Best Cash Back Rewards Credit Cards – 2012

If you haven’t noticed, banks are pushing us toward credit cards instead of debit cards. However, if it makes you feel better, competition with each other is getting us consumers a bigger piece of those merchant fees back in our pockets. This is where cash back credit cards come in. With them, I can get benefits like fraud protection, expense tracking, and the most flexible of rewards, cold hard cash. Then I pay off my bill in full each month, and not a penny of interest is paid while I rack up hundreds of dollars a year in savings on things I would have bought anyway (over $300 in 2010).

Here are what I feel are the best cash back credit cards available on the market today. I’m also a fan of cards that use points and miles, but here I am focusing on cash back only. Each of them works a little differently, so I’ve made a brief summary of each one so you can decide which ones are best for your spending patterns. Mix and match!

Blue Cash Preferred(SM) Card from American Express.The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express Card offers a whopping 6% cash back on purchases at supermarkets, 2% cash back on gas and department store purchases, and 1% cash back on everything else. In addition, there is a $150 welcome bonus when you spend $1,000 or more within your first 3 months. The card has a $75 annual fee, but keep in mind that spending $25 a week on groceries, that 6% back will earn enough cash ($78) to pay for the annual fee by itself. Finally, don’t forget that you can buy a lot of nice gift cards at popular stores at supermarkets – I’ve seen Home Depot, Best Buy, Macy’s, Sears, and ARCO gas stations… Even Amazon.com!

The regular Blue Cash Everyday(SM) Card from American Express gives you $100 cash back bonus after spending $1,000 in eligible purchases in the first 3 months, pays 3% cash back on purchases at supermarkets, 2% cash back on gas and department store purchases, and 1% cash back on everything else and has no annual fee. If you spend less than a combination of $175 per month on groceries and $100 on gas per month, then the Blue Cash Everyday would give you more money back overall. Otherwise, the Preferred above works out better.

Chase Freedom® Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back. The Chase Freedom Visa offers 1% cash back on everything with no tiers and 5% back back on rotating categoriesthroughout the year. From October 1st to December 31st, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories: Hotels, Airlines, Best Buy, and Kohl’s. In addition, you can earn an additional $100 bonus if you spend $500 within the first 3 months of the account opening. Finally, You can earn 10% cash back when shopping at online purchase through their website. No annual fee.

Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card. The Citi Dividend Platinum Select Visa Card offers 1% cash back on everything with no tiers and 5% back back on rotating categories throughout the year. From July 1 to September 30, you can earn 5% cash back at Airline andCar Rental purchases, and on back-to-school shopping at Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap Outlet and Banana Republic Factory Store. There is no cap on the 5% back, except for the $300 overall cap on all dividend rewards annually. In addition, it offers an additional $100 bonus if you spend $500 within the first 3 months of the account opening. Finally, you can also get 0% introductory APR on balance transfers and purchases for 12 months. No annual fee.

Discover® More Card. The Discover More card has a tiered cashback rate (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3,000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.). The highlight is the 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change throughout the year like travel, gas, groceries, restaurants, and home improvement stores up to the quarterly maximum. From July through September, cardmembers can sign up to earn 5% Cashback Bonus on up to $300 in purchases on Gas, Theme Parks & Movies.

PenFed Visa® Platinum Cash Rewards Card. The PenFed Vusa Platinum Cash Rewards Card is the card to get if you are a road warrior and use a lot of gas. It offers 5% cash back on gas purchases (must pay at pump) and 0.25% cash back on everything else. No annual fee. The rewards are credited on each monthly statement. They sometimes run seasonal promotions as well.

The catch? You must also be a member of the Pentagon Federal Credit Union (you can apply for both at the same time). In general, membership is open to the military, US government employees, or the family of existing members. However, anyone can become eligible by joining the National Military Family Association (NMFA) for a one-time $20 fee.

Fidelity® Investment Rewards® American Express® Card. The Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Card earns 2% on all purchases, deposited into your eligible Fidelity account. No sign-up bonus currently available. No annual fee.

