I need a new credit card...

[framinzfun]

I want to get a new credit card for all of my business charges, to make it easier to track tax related stuff and what not. Anyway, not being really credit card savvy, I have heard a lot about these cards with "rewards". Like the GM card, and airline cards, and the rewards whatever cards... Anyway, I don't plan on buying a new GM anytime soon, and we don't ever fly anywhere... what kind of card gets me the most in return.

[Grumbler F.K.A. Harry]

Beware of Discover.... it is like a cult..... AMEX has many different types of reward programs, but you will find many vendors don't like to acccept AMEX so you could limit your ability to use it. VISA has several great options as well. Visit their website and take a look.

[Baer Charlton]

Those are called "affinity" cards. They give a cut to the organization that it is related to.

If it is an airline, the airline gives you back milage. Some milage is redeemable for hotel stays and car rentals.

If you don't travel, you can be making donations to a not for profit organization such as World Wildlife Fund, UNICEF, your collage, American Cancer Society, Shriners Hospital, you get the picture.

Some that are not affinity carry a very low interest rate....
But best to just pay it entirely off each month.

Using a creditcard on file, to order moulding and such means no more COD charges, no credit app, no delays in shipping for cash up front, etc.

But if you don't travel, you will have to decide for yourself if you want an affinity or not.

Hmmmm I wonder if I could use miles to pay my PPFA dues..? :D

[EllenAtHowards]

We use a Southwest Airlines card and it pays for my trip to a convention or two every year. Of course we buy a lotta art supplies too, for it to get up to the level that actually buys a ticket. SWA is good, too, because they require fewer $$$ to rack up a free trip. AND they don't only set aside a few seats for the freeloaders. AND they are nice folks. AND I like their denim uniforms...

[Maryann]

Capital One advertises air miles as a reward program but when I went to redeem, I found you can also get a percentage of your purchases back. I think it was around 1%.

[DTWDSM]

Citibank Business card with Thank You rewards

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/cardserv/citibizrwd/index.jsp

You can get milage creedits , gift cards, make donations to charity, as well as merchandise, whichever you choose.

[JRB]

If you are not credit card savvy, myself, I think you should give it some hard consideration about even getting one. Every person who has ever gotten a charge card, has always been absolutely positive that they would pay the balance off every month. The idea being that by doing so, they would never be charged interest, or late fees.

How do you think credit card companies stay in business? They know, beyond the slightest doubt, that very few people actually do that. Naturally, at first, most people manage to do exactly that. Then along comes something into their lives that they think they can not live without, so they put it on the card. Bingo, they are now paying more in interest every month than any savings the card may have represented at first, is long gone.

Many Americans, in their consuming frenzy, will max out five or six, or even more, cards. They then start playing the "0" percent interest game. That is when you get a solicitation in the mail guaranteeing "0" percent interest for the first six months or so. They pay off the old cards with the new ones. It can almost become a full time job chasing credit card interest rates.

Your reasons for getting a card are valid, but I promise you, in time you will regret ever having one. OR, you could be among the one or two percent of all Americans, who always, no matter what, never charge more than they can pay off in a month.

I have some college educated friends who just refinanced their home, just so they could pay off their credit card debt. They had me do some framing for them, guess what, they handed me a card to pay for it.

Good luck,

John

[David N Waldmann]

Originally posted by JRB:
How do you think credit card companies stay in business? They know, beyond the slightest doubt, that very few people actually do that. Naturally, at first, most people manage to do exactly that. Then along comes something into their lives that they think they can not live without, so they put it on the card. Bingo, they are now paying more in interest every month than any savings the card may have represented at first, is long gone.A quick cure to that is set up autopayment directly from your checking account.

[JRB]

An even better cure is get a debit card instead.

The big question was "What kind of card gets me the most return?"

There is no such thing, cards are designed so that you pay them, not them pay you.

Years ago, as a teenager, I worked for Orange Empire Shows. It was a small, traveling carnival. They had rides and game booths. The game booths where designed to make you think you could win. You did not stand a chance.

