Finding Out what the Best Credit Card Deal Is

If the credit card companies, when they put out their best credit card deals, really do wish for people to take advantage of them, wouldn't they make them easier to understand and not as unnecessarily complicated as they usually are? That's just a hurdle they place in your way, apparently, to make the hunt a bit more interesting. The rewards and points that you get, in general, you're allowed to redeem for stuff you can buy shopping, booking hotel rooms or buying travel tickets. Still, the credit card companies have practically no agreement over what kinds of terms and restrictions they should impose on how you redeem those points. As far as the credit card companies are concerned, apparently, the nonstandard rules and restrictions make things more fun for you. For instance, if you have a credit card that's co-branded with an airline or hotel, they give you more bonus points. But for the privilege, you have to pay a large annual fee. Before you can rejoice over the kinds of rewards you stand to get with any card, you do have to calculate if you end up getting enough rewards that the annual fee should be worth it. Travel rewards cards like the Capital One Venture have fewer rewards and no annual fee. It's enough to make tear your hair out finding out which the best credit card deals are.

Unless you have special behaviors to do with how you buy your travel needs, there's really no difference between one travel card and the next for most users. These programs only make financial sense if you happen to be a real frequent flyer or if you shop a lot. If you fly often and on a specific airline all the time, for instance, getting an airline co-branded product would make a lot of sense. If you happen to shop a lot, you'll find that shopping rewards cards don't lock you into any one airline or hotel chain. You can redeem them for any kind of travel need, usually, with any kind of vendor. In general, whatever kind of rewards program you choose, you'll need to travel least on six flights every year for it to actually pay.

Let's say that you are a prolific traveler. Picking up a United Mileage Plus Visa card may make a lot of sense. They have rewards programs with hundreds of stores, pharmacies, and hotels in addition to traveling on United Airlines. American has a program like this too. Still, the best credit card deal, if you are interested in rewards, may come not from the airline co-branded products but from the hotel products. These cards usually don't carry a fee. And redeeming your rewards can be much easier. A hotel rewards card happens often to be far more rewarding.

Perhaps the best credit card deals are in the travel credit cards market. Products like to Chase Sapphire card allow you to migrate your points between categories or even get cash back. And when you try to get a free airline seat, the card company actually buys a seat for you. Getting a free seat this way is nothing like it is with redeeming airline miles. There are no special seats set aside for you. This can make life a whole lot easier. So what if you earn fewer points? You have a far better time redeeming them.

Buyer Beware: Does it Matter where you get your Credit Score?

For the most part, credit reports are completely free, while credit scores, those numbers that reflect all the goings-on on your credit reports, cost you about $15. Now most consumers aren't too happy paying this (note the popularity of the “free credit score” search on any search engine); but they still do. It gives them an important bit of insight into their financial future. If you've been one of those people who have always resented what you have to pay to get your credit score, you’ll be happy to know that you are not alone. There is a lawsuit that's been mounted that claims that people aren't getting their money's worth when they get a credit score.

Here's the thing: while there used to be just about four or five websites where you could get your credit score even a few years ago, today there are 25 (it would appear there are lots of businesses that have realized that getting people to pay $20 for practically no effort the business has to expend can be fun). Mention credit scores to any ordinary person they tend to think that it’s a single number - something you can't argue with. That isn't really true though; these 25 websites sell from a mix of seven different credit scores, each one calculated on a different formula of loan applications, credit applications and so on. The lawsuit mentioned before goes to how some companies try to sell you a credit score without telling you what exactly you’ll be getting.

The lawsuit (filed in California), is against Experian (or at least the credit score subsidiary of the credit reporting company) for how they allegedly try to deceive consumers. When you pay $15 to buy a PLUS score from them, they tell you that what you're getting is the credit score that lenders use to make up their minds whether you are worth their trust in the matter of a loan. And yet, if you put on your reading glasses (or at least magnify the font on your computer screen) and trace your finger through the interminable fine print, they claim that what they're selling you this score just for your own use; because they don't sell this for to lenders anymore. In short, here is Experian engaging in doubletalk for a few dollars.

The truth is, apparently, that lenders don't go by the credit score sold by any one (or two) companies. They go by hundreds of credit score calculating models that they have access to. And anyway, if you do want any one credit score to represent accurately (more or less) to you what the lenders try to look at, you'd be best off going by the FICO score (designed by the Fair Isaac Corporation).

So basically, when you get your credit score with any company that tries to sell you anything other than a FICO score, it is a purely imaginary number. And it's not worth your money. The difference between these scores can be no more than 50 points give or take. But that's all it takes to lose out on a lender’s favor.