subject: How To Use Rewards Credit Cards [print this page] Credit cards are known as complex, complicated, confusing and sometimes sneaky but rewarding? Rewarding isn't an adjective that's often used about them outside of their own advertising.
When we think about how to use reward credit cards, then, we need to think about why it is that the public perception is as it is.
When one goes to compare credit cards it's not hard to find rewards of various kinds: that's the first problem, then, an excess of choice.
With an excess of choice - many, many more types of reward schemes than most consumers have the time and energy to find and adequately understand before they sign up - comes confusion.
To make things worse, there are often different offers within the same reward credit card and these often do not work together and result in the accusation that credit card companies are sneaky, as we see above.
When we think about how to use reward credit cards, then, we need to primarily focus on the type of reward that we want to accrue and this will depend on the way that we spend.
If you spent heavily and in a number of different shops - all of which are places that you can use a credit card, paying by cash won't cut it of course - then you may be most suited to earning rewards with a cash back credit card.
If you are a frequent flier, however, you'll be far better off comparing cards which allow the users to collect Airmiles or frequent flyer miles from various airlines.
The monetary value of these schemes is always much more than any amounts you would get back in cash back but, again, you'll need to spend as much as possible on the card.
Finally, if you spend most heavily - that is, a majority of your big spends go on - in a particular store you should compare for cards that offer rewards specific to that store.
Supermarkets, in particular, tend to have very generous reward schemes which can include the shops' own points schemes as well as more general reward offers.
Once you have identified the way that you spend you're ready to look at the cards that will be the most rewarding for your typical monthly spend.
This is also worth thinking about when you compare current accounts. Not all banks have reward cards on offer but they are much more likely to accept those consumers who are already their customers.
