Key to maximizing the value of your free ticket is to be sure it’s as close to free as possible, so try to pay off most or all of your balance each month. If you’ve been a good customer to your credit card, give them a call and ask for a lower interest rate or a reduction on your annual fee…many times they’ll honor the request if your track record with them is sound.
There are times when a card with a larger annual fee is advantageous. Often, higher annual fee cards accumulate larger rewards. In the case of mileage cards, no annual fee cards generally earn a rcbalance t a rate of 1 point/mile per dollar spent but annual fee cards often earn twice that.
Think of an annual fee as an investment: if an annual fee is $70, that’s about 15-20% the value of an airline ticket, so you’d need to earn a ticket faster than 5-7 years to make that pay off. Look at your credit card spending from last year: was it more than $5,000? If it was, and you paid the balances off each month, the annual fee (if doubling your points/miles earning potential) is worth it.
Advantages of Prepaid Credit Cards For those who do not have enough credit history or have had it blemished, prepaid credit cards are an effective way to build or slowly rebuild credit. That may not happen immediately, but it is something to work on over time. The banks that issue prepaid credit cards are also prepared to extend normal credit the moment you are able to show that you have become a worthy credit risk.For the moment, you may have to make do with prepaid credit cards. You can use prepaid credit cards as you would any other regular credit card to purchase airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, or order items online.