I am going to leave the answer open ended but I will say my thoughts and show my work behind it.
When it comes to credit card companies I have heard a saying that connects. “If you mess with snakes long enough, you are going to get bit.”
Credit card companies have one motive. Can anyone guess what that motive is? That’s right, to make money! And do you know from who that money comes from? Right again, US!
I messed with credit cards for long enough to know better than to keep dealing with them. I cannot argue the numbers issue, you can theoretically come out ahead and earn that $25 gift certificate after spending $10,000.
However, I understand there is a human element involved, and the credit card people know this as well. They know that we forget, we overspend, we make mistakes and it will end up getting us “bit“!
Dunn & Bradstreet did a study that proves that when we use credit for purchases, our ticket total goes up a great deal. This is also part of the human element I am talking about. We end up OVERSPENDING when we use this stuff and most likely it is on unnecessary purchases.
So, you have to ask yourself if you are using reward cards, are you really coming out ahead? Is it worth the risk involved?
