Credit Card Hopping Tips & Tricks

The best strategy I’ve used for accruing credit card rewards is to automate as much of the process as I possibly can. I would estimate that simple lapses of judgment and innocent forgetfulness constitute a quarter of credit card company’s total revenue. But implementing fail safe systems makes using credit cards both safe and highly rewarding.

For instance, my Wells Fargo credit card is automatically programmed to pay off the entire balance several days before the monthly due date. My phone, internet, and cell bills are all set to be automatically paid by my credit card. If I could pay my rent with a credit card, all my bills would be both earning me reward points and completely automated, so I’d never have to think about them.

My friend uses three different routines for credit card purchases that give cash back or reward points.

One card is used specifically for fuel purchases for his car. He gets instant cash back on every gallon of gas that he buys. He always pays his balance on the card before any interest is added to his account. His gas card also has other advantages like road side assistance, and cash advance in case of an emergency. So it is a nice card to have, but he restricts its usage for fuel only (so far so good).

Another card he has is used to pay bills only. It is used to pay bills that are basically the same charge each month. So, he knows how much to budget the payments for this card. Plus, he gets flying miles on this card. This is the only card that he gets flying miles on. He uses the card for prescription medication, internet bills, cell phone charges, and other routine expenses like car insurance.

He also has another card that he uses for purchases such as gifts, dining, and other spontaneous type purchases. I’m not sure how many reward points that he racks up doing this, but he uses his credits to purchase merchandise offered from the credit card company. They have some really nice gifts that you can buy, including computers, televisions, cell phones, etc.

In my opinion, this kind of budgeting requires quite a bit of bookkeeping. He says that it is a juggling act at times, but he enjoys balancing his budget this way because he feels he gets great rewards for a small investment of his free time.

You need not make a plan to purchase above some minimum value. The minimum value itself may vary from person to person. That may make a person with lesser minimum value, to be unable to get the points he would have otherwise have got. It is better to decide first of all whether you are inclined for points or the products. Depending on your needs and your business, cash flows you can choose to make more points. For some people with large enterprises need to use their credit cards for big purchases or more purchases and they may need to travel sometimes. In that case the points which are added up will definitely help him to take advantage of a flight to help him in business.

Another point is that when your company reimburses the travel expenses you have incurred for the business purposes, it may not always be exempt of taxes. In that case you will naturally lose some money as taxes. If you have different credit cards and the travel offers are different in each of them, it is better to select the optimum one. It will save you taxes, gets reward points. Of course this is only possible if you are holding credit cards from different banks and each one has travel offers that matche your target places.

Just make sure that if you are getting some sort of rewards that they cover for the alternative of cash back (e.g. 1 “reward point” >= 1% cash back). The allure of rewards is that you’d get something which you normally wouldn’t purchase for yourself, but you could do the same thing with the cash that you get back for purchasing.

I keep a 2nd Checking account to pay my Disney Reward Visa payment every month. About once a week I check and balance the online activity of the credit card with my checking account. I pay all of my bills, my brother and boyfriends bills and then put their cash into that checking account. I gain the points from their bills and keep all of my money straight this way so that once the bill comes I can pay it off every month out of that checking account. I also only make purchases that I have the cash to cover so that I dont end up in over my head.