of each month and/or billing period.)
I also found out that one of my cards has a travel service, through which I can book flights, hotels, vacations, cruises, etc. And it looks like the rates are lower through my credit card site than through the travel sites I’ve looked at thus far. If I upgraded this particular card, I could even earn rewards points that could pay for some of my travel expenses. I know now that I have the option to use my card for making travel arrangements, and it could come out cheaper! One more note on this though - I do intend to upgrade my card, but only after I get my house. I really don’t want to do anything that will negatively affect my credit score before I buy the house, and upgrading to a better caliber of card would essentially dent my score by lowering the average age of my accounts and making it look like I’m applying for more credit. I know this not only because it’s commonly mentioned in helpful articles like this one, but also because it’s already happened to me three years ago.
There’s one more thing I found out. One of my three cards has raised my credit limit by $3,000.00. It has also lowered my interest rate on purchases by about 7%, without me even having to ask. I must be doing something right.
