Poughkeepsiejournal had some good tips on how to manage your credit cards during the down economy.
Here’s some of their tips:
• Use your cards. Even if you never pay a dime in interest, you generate revenue for your credit card issuer every time you use your card. That’s because merchants pay an “interchange fee” to card issuers when credit cards are used to make purchases.
• Maintain good credit. The number of credit card issuers that charge an annual fee has increased in recent months, but there are still good deals out there.
• Weigh rewards against annual fees. While the Chase Freedom card doesn’t charge an annual fee, many rewards cards do. Others offer tiers of fees, based on the rewards provided.
• Check out cards issued by credit unions. Only 11 percent of cards issued by the largest credit unions charge an annual fee, versus 16 percent of cards from major banks, according to a 2009 survey by the Safe Credit Cards Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts. The median annual fee for credit union-issued cards was $15, versus $50 for cards issued by the largest banks, the survey found.
Check out more info at poughkeepsiejournal