Credit Cards and Shopping Portals (Revisted)

In preparation for a couple of upcoming posts I intend to write, I thought I'd bring back some things I had previously written about - along with some new information.  Read on ...

I have previously written about the following topics:

Are you always getting the best deal on everything you buy?

Have a credit card strategy! (and related warnings HERE)

Earn cash back (or miles/points) on everything you buy (online)!

Looking back on writing these posts (above), I realized that I've learned at lot about credit cards and the miles/points space (some call it a hobby!) over the past year.  At some point, I should probably update each of these posts (to reflect many things I've learned).  But for now, I want to make 3 key points that I hope to expand upon soon:

1) WHERE TO GO FOR EXPERT HELP AND INSIGHTS.  If you're looking for experts on these topics, I truly recommend that you go elsewhere.  I'm really kind of a novice, but I've learned a lot of the past year and I have 3 primary resources to thank for that (although there are MANY other great blogs - far more than I could possibly list here).  If you're interested in reading more on any of these topics, I highly recommend checking these out:

Miles to Memories

Doctor of Credit

Frequent Miler

2) SHOPPING PORTALS CAN BE AMAZING MONEY-SAVERS.  I wrote about them in the "earn cash back" link (above), but I have come to know that these websites can really save you a lot of money.  My friend Shawn (who writes the Miles to Memories blog) does a really nice job of summing up all you need to know HERE.  I can't stress enough the importance of making sure that you BEGIN your shopping trip to a website via the portal (preferably in a nice/new/clean incognito browser window), to make sure that your shopping visit properly registers with the shopping portal (so that you get your cash-back or points/miles).

3) CREDIT CARDS CAN BE A GREAT THING (or not!).  Again, I wrote about it in the "have a credit card strategy" link (above - including some important warnings!), but I have learned so much over the past year.  And, again, the three websites I list (above) are a much better resource than I could ever be on this topic.  I'm going to write about some credit cards that I think are great cards in the coming days/weeks, so I just wanted to re-introduce the topic.  In a nutshell, credit cards can be great for 2 reasons:  a) the signup bonus they offer, and/or b) the ongoing benefits you get for having the card.  At the very least, you should be earning at least 2% back on everything you purchase.  If you're not, you're effectively giving money away.

That's it for now.  More on these topics coming soon ...