Winning at Cards

The Washington Post has published an interesting article on consumers that carry multiple credit cards in an effort to maximize their overall rewards program earnings.

There is a rewards card for virtually every category of purchases, so it makes sense that there are consumers who seek to maximize their savings. The key, of course, is to pay your balance in full each month:

The only way to make the rewards cards rewarding is to be disciplined. Card issuers divide their clients into two categories. Transactors pay off their balance each month; revolvers carry balances.

If you're a revolver, don't bother with a rewards card. Whatever you earn is not going to make up for what you pay in interest. The cards with the best rewards tend to have higher rates.

Even for transactors, though, there is a potential aggregate downside to maximizing the programs offered by rewards credit cards. The article speculates that credit card issues have begun to complicate their rewards programs in an effort to limit the savings of rewards program maximizers.

Nevertheless, rewards programs continue to multiply. In seeking new customers, credit card issuers are forced to be creative with their rewards. Numerous credit card issuers maintain a variety of different rewards programs so that customers can choose the one that best suits them. For the time being, at least, consumers still have ample opportunity to play the card game--and win.