Media request - credit card case study

[folio]

Hi.

I'm with the Sydney Morning Herald/Age 'Money' personal finance section and am doing a story on credit cards along the lines of '10 things you should know about your card'. Looking for someone to be a 'case study', which would require real name and a quick visit from one of our photographers, plus a brief phone interview. Let me know if you have learned something about your card other people should look out for ... tips, traps, pitfalls, good ways to manage your debt...something a little different? Have you ever gone for a special, low or zero rate balance transfer deal only to be disappointed? Have your interest-free days ever been reduced? Interested in your experiences/ideas... regards, Lesley

 

[FL360]

Hi folio,

I think the pax on this forum tends to use the credit card in a smart way, me for example:

1. Never pay a cent for interest, because I always paid the balance in full everytime (100% transactor). Although one credit card provider tries to hide the closing balance in their statement to make the figure harder to find.

2. Obtained over 45,000 frequent flyer points for free by taking up free pionts offer for getting new cards and cancelling them soon after.

3. Obtained over 15,000 frequent flyer points by joining amex offer (XX points when you make 20 transactions this month etc etc) when they have that promotion.

4. Use the Wizard MC in a specific way to obtain very good forex exchanges for cash and purchases...

5. To the extreme, I have even heard a way to "exploit" free balance transfer offer, so the balance transfer amount can be obtained as cash and spend on something (like bank deposits, mortgage offset accounts etc).. that was quite useful when the banks did 0% balance transfer for 24mths...