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What are the Benefits of Cashback Credit Cards?

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Regular readers of this website will remember this post that I wrote. 4 Credit Cards to Repair Your Credit Score .If you are planning to use credit cards strategically, you first need to set your objective. If your objective is to earn cash rewards instead of improving your credit score your choice credit cards would be very different.

Why Use Cashback Credit Cards?

Earn Rewards

If you pay for mandatory expenditure using a cashback credit card you have an opportunity to earn rewards that would not be available to you if you simply used a debit card. If you use this approach, you must remember to pay of the credit card balance in full each month otherwise the interest that you will have to pay may negate the value of any rewards earned.

Sign Up Bonuses

Many cashback credit cards have new customer sign up bonuses and exclusive shopping offers. Providing that you are disciplined with your spending, these could be good opportunties. Imagine a scenario where you can earn tangible items that you could sell for cash.

Warning

“Know thyself.” – Socrates. If you do not have the financial discipline to use cashback credit cards and remember to clear the balances each month – do not go near them. You could end up creating problems for yourself.

What are the Best Cashback Credit Cards in the United States?

To review some of the best performing cashback credit cards in the United States click here and remember that past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

Next Steps

Are you interested in cashback credit cards ? Do you have one already? Let me know in the comments section below. Also, get in touch if you would like my help. My email address is mike@learnmoney.io

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My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only. This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

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4 Credit Cards to Repair Your Credit Score

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

It is very unfortunate that the people who most need credit are the least likely to receive it. People with low credit scores are deemed the greatest risk by the bean counters in banks and other financial institutions who determine who’s loan application will be accepted or denied. When you are being considered for any credit agreement, one variable that carries a lot of weight is your credit score. This is expressed as a number; fortunately, it is a variable that you can positively influence over time.

What is a Credit Score?

Definition: As a consumer, your credit score is a number based on information from your credit reports at the three major credit reporting bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Definition from Investopedia.com

Your credit score* is based on your performance against a number of factors including, how much credit you are currently using, whether you have missed payments for credit cards and loans, whether you are a home owner or rent the property that you currently live in. According to Experian, a poor credit score is between 300-579, 580-669 is described as fair, 670 -739 is labelled good, 740-799 is very good and 800 to 850 is exceptional. People with poor credit scores are often turned down when they apply for credit.

Image credit: https://www.experian.com/

How can you Improve Your Credit Score?

There are a number of ways of improving your credit score, for the purpose of this blog post, I will focus on one. You can Improve your credit score by applying for a specialist credit card, using it responsibly and building up positive data points and your financial reputation. ‘Using it responsibly’ in this context means paying off your balance each month and making payments on time. Credit cards for people with low credit scores are a niche within the credit card market; providers are more flexible than traditional lenders and charge a higher interest rate for outstanding balances and purchases.

Below are 4 credit cards that you can apply for, if you have a poor credit score and want to improve it.

Which Credit Cards can Help You?

If you do apply for any of these credit cards, please read all the terms and conditions carefully and pay particular attention to the APR that will be applied to your card. Use your new credit card responsibly and in a few short months your credit score will improve. As your credit score improves, you will be able to borrow at much more competitive interest rates. You can find out your credit score for free here.

Do you know your credit score? Have you had to take steps to improve it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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Best regards,

Mike

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*If you were wondering about the difference between a credit score and and credit rating, individuals usually have credit scores whereas businesses or governments have credit ratings. Credit ratings are expressed as letters with A being the highest as opposed to the numbers used for credit scores.

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Credit Cards: How to Make Balance Transfers Work For You

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: https://www.creditcards.com/

If you have ever had more than credit card and realised that the payments you are making are mostly going to pay off interest only, a balance transfer might be a good solution for you. A balance transfer occurs when you open a new credit card account and transfer the balance from an existing card or cards to the new card. This can work out well for you if the new card offers you a 6 month 0% interest free period. You will then have the opportunity to pay off more of your credit card balance because you have 6 months to make payments without accruing interest.

This is the primary advantage of balance transfers, the interest free period. Before taking out a new balance transfer credit card read the terms and conditions and find out what the interest rate will be after the 6 month period. Financial institutions offer balance transfer credit cards because they know that many people will not be able to clear their balance within 6 months and as a consequence they will then have to pay interest to the financial institution. This is when they are able to make money from you; sometimes there is a fee for balance transfer. Usually financial institutions will also make money if you make any new purchases or cash withdrawals too, so try to avoid any new transactions altogether on the new card.

Make Balance Transfers Work For You

*Use an online comparison tool to find out which are the best balance transfer credit cards for your requirements and check your eligibility. Do not apply for too many cards because your applications will be recorded on your credit record and you do not want to appear desperate.

*Balance transfers are not offered to everyone, if you have a poor credit rating this opportunity might not be open to you. Click on this link to find out more about credit ratings. If you are can get a new balance transfer card, sign up and use it.

* If your application is successful, transfer your balance or balances to the new card and continue to make regular payments to reduce the amount that you owe. It will make your financial life simpler and more manageable.

*Calculate your desired repayment amount and set yourself the goal of clearing your new credit card by a specific date. Ideally this will be within the interest free 6 month period.

*Consider this strategy that I have used personally, when one 6 month period is about to finish it will should still be possible to transfer to another new balance transfer card and in doing so gain another 6 months at 0% interest. More time to clear your balance will help you make faster progress clearing your debts. Read this post for more information on clearing debts, What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts?

What Should You do?

If you follow the approach listed above, balance transfers can become an excellent strategy for rapid debt reduction and will move you closer to being debt free

Have you used balance transfer cards to reduce your debts? Would you use them again? Let me know in the comments section below.