Get the most out of every dollar you spend - Using rewards credit cards

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

We all have expenses, some more than others. Why not get something out of it? With so many reward credit cards out there that offer sky miles, hotel discounts, cash back, gas bonuses etc. we should all be taking advantage of these. If you shop around a little you can find the type of bonus you like best and the best offer that's currently out there for that type of bonus.

If you own your own business you have an opportunity to really rack up the bonus points. I'll use someone I know personally as an example. I know an electrician that owns his own business. When he gets a job he has to buy materials. The customer ultimately pays for the material as well has the labor but the gentlemen I know does have to lay out the initial funds for the materials. And we're talking about jobs where the material costs alone may be a few thousand dollars. He's in a fantastic situation here because he can quickly earn thousands of points toward a free trip or gas for the company truck with every job and the customer ends up paying for the materials anyway.

Even if you don't own a business that requires you to put thousands of dollars every month on a credit card you still have an opportunity to earn some nice bonuses that you would not otherwise recieve unless you were using a bonus type credit card. If your car breaks down and you've got to pay $700 to fix it, you might as well earn some bonus points. If you're doing any remodeling around the house there's an opportunity to rack up some points.

But it doesn't have to be big ticket items. Every dollar you spend with these credit cards earns points for you. Now, I'm not saying you should go on wild shopping sprees but we all have certain expenses. Things that we have to pay for one way or another. Things like groceries, gas, cell phone bills etc. These types of expenses are things that you buy every week or every month. Instead of paying for them with a credit card that doesn't offer you anything other than a high interest rate, you could be paying for them with a credit card that will earn you a couple of free airline tickets to Hawaii, or a free week at a four star hotel, or cash back, or free gas.

Please spend your money responsibly. But if you have to spend the money, you might as well get something out of it.