BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Rewards Cards = Free Money

I know I've praised the beauty of no-fee rewards credit cards many times in the past but I wanted to chime in with it again.

First, NEVER EVER carry a balance. That is key. So if you are having any issues in that area, get help and get that taken care of. Find whatever help you need to make sure you can budget this properly. This only works if you have a zero balance every month.

Then put every bill you can possible manage onto that reward card. Make the reward card a funnel through which all purchases stream.

It costs you nothing to do this.

You get LOTS of reward income for free, for purchases you already would have made.

I am currently in a tight financial situation so I just went in and "cashed in" all my rewards points. Some had been gathering for a while. Chase will send you a check, so I have a $600 check coming to me in a few days for the 60,000 points I had there.

Capital One will only do gift cards, but I now have $650 in gift cards for a store I regularly shop for food at.

So now at least I know we'll stay fed and have that $600 to put towards paying the non-credit-card bills that remain. One of our biggest bills, for our state-required health care, is still bank-withdrawal-only so that will help there.

Does anybody else use the reward cards method of extra income?

I don't suppose they will do that with a debit card? lol.

I don't even think about how bad my credit it, since I have lived without a card all this time and never plan to get one.

If i could, though, I would absolutely do what you are doing! In a heartbeat. Anyone with good credit, or a young person with their first credit, should try this. I love the idea of routing all my expensive bills through this. It really is something for nothing.

I never had a credit card, but I would like to get one. When I was looking into a credit card from my bank, I asked the banker what the difference is between credit cards that have rewards and the regular ones. I also asked him which he would recommend I sign up for. He never explained it, he just told me to get the regular one. Do they charge you a fee to apply and use the card or how can I get a rewards card?

A lot of rewards cards have like a $30 annual fee. I don't know what situation Lisa has. Maybe annual fees can be negotiated, if the card is through your bank and you are a long term customer?

I have been with Wells Fargo for decades, and usually they waive fees for me for all kinds of things, since they like having long term patrons.

Dear Jilly -

You have so many things on your plate right now that I would not even worry about a credit rating. Be encouraged that things expire off of credit reports and eventually you get back to a neutral state. At some point in the future, when you're ready, you can get a prepaid card. Having that will start increasing your credit rating with no risk at all. So it will all get better going forward. Just give it time and don't worry about that for now.

Gail -

I would be suspicious of a person who does not answer direct questions about what you are signing up for. That to me would be a warning sign.

The two cards I use are Chase and Capital One. Neither one has ANY fee. they are completely free to use. Now again I want to give the big warning here that you CANNOT CARRY A BALANCE. Once you start carrying a balance you get hit with outrageous interest rates. That quickly undoes all the benefit. So you have to be dedicated to managing your budget and only putting things onto it that you absolutely can pay at the end of that month.

So again with that caveat, there is no fee at all, ever. It is completely free. It's like handing cash to the person who you bought from. And in addition, you get piles of free things sent to you as a reward. So in my mind there's no reason not to get those free things.

So for example here's the list from Chase of their no-fee cards -

Chase No-Fee Cards

I make no commission at all from that link - that is a direct link to Chase's page. And I do use Chase, and have for years, so I vouch for that system. There's no fee at all. It's completely free. And they will send you an actual check for the rewards you earn. They can add up fairly quickly, if you put things like rent and utilities on it.