Can you use credit cards to make money?
Here’s an interesting thought that a friend of mine got into my head over the weekend: Can you use a credit card to actually make some money?
From my experience, by owning a credit card you are probably going to spend more money then you would have usually spent, just because it is all too easy to buy something on your card and not worry about the price. You don’t physically hand the money over, and you think that you will have ages to pay if off, so you don’t really care so much.
However, a friend of mine recently told me about a credit card they have which is a 0% interest on purchases one. This means that she can buy things on the card, and then doesn’t have to pay the bill until the end of the month – at no extra interest. Her reasoning on ‘making money’ this way is that she can put the money that she would have spent into a savings account – earning interest on money that would have been spent. According to her, you can easily earn a few hundred pounds a year simply by using credit cards this way.
Another way of using a credit card that could be considered is by applying for a cashback credit card – then you simply get paid to spend on your card. So if you spend £1000 on your card say, you might earn 5% cashback – which is about £50. This cashback is money that you wouldn’t have earned if you paid by cash, so it’s a bonus really. However, as the age old saying goes “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” so always investigate your options throughly when looking for a new credit card, and only spend what you can pay off within a reasonable time frame.
