How To Get the Right Credit Card To Meet Your Needs

When I migrated to the USA, I was amazed to see that almost all the people have credit cards and more than one. Some of my friends and relatives have four or more credit cards. I got my first credit card through my son, as a secondary cardholder, and my son made the payments as the bills were coming on his name only as he was the primary credit card holder. I started my own survey/research to get my own credit card in my name so that the bill of the credit card would come in my name. In the meantime, I opened both a saving and checking accounts with Wachovia and Chevy Chase banks. Both these banks offered me their credit cards but I did not opt for them. I was still trying to get the optimum deal for my new credit card.

Finally, the deal came in the form of a letter from American Express. They offered me the City bank credit card free of cost for the first year. This offer came through American Air lines, where I am a member of American Advantage mileage. The most attractive part was that if I accept that credit card and make my first purchase on that credit card, I was to be credited with 20,000 miles to my American Airlines mileage account. These mileages are sufficient to earn me a free round air ticket of American Air Lines for any destination in the USA. I immediately applied for this credit card with my financial details and I was issued the credit card within 3 weeks. The credit card was having a credit limit of $8000. Moreover, I was credited one mile in my American Advantage account for the every dollar spent by me through this credit card. I have been using this credit card since last 8 months and my American Advantage miles score have reached up to 29000 miles, enabling me to buy a round fare air ticket of American Air Lines even in first class for any destination in the USA. As I have to travel frequently in the USA, this credit card proved very beneficial to me. Subsequently, I applied for the similar credit card for my wife and got the same. Her American Advantage miles are also around 29,000. This is the most optimum deal I could get for having our own American Express City bank credit cards.

I have made the entire operation of both these credit cards online on the web site www.citicards.com. This saved me my physical visits to the bank or any postal expenses for the payments of the credit cards bills. This online operation is very easy and effective as you can view your monthly statements of the credit cards online and even can pay the bills online by linking up your bank account with this credit card account. Such a procedure is immensely helpful to the senior people like us who find it difficult to go out on their own. This scheme is still going on and all my AC friends can avail it to derive maximum benefits. It will be required to become a member of American Advantage Mileage program to get entitled for such credit card. This can easily be done by logging into the website www.aa.com.

The points earned through such credit card in American Advantage program can be helpful to all of us even if we do not intend to fly in near future. You can sell your American Advantage miles on the web site www.points.com. This web site offers cash money as well as the gift cards for the various stores in lieu of the AA points. You can easily get around $200 in cash or gift card for about 20000 AA points. If you accumulate your AA points up to100, 000 points, you may be able to get a round trip international air ticket also. As soon as you complete one year of this credit card, there are two alternatives with you. One is to stop the card after one year. The other is to pay the annual fee of $50 for the next year. As soon as you pay $50 annual fee for the next year, your AA account will immediately be credited with 5000 points. However, my advice is to stop the credit card after one year and look for such other schemes. The only catch in this scheme is not to forget closing the credit card before one year is completed as otherwise, annual fee of $50 will be charged to your account immediately.

I feel that new senior immigrants like us should not miss this opportunity, as it would be highly beneficial to all of them.

Source: Associated Content