Finding the Best Rebate Credit Card

There is really no “best rebate credit card” in the broader sense, but only a “best rebate credit card for you.” Because of this, finding the card that ought to be your top choice requires you to consider yourself as well as card features. Let’s look at the factors involved.

Factors Having to Do With You

According to experts, there are some parameters to meet before you even consider getting a rebate or cash back card. These include the following:

• You don’t carry a balance.
• You consistently pay bill on time.
• You won’t let the opportunity for rewards pressure you into unnecessary spending.

If you don’t follow these behaviors, these experts say, you won’t get the potential value from a cash back card. So, let’s assume you do or don’t do these three things, as they suggest.

The next thing to look at is your spending. You want to consider your spending over the whole year and month by month. You can review your credit card records from years past to determine these things. You should also separately figure purchases that you did not, in the past, charge on your credit card (perhaps you paid cash or wrote checks), but with the incentive of cash back you could charge.

These considerations will help you decide if a tiered card is a good choice for you, and if so, have a good guess at what might be a suitable level. That is, if you charge about $10,000 a year on your credit cards, a tier at $9,000 is not something you’ll reach quickly or that will give you much benefit.

Now, sum up your monthly purchases in the following categories: supermarket, drug stores, gas, restaurants, travel, and other purchases. These are some of the categories that the rebate cards use to define areas of qualifying purchases, so when you see the cards’ descriptions, you’ll be able to figure out your approximate rebate.

Finally, you should go here to calculate your FICO score, the way your creditworthiness is judged, and estimate your own score so you’ll have an idea what range of cards you’ll likely qualify for. myfico.com

Finding Card Information

The next step is to find out what cards are available at the moment you are seeking. You should be sure to check several sources to get a very broad view, and look specifically for lists of cash back credit cards (most of the sources do not use the term rebate. Three valuable sites for this purpose are:

• creditcards.com/cash-back.php
• creditcardguide.com/cashback.html

Not only will you find a list of cards at each address, but you will also see details of each card’s terms and conditions, as well as a direct link to an application.

Factors From the Rebate Cards

There are two parts to the rebate card factors: the factors that you will want to line up with your personal factors, as  well as compare from card to card and the factors that you will simply compare card to card.

But the first thing to do is to glance over the credit needed section and eliminate cards that may not fit your current situation. Then eliminate cards with an annual fee. Finally eliminate the cards with the lowest caps on rebates. Now you’ve got a group to work with.

Factors to Look at in Light of Yourself

The factors that are most important to look at in light of your own usage are:

tiers: if you can find a card with a tier system that suits your established purchase profile, then you may be able to earn at a higher level.
the qualifying purchases: if you can find a card that credits the types of purchases you characteristically make, then you’ll get credit for as many purchases as possible and have less pressure to encourage you  to alter your spending patterns simply to earn rebates.

Factors to Compare From Card to Card

After you have found the cards that are the best match for your spending, these are the factors that you should look at from card to card to find the best offer.

• Introductory rates, length of time, and bonuses
• Standard rates and bonuses following the introductory period
• Any difference in levels of earning on each type of qualifying purchase
• The cap, if any
• How payments are issued
• How often payments are issued
• The minimum earnings for a payment to be issued, if any
• Special partners purchases from which allow you to earn a higher percentage
• Any other limitations of any kind (for example, at least one card available in July, 2008 pays different rates on weekdays and on the weekends)
• Any terms that could possibly cause you to forfeit benefits

  Note that you should always read a cards terms and conditions in full before signing up, and that you may not be able to access these until after you sign up. This is another sign that you’ve found a card to eliminate, since you should never sign up for an offer without knowing the terms. Also keep in mind that after acquiring a card, you will still need to stay alert because the terms can be changed at the card issuer’s discretion.