Just Credit

The problem with reward credit cards – or the most forgotten problem, for there are several – is collecting the points, cashback or other rewards once they’ve been accrued.

This is an issue frequently overlooked by those that compare credit cards with reward schemes but it can end up being an irritating or even costly mistake – as unclaimed rewards stack up and undo the cardholder’s good work.

The problem is particularly significant in the case of point schemes such as supermarket rewards and airmiles.

These schemes often require the bearer to spend more in order to redeem the points. For example, in the case of airmiles the miles can often only be redeemed as a discount on an expensive flight from a major carrier such as British Airways or Virgin.

This is also often true of supermarket reward points schemes such as Sainsbury’s Nectar points and Tesco’s Clubcard points although their scope tends to be greater: allowing card holders to get money off cinema tickets and days out as well as groceries.

They tend to be eliminated, on the other hand, when one conducts a cash back credit card comparison.

In almost all cases, these forms of borrowing credit the rewards directly to the account so they are effectively distributed.

On the other hand, the return on such forms of spending tends to be lower. Another alternative are utility bill cash back credit cards.

For example, the MBNA BT card rewards credit card users who use it for purchases.

The money that comes back in cash back comes directly off the card holder’s BT phone bill – no messing around with points schemes and a lot more genuinely useful than cashback.

If the card holder’s bill is less than their cashback the amount will be rolled over so they’ll start the next month with a credit on their phone bill.

This is just an example of the kind of reward card scheme which makes it easier to collect rewards on plastic but there are many more in a similar vein.

For those who are still keen to take their rewards on plastic with points there are a number of points to keep in mind.

First, setting up a goal for the points – a particular set of tickets or amount of discount that you want to achieve – could help. In this case, collecting the points would be easier since it would come as the peak.

Second, investigating the ways to collect the points schemes available thoroughly before application is essential.

Julia Cook is a staff writer for the price comparison website credit card comparison online which allows users to make applications to traditional and instant decision credit cards. The website also hosts a number of tools to make it easier for users to compare credit cards.