The best analogy I can think of, for a credit card is, "Orange Empire Shows."

John

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

I keep a few of these kind of cards, and try hard to pay them off monthly (interest free). All of my home utilities (cable internet, electricity, phone, satellite, fuel, auto loans, food, etc) bill to the credit card. This gives a 1% cash back and lets me make out one check per month.

Many people do this with their shops, although we do not. For the shop we pay on terms to take advantage of the extra discounts. usually 2-5%

My favorite is the YAHOO VISA.(FirstUSA/BankOne/Chase)
No annual fee, 0% first 6 months, generous credit limit, 4.9-8.9% low APR, 1% rebate on purchases. (good towards giftcertificates.com, which you can redeem for just about any restaurant or store)

I also like the Royal Caribbean Visa (MBNA) Same idea but 1% points accumulate towards a cruise or onboard expenses.

For vehicle gas expenses, we use the CHASE Perfect Card. 6% rebate on gas purchases, credited every month to your bill. (first 90 days), 3% gas rebate after that, 1% rebate on anything else, no annual fee, 0% apr first 9 months for xfers.

Others:
Citibank and Chase each have Dividends programs that offers 5% back for gas, supermarkets, and drug stores, 1% everything else, 0% for 12 months

Discover has a 5% program for gas

Hess has a 10% on their gas for 90 days, 5 % after that

This is how we financed our Wizard, bouncing it from one 0% 12 month card to another for 6 months, until it was paid off. It was ours to use for 18 months, interest free, with a 1% cash back bonus. (a gamble, but paid off well and gave her time to earn her keep)

That being said, I personally feel that credit cards are EVIL graemlins/fire.gif smile.gif

Mike

[framinzfun]

If you are not credit card savvy, myself, I think you should give it some hard consideration about even getting one. Too late. I've had a Chase card since I was in college... I've heard all of the horror stories of college students racking up all kinds of charges and then ruining their credit rating in the process (hmmmmm, could that be why the credit card companies target college students...). I was lucky, or smarter, and made it through college with my credit intact. Now, I just use the card for odd stuff like internet purchases and things I don't want to use my debit card for. But I keep seeing ads for airline miles and cash rebates and thought maybe a new card would be a good idea. I did some research online and found two Chase cards that look OK... one is Chase Flexible Rewards Visa and Chase Ultimate Rewards Platinum Mastercard. Is Visa better than Mastercard? Or is there no difference? My bank also offers some cards, but the thing that worries me about that is my bank (Bank of America) tends to change names every three minutes, and I don't want to change credit cards every three minutes...

[Sherry Lee]

I don't have a Capital One card, but last week, the company donated $50,000 to a sheriff that was shot in the face two years ago, rendering him horribly disfigured, out of work with loss of friends, an immensely strained marriage and penniless. $20k was for a down payment on a house, $20K for a car and $10K in savings.

Sidenote: a reconstruction surgeon and dentist are donating their surgical expertise.

When I'm in need of another card, CapitalOne will be my first to look into.

[Bob Carter]

Hmmmmm-Credit cards are evil? The tie down these extremely well educated kids and force them to rack up tons of debt. I wonder who makes them write bad checks, binge drink and all the othercrazy stuff college kids do. I mean we all know they are way too smart for that

And besides,what genuis for the credit card companies to create a whole new group of write off debt?

Credit cards are part of the personal responsibilty of the person using them

So, here is my take

We use Southwest Visa (as Ellen suggested) and haven't paid for a ticket in years

But,for those many merchants that don't take Visa,we use AMEX (our primary card). My friend Rob Markoff told me the value of these membership rewards programs and we have never looked back. We have been lucky and have had 8 free tickets to Europe (4 First Class) in the last three years

Now, for those that are concerned that they may rack up debt, May I suggest what we do?

Assume that your monthly bill is due on 30th of the month to Acme Widget. Normally, you write a check and mail it. We fax Acme with our invoice number, they charge with the number on file, and then we call AMEX or Visa, punch in our account number,select the pay by phone option, punch in the amount paid to Acme and viola! I just racked up another 600 miles-not to mention the cost of an envelope and .37 for the stamp.

