There has been an explosion of credit cards that specialize in certain benefits over the last five years; reward points, cash back, 0% transfers, credit monitoring, discount gasoline, money-market savings, etc. So how do you get the most return from your card, particularly when their plans change?
(Presuming you never, ever carry a credit card balance interest charges and potential fees will more than consume any side benefit that a card can offer.)
In the old days, the big benefit was airline miles. Lets see how well that works out. The average airfare for a ticket that was paid for with credit card airline miles is about $400. And the average program requires 25,000 to 35,000 miles to be credited a free ticket. Since miles are normally accrued dollar-for-dollar, the average benefit is between 1 to 1.5% of what you spend.
Now we are starting to have something to compare. If you get an offer for a 1% cash back credit card, youd be slightly better off getting the airline miles. But in my opinion, the many cards offering up to 5% cash back are the best deal, as long the fine print lines up. First, there are normally limitations on the shops where the 5%...