My life legacy article 02 30 2021
How to pick a credit card provider?
As you know I always like to
relate a story to the subject. When I was
in dear old Shidler High School mom and dad (Cliff and Opal Olson) and I went
visiting Southwestern State in Weatherford, OK as I was offered a few
scholarships to go there. I have to
admit at the time I had a girlfriend who was planning on going there as well so
I guess I had mixed emotions. Do you know
what mixed emotions are? That is when
your mother-in-law drives over a cliff in your new Cadillac, just kidding. And just to make it clear, my mother-in-law
is about as good as you could ever get.
Unlike my mom, she lets me taste the cookie dough before it is
cooked. Back to the trip. For whatever reason mom decided to use a
credit card to purchase gasoline. This
was totally new to me and I don’t believe mom or dad had ever used one. The real surprise came a week later when the
gas station tracked mom down and told her the card was no good. You see Mom and Dad had never used it, so it
had expired. Man, was I embarrassed,
well not really. By the way, I dumped
her, the girlfriend, and found a real keeper from El Reno, OK and we have been
married 46 years.
Credit cards: The good, the bad and the ugly – sounds like
a movie.
1. Not
that I need to tell you, but the facts are when you use a credit card to shop
you will spend 63% more than if you only have cash.
2. You
should almost never pay an annual fee for a credit card. In fact if you are a decent client just call
the company and they will reduce the fee or waive it. They want your business as they make a lot of
money on those transactions. Sometimes
up to 5% but generally around 2 to 3% depending on the type of card.
3. If
you use a credit card the merchant is building those costs into the
product. Generally, credit card
companies prevent the merchant from charging extra for using a credit card.
4. If
you have a company and take credit cards you might want to call me as I use to
have a company that processed credit cards and I know for a fact where you can
get the lowest rate almost every time. Just
email me and I will give you the name and number, gary@mylifelegacy.co
5. If
you don’t pay them off every month, you are digging a hole that is not easy to
get out of so cut them up and toss but don’t cancel unless there is an annual
fee as it will hurt your credit score.
6. Don’t
ever be a guarantor on someone’s credit card as you could get stuck with their credit
problems and debt. I see it all the
time.
7. Don’t
ever put someone else as a user on your card as you will be responsible for their
actions. I know there are exceptions
like your spouse but be careful.
8. If
you are on a card with someone and they pass away, be careful about notifying
the credit card companies as they will immediately freeze the account. I had a friend that did this, and it took
almost two weeks to get another card and she had to reapply. She was in the middle of grief at the time
and had no way to pay for gasoline or other things she had previously used
credit cards.
Which card do you want? Well, it is like farming, it depends on what
you want to get out of it.
·
Discover – No annual fee and provides 5% cash
back on up to $1,500 combined from Amazon.com, Target.com and Walmart.com or at
least they did for the last part of 2020.
They paid 1% on all else and I am confident they are still paying the 1%
but not so sure about the 5%. They change
bonus categories by quarter for the 5%.
·
Chase Saphire preferred - $95 annual fee but
they give you a bonus of points based on spending $4,000 the first 3
months.
·
Bank of America gives a $200 bonus for spending
$1,000 the first 90 days.
·
Verizon visa has no annual fee and gives 4% on
groceries 3% on gas and 1% on other but it may change and they credit it
against your Verizon mobile if you want.
They also give you about $4.31 credit on your bill for charging to the
credit card plus if you allow auto pay they give you another $10 discount. It all adds up but it has to work for you.
·
Capital One Walmart Rewards Mastercard gives 5%
on Walmart .com and 2% on Walmart stores but for the first 12 months you get 4%
for in store as well. In my mind that is
pretty good since it seems that most of our dollars go to Walmart and keep in
mind that after the 12 months you can find another card. Be careful about closing a card before you
get another as it can knock down your credit score. Speaking of that we have 4 videos on how to manage
your credit score and how to NOT use a credit repair company by being a member
of My Life Legacy.
·
Amazon rewards Visa offers 3% cash back on
Amazon purchases and 5% if you are a Prime member. It seems that everyone is a Prime member
these days. And speaking of that you get
a ton of movies included plus the free shipping. We sure get our monies worth on this one each
year. I do hate annual fees for Prime.
·
Mastercard with American Airlines - $125 annual
fee and you get travel points. I figure
that if I don’t charge enough to get at least one airline ticket per year it is
a waste and especially during COVID. I did
call them and they waived the annual fee.
·
Home Depot – no discount and no cost
·
Best Buy – 5% discount at Best Buy only
·
Lowes – my favorite place to shop – I get 5% off
on everything and I auto pay so it is a no brainer for me. It does not work anywhere else, only at Lowe’s.
·
American Express – I still don’t get it as I get
basically nothing for it and it is not taken all places.
·
Cabela’s Mastercard – well if you like the
outdoors and buy lots of stuff there, you get special offers and
discounts. It is issued by Capital
One.
I have to admit I like my Cabela’s
card but with all these offers I am pretty much sticking to Verizon Visa this
year and my American Airlines Mastercard.
I like to see the discounts.
WARNING: credit cards can be the downfall of your
credit score and that short term fix of purchasing something will not satisfy. I cannot help myself but about the only thing
that satisfies for the long term is knowing Christ in a personal way. In fact, I just like stories like Hallmark
where you can predict the ending and with Christ, I already know He wins in the
end.
Well, I am about talked out but
hope this helps. Check out
mylifelegacy.co and we have an OPEN MIC LIVE opportunity where we cover a short
topic each week and then open up for questions. If we don’t have the answers,
we will get you one or find someone to assist you. And if you really want to join and send me an
email, I will give you a special price just for the folks reading these
articles in the Shidler paper.
I love the Osage and Thanks for
listening,
Gary
405-410-2918
Website: mylifelegacy.co
