Ten Credit Card Rewards Tips and Strategies

1. While credit card rewards are great, if you are carrying a balance, the APR is much more important. If you pay 10% higher APR and earn 5% rewards, you are losing more than making. So be sure to pay attention to the promotional and the on-going APRs if you are carrying a balance
2. Whatever strategy you come up with, be sure it's one that you can easily implement on a day to day basis. Be practical in other words
3. Cash is usually the best reward because it can buy almost everything. Unless there is an option that pays more in lieu of cash, then stick with cash rewards! They are not as fun as getting something in the mail as a reward, but they are the most bang for your reward buck
4. For grocery, drugstore and gas station purchases, Citibank's cards offer a flat 5% year-round, either with a Cash Back (Dividend) credit card or with a rewards program (Thank You Network). There is an annual cap per credit card, typically around $300 in rewards per year - or something like that.
5. For other categories, including hard-to-find categories for bonus rewards such as Cable, ISP, cellphone and utility rewards, take a look at the Chase First USA Bank One Freedom card. Each month the computer groups some of your purchases in 15 categories. Automatically the top 3 highest amounts earn a 3% reward, the rest earn 1%. They do not itemize the individual purchases, but with a little trial and error you can figure it out - if you are not allergic to doing some basic math
6. Be on the lookout for seasonal offers. For example American Express was offering an unconditional 2% on all purchases for the summer months. Also Discover changes their Get More featured rewards every three months (on quarter breaks). These earn a flat 5% but they usually have a low ceiling. Still 5% is nice, they even have things like restaurants, Kohls, Amazon, movies, etc. Not bad at all!
7. If you are making an online purchase, milk it some more! Now all the major credit cards offer extra percentage rewards if you shop from their website portal. Citibank, Chase, Discover, American Express, all have this option. Usually the smaller and more specialty a retailer is, the highest the rewards percentage you get. Or if you prefer, use something like Upromise, or Fat Wallet or ebates. Different retailers may participate at different programs and at different percentage levels and promos.
8. For everything else that does not qualify for more bonus rewards, you have some choices: You can charge them to the credit card that is closer to earning the reward of your choice. Or you can charge them to the card with the best reward program. This depends on your situation/preference.
9. Use credit cards that offer a flat 1% on all other purchases. The tiered teasers (usually starting at 0.25%) may have a higher percentage later on, but unless you are 100% sure you are going to spend enough to get there by the end of the year, don't fall into the trap! 1% flat is better :)
10. If you are faced with the choice of a gift card or an actual reward, it pays to do a quick search. Let's say you have 10,000 points and you can get a $100 gift at amajor retailer of your choice or you can get a Sony dvd player. It is tempting (and human nature) to go for the tangible reward, but a quick online search can save you money! What if the very same Sony dvd player is available regularly for $70 at your favorite retailer? Then you get the gift card, buy the dvd player, and have an extra $30 to get more goodies!
*. This concludes are ten credit card rewards strategies and tips! If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post them!