Sneaky Credit Card Tricks - A Series

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Every year we earn a tidy amount to the tune of $3k - $5k in credit card sign-up bonuses, airlines' rewards miles, cash back rewards and special card promotions. It is a nice way to supplement our income. We feel enthusiastic about these deals since they help us to reach goals set for our annual charitable donations.

Like any other game, we need to master the rules and know the caveats of the credit card game to play it well and emerge as a winner. Credit card companies have several fees in place to milk their customers for the slightest error. No wonder they ended up collecting $18 billion dollars in 2007 as penalty fees!

Some of our friends have complained about these penalty fees which were charged by their card companies. In the process, they ended up losing money instead of making any from the sign-up bonus deals or cash back rewards.

Well, this game requires a disciplined approach and some careful tracking if we intend to make any money out of it. If we can't spare the time and effort then we should avoid it.

Also, it is important to read the fine print carefully since card companies do detail their fees and policies. But we should be aware that they change these policies and fees frequently. So we should be up to date with the changes. Else they'll make us pay for our lack of awareness.

In this light, we are going to present a series of posts covering various sneaky tricks practiced by credit card companies. Our hope is that by improving our awareness about these caveats we can play the credit card game well to better manage our debts and also earn some free money. But if we have a tendency to fall prey to the tempting deals from card companies which push us further into debt, then it's best to cut our cards and use cash for most of our transactions.

Credit card companies always earn money from interests on our balances and penalty fees. Sometimes it's a pleasure to make them pay us by making good use of their promotions :). To that end, stay tuned for the first sneaky trick!

Series

» Sneaky Credit Card Tricks - An Introduction
» Trick #1 - Over The Credit Limit Fees
» Trick #2 - No Grace Period
» Trick #3 - Late Fees In Minutes
» Trick #4 - Convenience Checks
» Trick #5 - Skip A Payment Invits
» Trick #6 - Lower Minimum Payments
» Trick #7 - High Cash Advance Fees & Rates
» Trick #8 - Fixed Rates are NOT Fixed
» Trick #9 - 0% APR - Take Care with the Fine Print
» Trick #10 - Beware of Disability Coverage & Card Theft Insurance

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

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