Sarah Gage

1 month 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.

1 month 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.

1 month 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?

1 month ago | 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.

2 months ago | 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.