More Thoughts on Making Money with Credit Cards

I received a couple comments recently on posts related to making money with credit cards. I thought they meshed nicely with each other, so I'm sharing them today with everyone. Here's the first, left as a comment to my post titled $10k Challenge: Make Money with Credit Cards:

How about this for earning extra cash....I travel a ton with my job. I always travel on Southwest Airlines. I basically earn a free flight every 8 weeks, sometimes faster. I make it known to all of my friends that I keep flights in the bank and that if they are looking to save on airfare on last minute flights or on vacation flights that they should give me a call. I always charge less than the posted airfare and usually make it worth their while.

I earned over $2,000 last year. I am using the money to help pay off debt. That is even better than the credit card that pays you money back. I am thinking of getting a Southwest credit card to earn even more.

Wow! $2k a year? Sweet!!!!

But this wouldn't work for everyone -- you'd have to be a frequent traveler to make the most of it. Which brings me to the second comment, one left on my post titled The Best Cash-Back Credit Card:

It is clear that there is no such a credit card that offers the best deals on everything. The smartest thing is to have several kinds of cards: a gasoline card for buying gas, a cash rebate card for buying things, a frequent flyer card for traveling. It is much more profitable to have a frequent flyer card from a bank than to have an airline company frequent flyer card because you get additional bonus as with any other credit card. Of course, the issue always is whether it is smart to use frequent flyer cards for shopping. I would say, better get a different kind of, such as cash back credit cards.

There's a lot of time investment and hassle associated with applying for, carrying, and using a set of cards. So I prefer to carry just two -- the two that I think make and save me the most money. I suggest you do the same. Think about what you use a credit card for and what sort of rewards matter the most to you, then select a card or two that help you make the most of the way you do business.

For more on this topic, see these posts:

• Why I Use Blue Cash from American Express

• An Example of Making Money with Credit Cards

• More Reasons to Love Blue Cash from American Express

• The Best Credit Card for Making You Money

Comments

[Anne]

I don't know what this means exactly: "It is much more profitable to have a frequent flyer card from a bank than to have an airline company frequent flyer card because you get additional bonus as with any other credit card."

I have an American Airlines card issued by Citibank. (Would the above commenter call that a card from a bank or an airline company card? I don't know.) To avoid an annual fee, I took the bare-bones version that issues a mile for every $2 spent. For a $50-80 annual fee I could get a mile per dollar. I could probably do a lot better with a cash rebate card, but I like having the miles for leisure travel. If I got cash I think I'd just do something boring like save it. :)

I don't have a car, so the gasoline rebates don't lure me in. So I totally agree with your conclusion that what is the "best" card really is a case-by-case thing.

[Lazy Man and Money]

I'm extremely partial to my Chase 5% back on gas, groceries, and drugstores. It was released to compete with a Citibank card that had the same rewards. Citibank has ended theirs, but my Chase is still going strong.

In a place like northern CA, gas is currently around $3.25 a gallon. With 5% off, I'm paying $3.09. It's a nice little savings for doing nothing, when I pay off the credit card in full each month anyway.

[Terry]

I cannot get a credit card, and I believe that my purchases are subsidizing (however infinitesimally) the cash-back that others are getting. Am I wrong about this?