Save with Credit Cards!

This may turn out to be a long post, but it needs to be said that Credit Cards are an easy source of cash back.

Many credit cards offer some incentive to sign with them, but some of them are kinda lame (free jacket!). Instead, the ones I go for are the cashback cards. These are things like the Amazon Credit Card (3% back on Amazon, 1% back on everything else, redeemable every 2500 pts.)

Here's a list of really good cards that _everyone_ should have. =) (note, none of these have annual fees and they assume you pay off your balance in full)

1) Citibank Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard
5% back on Gas, Groceries, and Drugs; 1% on everything else. Max redemption $300/yr
Comment: I have this one and the only complaint is that for some rewards it takes 2-3 billing cycles to show up.

2) Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa Card
5% back on Gas, Groceries, and Drugs; 1% on everything else. Max redemption $300/yr
Most Chase cards have Tiered rewards, meaning only after you spend $X, will you start earning 5%. There's no mention of tiered in this one. Though this one's also not a Platinum card, if you need one of those. I haven't tried this one out yet, but I am going to look into switching my current Chase/Bank One card to this one.

3) Discover Specialty Cards
The Restaurant Card gives you 5% back on the first $1500 spent, then 3% on the next $1500. This is a reverse tiered card, which is different from usual Discover cards.
The Gas Card gives you 5% back on gas with the same tiering as above.
The Home Improvement Card gives you 5% back on Hardware stores, using the same tiering as above.
I have the restaurant card and the only downside to this is that the number of places that take Discover is kinda limited.

With just these three cards, you should be pretty much golden.
One might ask, however, won't having too many cards affect my credit? To that I answer, it depends.
If you're trying to get a big mortgage/loan in the next few months, yes, you might want to refrain from applying for a bunch of credit cards, as your credit score will take a temporary dip. However, just having a lot of credit cards does not adversely affect your score. In the above situation, the negative factor is the length of time you've had your cards. The longer your average credit history is (length of credit card possession), the better your credit score. So in this way, NEVER close a credit card just because you're not using it anymore. Only close a credit card if it is becoming too much of a nuisance (annual fees, lost, etc). If you don't want to keep track of that credit card, just snip it. The credit card company won't know.

One advice to applying for more than one card. Do it on the same day. That way one credit card app does not see the other. If you wait more than 48 hours, the credit inquiry will have registered and the other company will be able to see it.

Oh yeah, one final thing. Where's the link for the Citibank card? Well, I just received an email that will reward me $25 for referals. So if you don't already have one, and you are planning on getting one, feel free to go through me and get a free meal or something. =) Just let me know, and I'll send you the link.

Next topic: How to maximize your credit cards.