The catch? You must open a brokerage trading account, IRA account, or 529 college savings plan with Fidelity, and all cash back earned must be deposited into that account. Withdrawals from IRA and 529 must be qualified according to IRS tax rules, or are subject to penalties.

Capital One® Cash Rewards. The Capital One Cash Rewards Card earns 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% bonus on the cash back you earn every year. As long as your card is still open at the end of the year, that’s a total of 1.5% cash back. You can request the cash back as a credit on your account, or in the form of a check. In addition, it offers an additional $100 bonus if you spend $500 within the first 3 months of the account opening. The Capital One Cash Rewards has no annual fee and a 0% APR on Purchases and Balance transfers until August 2013.

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Note: Alertpay has changed its name to Payza.

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Neobux is a free service which accepts members from any country. Advertisers pay to have their websites / products exposed and you earn money from neobux while viewing these sites. Paid-To-Click, or simply PTC websites, act as middlemen between advertisers and consumers. 

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Saving Money, Not An Easy Task..!!

Don't count on working longer

Workers may think delaying retirement is a solution to inadequate savings, but they may find themselves out of the workforce sooner than they'd planned.

Delaying retirement can be a powerful pick-me-up for a flagging 401k. But banking on additional working years to revive retirement savings is also risky business.

If you pay any attention to retirement planning, the "work longer" mantra probably sounds familiar. It's a common refrain among financial planners, mutual fund companies and personal finance publications. And that chorus has grown louder since the financial crisis devastated many workers' 401k's.

The rationale is simple: By working longer, you get more years of tax-deferred growth in your retirement accounts, and those assets must sustain you for fewer years in retirement. What's more, those who stay on the job can maximize their Social Security checks by waiting until age 70 to claim benefits.

More than one out of four workers now plan to retire at age 70 or later, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That's up from 16% in the pre-crisis days of 2007. Just 8% of workers expect to retire before age 60, down from 17% in 2007.

Retirement reality

But there's a jarring disconnect between workers' expectations and retirement reality. Fully half of the retirees surveyed by the EBRI this year said they left the workforce earlier than planned, and just 8% of them said that positive factors -- such as the ability to afford early retirement -- prompted the move. For the vast majority of early retirees, negative circumstances, such as company downsizing, played a role.

Clearly, workers relying on delayed retirement are rolling the dice. Yet, says Jack VanDerhei, a research director at the EBRI, "most people discount the future so much that they're willing to take that gamble."

he people most likely to plan on working longer to boost their retirement security may actually have the least ability to postpone their retirement. People in poor health are more likely than those in good health to have pushed back their expected retirement date in recent years, according to consulting firm Towers Watson. Yet health problems or disabilities were cited by more than half of retirees forced to retire earlier than planned, the EBRI found.

Today's tough job market compounds the uncertainty of postponing retirement. Last year, the median length of unemployment for people 55 and older was 35 weeks, up from 10 weeks before the recession, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.

A sure thing

As behavioral finance experts are quick to point out, we all have an inner procrastinator who loves to put off till tomorrow what we should do today -- in this case, boost our retirement savings. But saving more today is a sure thing, and extra years in the workforce are anything but. "If you know you're not on track, you should start saving more today, because that's by far the less risky alternative," VanDerhei says.

Don't assume it's too late for saving. Older workers who maximize their savings can make up significant ground. Financial services firms don't always stress this point. T. Rowe Price has lately promoted the concept of "practice retirement," encouraging older clients to continue working but scale back retirement account contributions and free up time and money to test-drive retirement.

But T. Rowe Price also acknowledges that savers can make up lost ground quickly. It provides an example of a 55-year-old pre-retiree with no retirement savings. If the 55-year-old earns $80,000, makes the maximum $22,500 annual 401k contribution (including a $5,500 catch-up contribution for those 50 and older), gets a 3% employer match and a 3% annual raise, and earns a 6% return, his balance could top $400,000 by age 65. If he's forced to retire at that point, he's still in better shape than most Americans. And if he can continue working, he should count himself among the truly fortunate.

