5 tips to maximize Black Friday card rewards

Coming up with a strategy now can help you match cards with purchases to get the most rewards for your shopping dollars.

1. Take stock of your rewards cards. 
A lot of Americans have multiple rewards credit cards, but if you want to save the most money on Black Friday, you have to use the right one. This means finding the card in your wallet that will deliver the most cash back, points or miles for purchases at the stores where you will be shopping. This can be tricky if you have a card that offers bonus categories of spending that change each quarter.

2. Watch out for limits on rewards. 
Many reward credits offer generous rewards, but limit it at a certain amount of spending each quarter or each year. For example, the 5% cash-back bonuses on the Chase Freedom and Discover It cards are only valid on a cardholder's first $1,500 of spending each quarter, while the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card limits 5% cash-back bonuses to $6,000 of spending in a calendar year. After those limits are reached, all purchases earn only 1% cash back.

3. Avoid paying interest. 
Black Friday is all about saving money, but those who carry a balance on their credit card will have trouble realizing any benefit once interest charges are added. Those who pay off their cards every month should figure out ahead of time exactly how much they can afford to spend on Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) and stick to that limit.

4. Research store cards ahead of time. 
One of the reasons Black Friday sales can be so generous is that retailers are counting on making profits off of other products, such as their store credit cards. The card that are offered at the checkout counter sometimes feature poor terms, high interest rates and negligible rewards.

5. Don't get too caught up. 
The most important piece of advice for credit card users is not to get overwhelmed by the hype on Black Friday. Credit cards are more secure than other methods of payment and quite convenient, plus we don't normally see the bill for a few weeks. Therefore, it can too be easy to rationalize a questionable purchase. Try to remember that 70% off of an unnecessary purchase is still a waste of money.


Source: http://money.msn.com