The Future Is Yours
It's time to learn how you could be using credit cards in smarter ways. You could be earning reward points for the purchases you alerady make every day.
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Guide: What can you do with credit card concierge services?
Exclusively from thebigwallet.com
The idea of a 24-hour concierge service by phone sounds appealing. Having a bunch of your needs taken care of for you. Not having to waste time on annoying errands. Is it too good to be true?
Here are some common scenarios where a credit card concierge service may help:
1. You need a special last-minute restaurant reservation to impress an important guest. Not just any chain restaurant with a no-reservations policy will do; it has to be a local spot and the reservation has to be at 7pm.
You call your credit card concierge and give them a bunch of restaurant picks. They spend a few minutes calling around until they get a reservation for you. Then, they call you back or email you with the details.
2. You need tickets to a concert. You save a few minutes of waiting on hold for a Ticketmaster representative by asking your credit card concierge to get them for you.
3. You're in a foreign country and need to see a dentist as soon as possible. You can't find one through the internet because none of the listings are in English. You call your credit card concierge, who promises to look up a few phone numbers and email them to you within 20 minutes.
In most situations, it's easier to look up what you need online than it is to have your credit card concierge do the work. But when you can't solve your problems with the internet and are in a pinch, the concierge may be just what you needed.
Guide: When should you sign up for a store credit card?
Exclusively from thebigwallet.com
"Would you like to apply for a Target credit card to save 10% off of this purchase?" the cashier asks. What should you do?
More and more major retailers are offering their own branded credit cards. Department stores, such as Nordstrom and Sears, have been offering store credit cards for awhile, and other stores are following the trend.
At Home Depot I was offered $50 credit toward my purchase of $90-something if I applied for a credit card. Lowe's has a similar offer.
Specialty stores like Victoria's Secret and Borders even have their own credit cards.
Common sense says it's a good idea to apply for a store card if you plan on shopping at that particular store regularly. If you tend to buy all your friends' birthday and holiday gifts from Macy's, then having a Macy's department store card is useful.
Many shops send their cardholders coupons, whether as part of the regular monthly billing statement or as special promo mailings. For example, the Express [clothing store] credit card statements often come with $25 gift certificates good for purchases of $50 or more, or at least they used to.
Having store credit card accounts can be good for your credit score in the long run. If you have open credit accounts that are in good standing without any late payments, your credit score will be better than if you don't have credit accounts at all.
Accounts in good standing demonstrate that you can be trusted to use credit responsibly.
But don't use store credit cards as a way to spend more than you can afford. If you spend more than you can pay off each month, check your card's APR to be sure you're aware of how much interest you are being charged.
In summary, choose store cards selectively but don't avoid them altogether, and use your credit responsibly.