Borrowers' alternative: Peer lending

If you need to consolidate debt or pay off a credit card, low-rate peer-to-peer lending may be your best solution.

When Matt Jabs compared the interest rates on his three credit cards and auto loan with those offered through a popular peer-to-peer lending site, it was a no-brainer to use the service.

"All were at a higher interest than the interest rate through Lending Club," he said. "It also simplified my repayments."

As the founder of websites diyNatural.com andDebtFreeAdventure.com, Jabs is particular about which products and services he recommends to others. However, he is enthusiastic in his support of peer-to-peer lending.

So much so that after his own loan was funded in three days and paid off in seven months, Jabs turned around and became an investor at Lending Club himself. In the past two and half years, he has helped fund approximately 100
notes and had a net annualized return of about 10% last year.

Basics of peer-to-peer lending

Jabs is part of a growing number of people who are leaving the banks behind and instead turning to individual investors for money to consolidate credit card debt, fund business startups or even pay for dream vacations.

What started as a financial sideshow in 2006 has grown into a legitimate industry with benefits for both borrowers and investors. The two biggest names in the game are Prosper and Lending Club, which have collectively facilitated loans totaling more than $1 billion as of May 2012.

The premise behind peer-to-peer lending is simple. Borrowers submit an online application stating the reason for the loan and the amount desired. Investors then review applications and agree to loan money for requests they deem worthwhile.

To facilitate the process, lending sites run a credit check and assign a level of risk to the loan. Depending on the risk level, interest rates can run from less than 7% to more than 35%. Generally, loans are funded by a number of different investors pitching in amounts as little as $25. Once the loan is funded, the peer-to-peer site distributes the loan amount and collects the monthly payments.

Paying off credit cards with peer lending

While peer-to-peer loans can be used for any purpose, debt consolidation and credit card pay-offs top the list of requests. According to Lending Club, nearly 70% of all borrowers report using their money for these purposes.

Karen Carlson is the director of education and creative programs for InCharge Debt Solutions, a nonprofit credit-counseling agency. She says peer-to-peer lending offers an alternative for borrowers who might be turned away from banks and other traditional lending outlets.

"Peer-to-peer lending is probably popular right now because of the tighter credit market," she said.

In addition, with peer-to-peer sites offering interest rates dipping below 7% for highly qualified applicants, consolidating debt through a peer loan can make sense financially, a point that Jabs is quick to make.

"It's a really, really good option," said Jabs. "As long as you consolidate for lower rates, it makes sense."

Other options for debt repayment

Still, Carlson, who also invests money at Lending Club, cautions that peer-to-peer lending may not be the best option for everyone.

"If you have had difficulty living within your means, peer-to-peer lending may not be right for you," she said.

Instead, she favors the use of debt management programs that can not only reduce interest rates below what is offered at peer-lending sites but also address the underlying problem that led to the debt in the first place.

"What is going to keep you from maxing out your credit cards again?" Carlson asked.

She says her company, InCharge Debt Solutions, has helped more than a million people pay off $2.8 billion worth of debt through what she calls a combination of "education and inspiration." However, not everyone will qualify for debt management programs, and for those individuals, peer-to-peer lending might make sense.

Another option may be to use zero balance transfer offers from other credit cards says "Nickel," the founder of personal finance website FiveCentNickel.com and one of the investors in Jabs' loan. However, those offers usually have tight time limits and may not be available to all borrowers.

Making the decision to use peer-to-peer lending

When it comes to deciding whether to take out a peer-to-peer loan, almost everyone agrees that this form of lending poses little risk for borrowers.

"You know exactly what you're getting into, and, if approved, you get the money and are able to put it to work right away," said Nickel. "The risk lies with the lenders, who may or may not get paid back."

Despite the limited risk, Carlson says borrowers should still do their homework by shopping around, reading the fine print, considering alternatives and looking at the root causes of their debt. They should shop around, read the fine print, consider alternatives and look at the root cause of their debt. In addition, each site offers different interest rates and loan terms.