But we must give credit where credit is due. Not all plastic is evil. Shoppers who make their credit cards work for them can lower their tab by up to $500 by taking advantage of the right offer. Consumers can save by applying for a new credit card and/or leveraging an existing one.- Earning an Initial Rewards Bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card – Provides 40,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 during the first three months. That’s equal to $500 in travel or a $400 statement credit. No annual fee during the first year ($95 thereafter).
Odysseas Papadimitriou (OP): “Ever since the Great Recession, credit card issuers have been aggressively offering rewards bonuses in order to garner the business of cardholders who maintained excellent credit throughout the financial downturn. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers the best initial bonus on the market, and by using it for holiday spending, you’ll be able to either replenish your bank account soon thereafter or subsidize travel over spring break or summer vacation.”
- Best for Earning Rewards During the Holidays & Beyond: Blue Cash Preferred from American Express – Offers 6% cash back at supermarkets (up to a $6,000 annual limit), 3% at gas stations, 3% at department stores, and 1% on everything else. The $150 initial bonus it provides cardholders who spend at least $1,000 during the first three months would cancel out two years’ worth of the $75 annual fee.
(OP): “In my opinion, the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express is the best everyday rewards card for people who aren’t frequent travelers. It offers extremely attractive rewards in most people’s biggest spending categories, which means you can save on all of your shopping and automobile gas not only during the holidays when these costs might be inflated, but throughout the rest of the year as well.”
- Best for Avoiding Interest on Holiday Purchases: Citi Diamond Preferred Card – Offers 0% on new purchases for 18 months and has a regular rate between 11.99% and 21.99%, based on creditworthiness. No annual fee.
(OP): “We all want to make sure that our loved ones have the happiest possible holidays, and for a lot of us that means shelling out a few hundred dollars for gifts. If you don’t foresee being able to foot the entire bill within the month, you might want to apply for a card that won’t start charging you interest for a while because the last thing you want is for your gift-giving tab to be inflated by a high interest rate that prevents you from swiftly getting out of your holiday debt.”
- Best for Lowering the Cost of Debt: Slate Card from Chase – Offers 0% on balance transfers for 15 months and doesn’t charge a balance transfer fee or an annual fee. The savings you can derive from this card could even be enough to cover all of your holiday shopping expenses.
(OP): “The average household has roughly $6,700 in credit card debt, and that figure is sure to rise during the expensive holiday shopping season. It’s therefore obvious that a 0% balance transfer offer can save a lot of folk time and money paying down what they owe. The Slate Card is the best balance transfer credit card on the market in light of its long 0% intro period and lack of fees, which combined may provide savings of more than $1,000. An interesting strategy that some consumers might want to try this holiday season is to use one of the best rewards cards for holiday spending and then transfer their debt to the Slate Card. This would enable you to effectively garner the best possible rewards on the market as well as the best possible 0% balance transfer deal.”