When you’re out and about during the bustling holiday shopping rush, you don’t want to worry about pulling a credit card out of your wallet and feeling dread in your stomach. Finding the right credit card for holiday shopping will help you feel the holiday spirit when you’re finding the perfect gift for that special someone. Here are some tips to help you find the right credit card for you.
Rewards
If you’re planning on carrying a holiday balance into the next year, find a credit card that will give you major shopping rewards. Many stores offer a rewards system through their store credit cards, offering 5%-15% cash back. This can pay off in the long run, but you still have to be careful to only use these cards at places where you earn rewards. Sometimes, credit cards that offer cash back rewards have a high interest rate. One of the best cards for general rewards is the Capital One No Hassle Rewards credit card. With this card, you can even transfer your cash back rewards back onto your credit card balance, and it has a lower interest rate than most rewards credit cards.
Protection
Shopping during the holidays means you’re going to want a lot of payment protection from any credit card you sign up for. You’ll also want a card that can protect your purchases as well. This can include return protection, which means your credit card company will pay you the full amount of your purchase if you want to return it and the store will not accept returns. The best card for this is a MasterCard or a Visa card. They have a 90-day window for returns and most other cards only have a 60-day window.
You’ll also want to see about purchase protection, which means your credit card company will refund your purchase amount if the item is damaged or stolen. Most credit card companies do this, but Discover will not.
Extended Warranties
Another useful tool of holiday credit cards is to look for a card that offers extended warranties. A lot of stores will offer extended warranties for a fee, but why pay for it when your credit card company offers it for free? Visa cards will extend your qualifying item’s warranty for up to three years for no hidden costs or fees. This is an easy way to take advantage of holiday credit cards that might actually save you money in the long run.
