Credit Card Perks and Benefits

Credit cards are like a delightful gift from heaven. If you pay your bill on time, they’re actually a free short term loan. They help keep track of your spending much more easily than cash, and they let you download your transaction history for free. Most offer free warranty extensions on your purchases and free car rental insurance. In fact, your credit card could provide over $1,000 of benefits you probably don’t even know about.

But credit cards are also convenient enemies. Almost everyone has a bad story about late fees or overspending, so “Cut them all up!” becomes an easy battle cry for people who don’t realize the benefits of multiple sources of credit.

The truth about credit cards lies somewhere in the middle. As long as you manage them well, they’re worth having. But don’t pay them off completely, or miss a payment, and you’ll end up owing an enormous amount of interest.

If you’re already spending with a credit card, you should know how to squeeze the credit card companies for everything they’re worth – without paying unnecessary fees or charges. And you should learn how to negotiate down your APR, as well as other tips to save you thousands of dollars.

Hidden benefits of credit cards

Here are some little-known rewards that your credit card offers. They’re available to everyone, but you have to ask:

  • You get an automatic extended warranty up to 1 year (that means no need to waste money buying extra warranties at Best Buy)
  • Automatic car rental insurance and collision insurance (so don’t waste money on this when renting a car)
  • Trip-cancellation insurance, so if you get sick before you go on holiday, your credit card company will reimburse any cancellation fees

Check out this video where I discuss the benefits that credit card companies offer on CNBC:

And as a bonus, here’s where you should be going to get your credit score and free credit report (Hint: It’s NOT the site everyone thinks of when they hear “free credit report”):

My articles on specific credit card benefits

Full chapter on optimizing your credit cards from my book

My book (available on Amazon) contains a FULL chapter on getting the most benefit out of your credit cards. You can read the whole Chapter 1, “Optimize Your Credit Cards” here, where you’ll see things like:

  • Slide 27: Call script to use if you miss a credit card payment
  • Page 37: People who waste time chasing zero percent balance transfer games
  • Page 38: Student loans and getting out of credit card debt

The chapter also includes strategies to beat credit cards by (1) picking the right credit card and (2) negotiating if they try to screw you, and my most hated pet peeve of all: Why most people focus on minutiae like saving $3 on lattes, but forget *big wins* like optimizing their credit. (See Slide 20 for an example of how your credit will save you hundreds of thousands of dollars — more than any amount of lattes.)

I’ll let the work speak for itself. The chapter on optimising your credit cards starts on Slide 16 below.

Introduction and Chapter 1 ("Optimize Your Credit Cards")

 

Negotiating credit card fees and charges

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