Banks work hard to promote their prime rewards credit cards, and Chase has been touting the benefits of their Sapphire cards for the past few years. The Sapphire and Sapphire Preferred cards each earn points in Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. These points can be valuable for redemption in the form of cash back, gift cards, statement credits, or a variety of travel rewards. While most of the redemption options offer a fixed value of one cent per point, cardholders can receive additional value when their points are used for travel rewards.

Standard Travel Options

Like many other travel reward cards, holders of Chase’s Sapphire cards can redeem their points directly for airfares, hotels, car rentals, or travel gift cards. When they do this, cardholders will simply receive one cent in value for each point redeemed. In addition, Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders will need 20% fewer points when redeemed directly for travel, making points worth 1.2 cents.

Point Transfer Options

Sapphire Preferred cardholders enjoy a range of point transfer options to airline miles, hotel programs, and even Amtrak Guest Rewards. The available airline programs for Sapphire Preferred Cardholders include United Airlines, British Airways, and Korean Airlines, although not all of these options are available to those with the standard Sapphire card. Continue Reading »

For many Americans, spending at grocery stores represents the highest share of their essential purchases. To maximize purchasing power, shoppers aggressively search for the best prices and use coupons wherever possible. Another great way to save money at supermarkets is to use a credit card that offers rewards for spending at grocery stores.

One card that helps consumers earn valuable travel rewards at the grocery store and on other purchases is the Venture Rewards card from Capital One. Cardholders earn two miles in Capital One’s program for each purchase. When it comes time to redeem those miles, each mile is worth one cent as a statement credit towards any travel related expense such as airfare, hotels, and car rentals. This card has a $59 annual fee that is waived the first year. A popular, no-fee alternative is the VentureOne card which has no annual fee but only returns 1.25 miles per dollar.

While the Capital One Venture cards offer the same rewards for all spending, some cards offer increased rewards for purchases from supermarkets and grocery stores. The Disney Premier Visa from Chase offers 1% of spending back on most purchases in the form of Disney Rewards Dollars. 2% back is earned at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and most Disney locations. There is a $49 annual fee for this card.

And the Best Credit Card for Grocery Shopping is…

While Capital One and Disney card offers are above average, the greatest rewards for spending at grocery stores can be earned with one of two Blue Cash cards from American Express. Their standard Blue Cash Everyday card offers 3% cash back at supermarkets, and 2% cash back at gas stations and department stores. Continue Reading »

When credit card holders are unable to pay their entire balance in full, they begin to incur interest on all of their purchases. As unsecured loans, credit card interest rates will never be as low as a secured loan such as a mortgage. Nevertheless, there are three things that cardholders can do to lower their interest rates.

Negotiate

Banks do not advertise the fact that, in some cases, they are willing to negotiate lower interest rates with their cardholders. To attempt to receive a lower rate, customers should contact their card issuer and ask to speak to a manager. Once the cardholder has expressed their dissatisfaction with the current interest rate, customers can inform the representative that they are considering moving their balance to a different bank that is offering a 0% promotional balance transfer. Banks work hard and spend heavily to acquire new customers, so most would rather grant their existing customers a lower interest rate than lose business. Continue Reading »

Paying taxes is one of the two inevitable events in life and as much as we dislike it, it is certainly preferable to the other. Nevertheless, there can be a silver lining to a taxpayer’s burden when they use their credit card to make their payment. Doing so can earn rewards and finance a large tax bill. While there are four different companies that accept tax payments on behalf of the IRS, each will charge a percentage of the amount paid as a “convenience fee”. Therefore, it is important for taxpayers who use their credit cards for IRS payments to carefully pick the company they use for processing.

Additionally, careful attention to the credit card used should also be paid. If possible, using a rewards cards and then transferring balances that cannot be repaid to a 0% APR no fee balance transfer card can offset fees and prevent credit card interest from piling up. Another option to reduce the credit card interest sting that can come from paying taxes online is to simply use a credit card that offers a 0% APR on purchases.

WorldPay US, Inc.

WorldPay accepts IRS payments of personal and business taxes. Continue Reading »

Using a credit card to pay taxes will always cost additional money. This is because each of the companies that are authorized to accept payments on behalf of the IRS charge a considerable “convenience fee” to do so. Invariably, these fees will exceed the value of any cash back rewards or loyalty points received. Yet by combining the benefits of cash back rewards with a 0% APR credit card promotion, taxpayers can minimize the fees they pay while extending payment on their debt to the IRS.

How A Cash Back Rewards Card Can Help To Offset Convenience Fees

Start with the highest cash back rewards cards on the market. For instance, Capital One’s Venture Rewards card offers double “miles” which are easily redeemed for one cent each as statement credits towards any travel related expense. Companies such as World Pay will accept IRS payments with only a 2.29% fee, so the cost to the taxpayer diminishes to a mere .29%. Continue Reading »

At first glance, using credit cards to pay taxes does not appear to be wise. The IRS does not simply accept credit cards the way most merchants do, it requires taxpayers to use an intermediary service. Each of the companies that accept credit cards on the IRS’s behalf charge a “convenience fee” that ranges from 1.89% – 3.93%. At these rates, no credit card will offer a higher rate of cash back than the convenience fee charged. Nevertheless, credit cards rewards can be used to reduce the additional cost of using them to paying taxes.

Using Cash Back To Partially Offset Fees

The lowest convenience fee charged for accepting tax payments is the 1.89% fee charged by WorldPay. Continue Reading »

Many popular credit cards are heavily advertised using the lure of rewards including cash back and free travel. From the bank’s standpoint, this only makes sense as few would be encouraged to apply for a credit card after being reminded of the possibility of debt or fees. While many cardholders are able to use their cards to earn fantastic rewards, these products are not well suited to those who tend to carry a balance.  In fact, there are three great reasons why those who have credit card debt should not be using reward credit cards.

First, those who carry a balance should be concerned primarily with find a card with the lowest possible interest rate. Unfortunately, these tend not to be available on reward cards. The cost of extending cash back or other types of rewards is justified by the higher interest rates charges. Continue Reading »