Personal Finance

Let’s say that you have been this wonderful model credit card customer, for as long as you can remember. You’re certainly going to appreciate how you are the new lone hope as far as the credit card companies can see. And they reserve their best rewards programs and favorable terms for you. The age of generosity at the banks and credit card companies is simply not what it used to be. They are dealing with mammoth losses from irresponsible card issuing practices, and have all kinds of new rules in place for rewarding responsible behavior. Even redeeming miles or points isn’t as much fun as it used to be. Today, if you want a credit card with something like the level of reward and satisfaction that you had in the good old days, only the very best credit card deals would even come close; even garden-variety credit cards are only going out to people with a credit score of at least 650. You need something about 740 for the good ones.

If it is travel you’re interested in, you’d be looking for a card that rewarded you with travel benefits. There aremany good ones around for travel, but Amex’s Starwood card is one of the best. They do ask you for an annual fee of $50 or so, but you can use your points to redeem at airline or hotel counters. They have alliances with more than two dozen major airlines, and you can redeem your points against miles on any one of them. You get 10,000 points just for signing on, and each dollar you spend, earns you a point. There is a 5000 point bonus for anyone who crosses 20,000 points.

Discover More gives you up to 20% cash back (can you believe that?) if you buy at some of their approved shops, and the Chase Freedom card gives you 3% cash back for six months. But before you rush out for one of these, there’s things you need to take in account. These are special cards that the credit card companies put out for the most boring and predictable customers who never carry a balance over, and always pay on time – in short, their most unprofitable customers. If you are the kind who likes to keep a hefty balance going, the most affordable cards, the best credit card deals, are probably not for you. You have to pay a high interest rate for the privilege of it. And if you do rack up a few points, don’t hold onto them for too long. They do come with expiration dates.

If cash is what does it for you, there are some excellent cash back offers out there. Amex’s Blue Cash card has one of the best credit card deals for cashback rebates. They give you 5% for purchases on necessities, groceries, gas or anything. Anything else you buy, you get 1.5% back. The best part of it is, there is no upper limit to how much you can get. Other credit cards, often do that. But there is a catch, if you’re looking for one. If you want this kind of rebate, you have to spend $6500 over the course of a year. Anything less, and you’re stuck with less than 1% in rebates. So that would put this card in the top league. If not, you would probably be better off with some of the other competing cards. The best part is, this isn’t a switch and bait proposition. Amex has had this deal on for quite a long time. So what are the competing cards in the cashback area?

So for the average student, with less savvy, a paper route, delivering pizza, baby sitting, shoveling snow, cutting grass and walking dogs are all job options. You don’t need experience for these jobs and these are good ways to make extra money that shouldn’t interfere with school and homework.

One often ignored secret way to make money for the student is with Paid Focus Groups, not the ones that are advertised online which can or might not be a scam, but the real thing. There is a technique to finding them, which is well taught is Mark Springer’s excellent book “Focus Group Insider Secrets” which details his years of experience doing focus groups and how he learned to play the system a bit. Its all perfectly legal. Advertising agencies just want to pay you to look at their ads, taste and try their products, and give them feedback. As Mark points out, he once got $500.00 for 4 hours on a Sunday from a major airline to review their luxury offerings.

You can also join survey sites. You should really be sure to do some research into the legitimate survey sites so that your personal information is not sold or used in some way that you are not okay with. You can make extra money filling out surveys, however, the going is slow, and you aren’t about to make a fortune in this way. Often the payout is so small per survey it doesn’t make sense for your time.

If you have never tried the focus group route before, give it a try but be sure to read Mark’s book, which for 9.95 is a deal. It also lists group recruiters so you can easily sign up.

You can also make extra money using your computer. Although there are lots of scams out there, there are legitimate ways to make money if you are willing to take the time to find these opportunities. One of the most popular ways to make extra money these days is by writing a blog. Before trying this, it’s recommended that you do some research into how this works and to keep in mind some of the suggestions and tactics if you really want this to work and you want to make money. You are better off choosing a particular topic that is ranked high in the search engines. You can make extra money with your blog, however, you need to realize that the way you make the money is by running small advertisements on your page. You only get paid if someone clicks on those links. So the first step to make
extra money with your blog is to write on a popular topic.

The second step is to write often and to fill your writing with keywords that will drive traffic to you blog. Then, once people are visiting your blog site on a regular basis, you have a good chance that they will click on the advertisements appearing on your site, and only then will you make extra money.

There are other websites that allow you to write reviews of books, movies and products. You will get make extra money, the more you write, and the more popular your subject matter is. Again, you can make extra money doing this, however, this is a slow process and you have to have lots of time and patience in order to make this work.