Time spent? About the same as the old snail mail write the check drill

The rewards? Priceless

BTW, we learned from Mike the zero interest option and have used it when we go to market and place holiday orders.

Credit is just something else that needs to be managed.

And some people are better managers than others

[JRB]

Bob, there are few people that can manage themselves, even fewer that can mange a credit card. Even at the carnival, there were always some winners, there were also a whole lot more losers. We would just give out a few stuffed toys so folks would be walking around looking like winners, we called em shill.

Folks like yourself are the ones that make the other folks think they can do it too, this is what the card companies depend on. Face it Bob, your one of the lucky ones, you get to be shill. smile.gif

Myself, I don't use them. I can barely manage myself and my store, I have enough to manage. I did have one for about ten years. I always payed my balance in full, on time, most of the time. My limit started at five thousand, when I got rid of it, my limit had been boosted to thirty thousand. I never had it more than six thousand.

The gamble for the card companies is that you will spend more than you can pay off in one month. I think, sooner or later, just about everyone does just that.

John

[Bob Carter]

John-I certainly agree that there are those that have no business owing a card. I alaso believe that there are those that shouldn't have driver's licenses, either

I do not understand why the card companies themselves do't do a better of job of screening

But, I think the thread was about rewards programs

[wpfay]

Having learned from Bob what he learned from Rob I also employ the Amex card to manage my accounts. Any vendor that will take it is instructed to pay off my account on the 20th of the month (well, some slip through the cracks, but no harm done). That puts the amount due to Amex at 38-41 days, depending on the month (edit: this is above the aging of the account at the vendor, so potentially I have 70 days to pay). The vendor faxes me a copy of the charge and itemizes the invoices covered.

I have a Amex Executive (you can do the same thing with the basic green business card) card for business (1 matching free domestic flight per year, plus some other goodies), and the Blue card for personal. The Membership Rewards program is linked to both cards so we compile credits fairly quickly. They are not limited to air travel, nor to any single airline. You can even get cash back or pay your monthly bill using the credits (.5%, I think).

The card bills are paid on line, so there is no check fee or postage.

The biggest benefit is the money management aspect. The rewards are nice (got enough points to take the family to Europe and back....twice), but having control of the cash flow has put me in a better position when dealing with vendors. Also allows me a bit more breathing room when the corporate client says that their policy is to pay in 45 days, and being that they are the largest carnivore in the room all I can say is "that's fine".

Oh, I still have the option to pay particularly large invoices with high percentage discounts by check. A 5% discount is often a better choice than some additional points.

Credit Cards are not good or evil, just a tool. Unfortunately there are a lot of folks that don't know which end to grab.

[ 07-27-2005, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: wpfay ]

[Bob Carter]

Great points, Wally. As an aside,when we take on a new line or vendor, one of the last T's to cross is if the accept AMEX.

We have absolutely used that as a leverage and more than 1 client offers greater cash discounts, but not as net 10 or 20, but net 30.

And, I'll guarantee they did not develop that policy for me.

Great cash discounts? Checks on the way,nut in 30 days

These days I write probably less than 1/3 of what we used to

Now, If I can just get my landlord to accept it

[GUMBY, GCF]

Cash is King stop using credit cards and the cost of goods sold to you will go down!~ We offer a cash discount of 1.5% at the register!~ The cost of the reward is built into the price you pay for the goods you bought with the rewards card!~ Cash or credit card?

I do have a credit acrd from National city bank gives 4% on gas 2% on food 3% on movie rentals 1% on everything else!~ no fee!~

Just wondring if I bought a frame at your store and asked you to give me a 1% discount if I paid cash!~ Would you do it? If not why not?

[JRB]

No, don't like doing business that way. That is having the customer saying since they are saving me a percentage, they should save money. Either way, I pay the percentage. If I take their card, it goes straight to my bank. If I take their cash, I have to fill out a deposit slip, then schlep the money over to my bank. Where is the savings in that?

John