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1 week ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Commuters of all kinds can earn points on many different modes of transit. Check your credit card to see exactly what transit modes it covers. Add transit apps to your phone for easy contactless payments. Citi is an advertising partner. Are you a fan of mixing up the ways you get from point A to point B and beyond? Consider adding a transit-friendly credit card to your wallet.
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1 week ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Psychological triggers can have a major impact on credit card spending. Spending on cards can feel easier than paying in cash, but the financial consequences can be steep. Help is available if you find yourself battling an overspending habit. It’s well documented that some cardholders have problems when it comes to overspending on their credit cards, leading to debt that can be difficult to repay.
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3 weeks ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend CardCon 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, which gave my Bankrate colleagues and me unfettered access to the industry players that make up the credit card industry, representing card issuers, affiliate marketers, lenders, journalists and influencers.
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1 month ago | 
bankrate.com | Ana Staples |Sarah Gage
You received your tax refund, and now you’re figuring out what to do with the money. It might be a significant amount of cash — how do you spend it wisely? If you have credit card debt, the answer is almost always to use your refund to pay it down. Almost. Generally, reducing your most expensive debt is the right course of action. This step can help you save on interest charges and direct this money to better things — whether it’s your investment account or vacation savings.
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1 month ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Plenty of myths exist about how credit cards work. Falling victim to credit card myths could have a negative impact on your credit score. Doing your research when it comes to facts about credit cards is key to protecting your financial health. Before I started writing about credit cards in February 2018, I had all kinds of thoughts about how they worked.
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2 months ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Divorce can have a negative impact on your finances, but it’s important to protect your credit at all costs. Understand that the process of rebuilding your credit can take time and effort. Take advantage of resources that help you rebuild your credit and finances after divorce. When a couple makes the decision to divorce, it’s much more than a parting of the ways. Assets like homes and cars may need to be split, and joint debts like credit cards and loans may need to be paid off.
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2 months ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
When it comes to couples and credit cards, only one party needs deep knowledge to accumulate credit card rewards. Having a secondary user work in partnership with a lead cardholder as a ‘Player Two’ can yield great results. Here at Bankrate, many of us are slightly obsessed with earning and redeeming credit card points, miles and cash back.
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2 months ago | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
Authorized users can hurt your credit score if they don’t treat your credit with respect.
Create strict guidelines on card usage before offering to make someone an authorized user. Check your authorized users’ statements regularly to avoid nasty surprises. Say you have a family member or friend who has struggled with their credit score. They either ask or you offer to add them to one of your credit cards as an authorized user. What could possibly go wrong?
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Feb 26, 2025 | 
bankrate.com | Benet Wilson |Benét J. Wilson |Sarah Gage
The number of people making minimum payments on their credit cards reached a record high in Q4 2024. Growing debt can feel overwhelming, but help is available. Working with a debt management company can make payments more manageable. Cardholders continue to struggle when it comes to their credit card debt. The share of active accounts making only minimum payments hit a 12-year high in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
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Feb 18, 2025 | 
bankrate.com | Holly Johnson |Laura Gariepy |Sarah Gage
The Chase Sapphire® Card and Citi Strata PremierSM Card each offer access to popular travel rewards universes: Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou points. Citi Strata Premier offers excellent earning in more everyday categories, but Sapphire Preferred offers better value when redeeming points for travel through the issuer’s travel portal. In both cases, the cards are more powerful when combined with other cards that earn points in the respective rewards programs.
