The Best Credit Card You Can Use

Here's another item on Money magazine's list of 25 rules to grow rich by. Today's tip lists the best credit card you can use:

The best credit card is a no-fee rewards card that you pay in full every month. But if you carry a balance, high-interest rates will wipe out the benefits. If you carry a balance, you may pay a variable interest rate as high as 19%. And if you've been late with payments or used up too much of your credit limit, you may be hit with a penalty rate, which can run north of 30%.

I like (and use) this advice.

Of all the reward cards, I prefer a cash-back card so I can spend the rewards I earn however I like (I earned $330 last year.) That said, I have a second card that accumulates pseudo-cash that saves me a ton on my car expenses.

Comments

[SteveK]

We recently switched from the AMEX Delta Skymiles to a Costco Amex Cashback card. I calculate that we would have gotten $380 cash back if we would have used the Costco card for the last 12 months.

We have just over 200,000 miles stored up with (bankrupt) Delta, and hopefully we can use them before they go poof!

[Dan S]

It's a great benefit if you are disciplined to pay your card off every month (if you don't, don't use 'em). I thought of using a cash-back card, but chose a grocery store Mastercard where we could use the funds for necessities and not be tempted to use any cash-back to splurge. $350+ this year in free groceries!