Tag Archives: credit cards

Miles Credit Cards – Strategies to Accumulate Miles (Page 1 of 2)

September 24, 2019   Home Mortgage

Put simply, miles credit cards allow cardholders to earn points for every dollar charged on the card. The accumulated points can be redeemed for reduced or, in some instances, free airfare. There are many promotional offers and some cards offer more points than others. To entice the customer, certain miles credit cards offer no annual-rate, no APR fees, additional bonus miles with new sign-ups, balance transfers at reduced or no interest rate for a certain period as well as no blackout date for miles redemption.

Credit card companies have also come up with affinity card programs that allow cardholders to collect airline miles with purchases at some of their most preferred retailing outlets and merchants. This lets cardholders add more miles at a faster rate with purchases from their favorite retailers. On the downside, these cards tend to have high annual fees and interest rates.

Frequent flyers tend to be mostly business travelers, who travel often due to work. However, careful planning can help normal travelers to accumulate good miles. Some tips to accumulate miles at a fast rate are:

1) Utilize Partner Services – Miles cards normally have tie-ins with car rental companies and hotels as part of their marketing strategy that also provide mileage points accumulation. Using these car rental companies or hotels and charging them to the miles card will also help to increase the points accumulated by using necessary travel expenditures.

2) Vacation or Tour Packages – Miles credit cards offer vacation or tour packages to encourage customers to travel and thus to increase demand for their airlines. Once again, by utilizing these vacation or tour packages, cardholders can accumulate more mileage points on the card per trip, earning more points while vacationing.

3) Non-frequent Travelers – For less frequent travelers, it is better to charge any travel related expense to the miles card when you travel. The travel related expenses could be anything from buying souvenirs, groceries, fuel while in a different location, etc, which also helps to accumulate additional miles on the card.

4) Affiliate services – Some miles card programs partner with a network of allied airline carriers. Examples of these kinds of network alliance services include the Star Alliance or Flying Blue programs. If your preferred airline does not fly to the location that you desire, try to choose from another airline that is part of the alliance network, giving cardholders yet another opportunity to accumulated miles.

Most miles credit cards have numerous benefits for frequent flyers. However, the benefits could vary, based on the specific program. Some mile cards provide additional or bonus points while making certain purchases. The points can later be traded for airline miles. Some miles credit card programs allow portability or the transfer of points to other frequent flyer accounts, and some even offer consolidation of all accumulated points to one single card. These earned miles give you free or reduced travel tickets. In addition, most of these cards also offer various other travel-related benefits, including free additional tickets, upgrade opportunities, lost baggage insurance, car rental insurance, and greater coverage amount for travel accident insurance.

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Student Credit Cards – An Introduction (Page 1 of 2)

September 11, 2019   Home Mortgage

Just as the term itself suggests, student credit cards are credit cards meant exclusively for students, many of whom are yet to earn a documented income with employment. Credit card issuers are mindful of students and their credit challenges so they make accommodations for students when building student credit card offers specifically. Typically, the only constraint when applying for a student credit card is the age of the student, and as mandated by the law of the country, which is typically 18 years old and above at the time of application. In many ways, a student credit card is very similar to traditional, run-of-the-mill credit cards. But the major difference, is the standard APR, or interest rate, levied for card purchases, which is relatively higher than a traditional credit card APR.

Credit Card Use & Credit Score

Student credit cards provide more financial flexibility for young students. But, while it may come in handy when paying the rent, paying tuition, purchasing books, and other necessary items like food and clothing, unbridled card swiping can sometimes lead to financial trouble, especially in the form of poor credit scores and damaged credit histories. To a certain extent, this can be blamed on a lack of education or awareness as young people, often times, will not think too much about the concept of credit scoring or the idea of building a good credit history. As a result of this lack of awareness, they will typically not restrain themselves from using the credit card freely either.

The danger of poor credit scores will not become readily apparent, but will certainly become apparent when the student approaches a bank for credit at a later point in time. Credit profiling or credit scores, as determined by any of the three credit bureaus, represent an individual’s credit life history, and black marks on credit histories, however they are acquired, will make it difficult, at worst, and more expensive, at best, to secure the lowest possible interest rate on the loan or financing. So, consequently, even if one manages to get the home loan or car loan, for instance, the interest rate, in order to accommodate the increased credit risk perceived by the bank, will be higher than normal, and in turn, much more expensive for the borrower. The bottom line is that student credit cards represent a potential risk to future economic standing if the cards are not used judiciously.

Using Student Credit Cards

As previously mentioned, it is clear that uncontrolled use of a student credit card can easily damage an individuals budding credit scoring and credit history profile. But on the flip side, intelligent spending and timely payback can go a long way toward building a solid credit history and credit score. Using the card for necessary purchases that are well within his/her payback capabilities and making the payments well within the due date can improve ones credit rating tremendously.

Credit Bureau Reporting

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