Getting Started Planning Your Rewards Strategy
As with many things in life, it helps to set goals for what you’re looking to acheive. This is definitely the case when it comes to maximizing rewards with credit cards and bank accounts. With all the options and product offerings out there, knowing what to get next can be a complicated process, and you also want to make sure you’re getting all the expected value and not losing money to fees or opportunity cost in the process. Let’s go over the different ways you can optimize your financial spending and saving strategy so you can pick one that best fits your needs.
Credit Cards
Planning Your Applications
When you apply is important. You also need to be aware of limits imposed by credit card issuers to ensure you don’t get locked out of certain offers. Golden rules when applying for credit cards and having credit cards. At the end of the day, credit cards are a way for banks to make money off of you, either through annual fees, fees they collect from merchants on every swipe, or through interest if you carry a balance. Never let carry a balance or let the banks make more money off of you than they need to. Any interest paid will negate any rewards that you earn, and you will end up effectively help pay for the rewards of others. There are two common camps of though when it comes to strategizing how to apply for credit cards.
- Get your base setup of ~3 cards that you keep in your wallet that are optimized based off your spending categories.
- Always keep applying for credit cards
Both are valid strategies depending on how much time and effort you want to spend on managing your credit. While many people use a combination of the two strategies, it’s important to know that when managed properly, maximizing sign up bonuses can out
Travel
Cashback
If you have a cash sitting in a bank account earning little to no interest, see the next section Cash and Bank Accounts.
Cash and Bank Accounts
Plan When You’ll Apply
If you have cash sitting in a checking account paying little to no interest, you’re going to want to put that