Rethinking Your Rewards Credit Card
/I love vacations! By no means am I a seasoned world traveler, but I love going to a warm destination each winter and taking bucket-list trips every other year. In fact, last year I purchased a push-pin world map canvas and started marking past trips and future destinations. I have wonderful memories of Italy, France, and Australia, and look forward to future trips to Israel, Africa, and Norway or Iceland to see the Northern Lights.
Because travel is important to me, my husband and I both use an airline credit card as our primary credit card. We generally build up enough miles to fly for free each winter, so we count on those points. However, since travel has been put on hold, and it is unclear how long it will be before it’s prudent from a health standpoint, I started rethinking our rewards card.
Even without a pandemic, it’s not a bad idea to periodically review your rewards credit card to make sure the rewards are still important to you. Perhaps your routine Amazon orders make an Amazon card attractive, or maybe a cash-back card makes the most sense for your current lifestyle. For years, I used a card that made deposits into my daughter’s 529, which racked up a tidy sum to put toward her undergraduate and now graduate education.
Take a moment to consider what type of rewards would mean the most to you at this point in your life. If it’s time to change, think about your spending and explore cards that provide attractive benefits based on where your money is going now.
I haven’t settled on a new card just yet, but our big dogs are a big expense in my house, and in my research, I came across a rewards credit card for pet expenses. (Graduate and dogs pictured.)
- Juli Erhart-Graves, CFP®, Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors
