Well firstly you need to understand exactly how much you are going to be able to spend on your card each month, before you spend anything.  This figure must be dependent on what money you have coming in each month from your job etc.  The only way you will make the most of your credit card is to pay it off every month, the entire balance.  If that doesn’t sound like you can do it then you are wasting your time.

The idea is to get a great credit rating and to get as many rewards as possible without paying a penny of interest.  You can only do this if you pay off your balance in full at the end of every month.  There is no other way to succeed with credit cards.  If you only pay the minimum amount from your balance one month, you can bet by the following month you will end up having to pay some interest on your balance.  Don’t give your credit card company a chance to charge you money, make sure you pay off your balance in full, every month!

I’m sure you can see the fraud risk here.  If someone steals your card, or if you lose it, someone else may spend money with your credit card or debit card and soon total up quite a bill.  There are only random inspections and signature checks for this technology at the moment, so there is nothing to stop a fraudster making several purchases on your card before you know it’s missing, or before they are stopped and checked.

The only thing that lessens the impact of such an event is that contactless technology limits paymets made from the card to £10 or less (i do believe though that they may be raising this to £15).  This means that a theif couldn’t spend too much money, however 10 transactions for £10 is £100 so it can soon add up and take its toll.

Many people like the buy now pay later ideals of a credit card, and retailers are being forced into accepting them because the retail trends are this way.  If people are going to want to pay with debit cards and credit then the merchants have to comply or they go out of business; this is true people power in action.

So this is a really good time to make sure you can get hold of a credit card.  Most people have debit cards these days, it’s just those that want to pay with credit that need to get themselves sorted soon.  There is a certain freedom afforded to you by paying your bill every month and not worrying about paying as you go along.  There is also the added bonus that if you pay for things on your credit card you can claim reward points for all your purchases!

Cashback

Getting cash back from your purchases is always a good thing isn’t it?  If you can make a few quid whilst spending a few then it makes life a little eaier to handle.  Barclaycard Freedom is a reward system that allows you to accululate cash on your credit card and not in your wallet.  This is particularly good for those who don’t want to save for anything in particular.  If you leave the cashback on your credit card then you can redeem it against the purchase you’ve been saving up for.

Reward cards

It’s all about getting the right reward card for you here isn’t it?  What you need is a card that works for you.  So there is no point in getting a credit card that offers free airmiles if you can never afford to travel like that; no matter how much you think that it’s the only credit card who will accept you, you’re wrong.  You need something that offers rewards a little more immediate don’t you?  A little like money of CDs and DVDs or cinema tickets.

Shop around!

The patience is of course to wait for the payments that will never arrive.  Call me cinical, but i know students and i know how unlikely it is to get them to pay their bills (it’s about as unlikely as it is to get them to tidy up after themselves sometimes.)  So the type of college credt card you want is one that is prepared to offer you a low(ish) interest rate and allow you to make the minimum payments without hassling you until such time as you graduate and are able to pay off more and more.  The credit card company of course will charge an extorionate amount of interest on the money in an attempt to try to prevent it every being paid off; they want a constant meal ticket you see and you’ll never be able to pay them off unless you make significant and regular offers.

This reward system allows you to accumulate cash onto your card as a credit and then redeem your spending rewards at any shop that participates.  It is pretty much a guarantee that all major stores will be participating in the scheme in the near future, much the same as the way contactless technology has been introduced.  Barlclaycard were also among the first to use contactless technology too, so it’s clear to see that this major credit card company is ready for the next step on the evolutionary credit card ladder, even before the world is.

Watch out for the Barclaycard Freedom reward system on your Barclaycard in the near future.  And if you’re about to apply for a credit card then Barclaycard is definately one that you need to put on your list; granted, you need a huge income for one of these cards, but if you’ve got it then use it folks, the rewards speak for themselves.

There is no shame in collecting points for things, don’t get me wrong, but i am one of those credit card users who prefers to feel like an adult and not someone playing a gameshow.  I would like my rewards where i can see them and i would like them instantly if there are any at all.  This is why i go for cashback credit cards.  After all, can you think of anything that your current rewards credit card can offer you that money can’t actually buy?  No i didn’t think so.

So wouldn’t you much rather have the money and then you decide on what you want to spend it on rather than from a list of gifts or selected stores?  I know i would.  I collect cashback and i spend it on what the hell i want; what i really want.

The fee could end up taking a huge chunk out of the money you would have usually hanve saved by going with another company who doesn’t charge you for the privilege.  After all the idea of transfering your balance is to save money isn’t it, and buy a little time to pay it all off eventually?  If your balance is very high then paying a fee for the transfer simply isn’t worth it, and this is where those sneaky credit card companies get you, you see.  They can’t wait for you to transfer your money, and then they don’t care if you transfer it again to someone else, simply because they have made their money from your transfer fee!

When i say easy to use i mean that what they are designed to to happens without you having to do a single thing.  They work in much the same way as the football credit cards i mentioned in an earlier post.  All you do is spend money on the charity credit card and then a certain percentage of that money goes to your named charity.

The percentage is tiny, and it almost seems insignificant, but you must remember that there are many many people with charity credit cards and that when you add up all the other users of the cards you will soon see that whatever charity it is that you support gains an awful lot of revenue from this.  It’s certainly worthwhile sacrificing your other rewards in order to help a charity isn’t it?  Could this be your one selfless good deed?

It’s called the football credit card and it’s a relatively new type of credit card that has been born from the charity credit card types and things like that.  If you can donate money to your favourite charity through using your credit card then there should be no reason you can’t donate to your favourite football club either should there?  Well that’s what the credit card companies have thought, and in a rather clever move they have decided to offer credit cards with your favourite football club as primary beneficiary of any rewards you might get from spending money on your card.

That’s right, every time you spend some money your football club will get some cashback!  This is a great way to support your football team withouth even trying; in fact when you go to buy your overpriced football strip, do it with your football credit card and you might just help that little bit more!  It has to be worth it doesn’t it?  Especially if your team isn’t doing so well!