Tips on How to Use Your Credit Card Benefits Wisely

Already dreaming of your next travel destination? Then you may be someone well-suited for an airline miles credit card that rewards you when you spend on travel.

Some credit card providers may reward customers with airline miles based on their credit card spending or usage. However, the specific mile-to-spend rate varies per provider and agreements they may have in place with airlines.

Once you accrue a certain number of miles, you may be able to redeem your miles for a flight or additional airline benefits. Credit card miles are often tied to a specific airline’s frequent flyer program. Through accumulating miles on your credit card, you may be able to use them for flight perks such as seat upgrades, additional baggage, or priority boarding.

Using your credit card benefits can be a perk for responsible customers and a smart way to maximize all the offerings available to you as a cardholder.

Some credit cards may include purchase protection. Return protection is an added safety measure to help ensure that you can return qualifying items with the assistance of your credit card provider, even if the retailer doesn’t allow returns. In order to process return protection, credit card providers may require some information from you. This could include, for example, the following information:

• The credit card statement that verifies the purchase was made
• The original receipt that was given at the time of purchase
• Identification or documentation that the customer attempted to return the purchase 

Similar to return protection, purchase protection offers protection for eligible items against damage and following a purchase.

Using purchase and return protection can help ensure that your purchases are verified and delivered as agreed upon. There are limitations to what these purchases may cover, so you should read your card’s terms and conditions to check what is and isn’t covered.

Now that we’ve covered how to use your credit card benefits responsibly, here are some tips on financing big purchases. There are numerous flexible payment plans to help you finance purchases – for example, taking advantage of a 0% introductory APR offer is one option.

Some credit cards may offer 0% introductory APR. Annual percentage rate (APR) is the interest the customer pays each year represented commonly as a percentage of the loan balance. Opting for a card that offers 0% introductory APR usually means that you’ll pay 0% interest for a certain amount of time.

While a 0% APR promotional offer may reduce the pain of financing a large purchase up-front, there are a few factors you should keep in mind. Credit cards that offer 0% introductory APR can be a good way to avoid interest if you’re looking to finance a bigger purchase within a certain period of time, but you’ll still want to ensure that you make the minimum payments each month. You should also be aware of the date when the introductory offer runs out and have a plan for managing payments after that.