YourRewardCard — Check Your Balance

 It's the holiday season and that means one thing; lots of shopping for gifts. Most of us will use a credit card on at least some of our purchases. Since we are spending money anyways, why not earn some back by using a rewards card? You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly points can add up to some real goodies. Rewards points can be redeemed for virtually anything from cash to airline miles! If you have a Visa, Mastercard or Amex card, you should look into getting a rewards card. Over time rewards cards can prove to be a real value to their users and can help make spending money this holiday season a pleasure.

A rewards card works exactly like a regular credit card, except for the fact that it provides services and/or bonuses to card holders for their usage. Some of the time, the card companies will give cardholders specific locations and companies to make purchases that earn them special rewards. This encourages them to make purchases with certain companies by rewarding double rewards points for doing so. For example, a Business Rewards card will usually only reward points when business related purchases are made. Extra points are typically awarded for doing business with such companies as FedEx, Kinko's or OfficeMax.yourrewardcard

For card users rewards cards will typically award points for purchases like food, gas and other common daily expenses. Other times, they will simply give you rewards based on the total amount spent using the card, with cash back on purchases being typically in the range of 1-3%. It all really depends on what company and what card you are dealing with, so it is important to check exactly what the rewards card agreement entails rather than assume points are being earned on all purchases. Most companies are quite upfront with this information and even have a special webpage that tells you where you can purchase items for bonus rewards points.

The kinds of rewards you get will also depend on the type of card you are dealing with. There are three main types of rewards cards on the market; those that accumulate points towards cash back on some of your purchases, those that accumulate airline miles that can be used for travel and those that accumulate actual points. These points can be exchanged for a variety of different prizes such as trips, tickets to events, big discounts at specific locations, certain items such as toasters and much more. Often the credit card companies will allow you to sign up for one or more of the available options and then give you a specific card. Other times, card companies may even let you change the type of rewards and stay with the same card if you are not certain what exactly you would like to earn with it.