The Best Bank Promotions

2011 is turning out to be a wonderful year for credit card consumers aiming to take maximum advantage of reward systems. A recent study from Mintel Compermedia  suggested that some of the current credit card reward structures are the best they’ve ever seen.

If you’ve been in the market for one of these cards for the last few months or so, then this news may not come as much of a shock, but the top rewards cards out there are offering all sorts of incentives – cash sign up bonuses, free flights right off the bat, and 5% cash back just to name a few.

Mintel Compermedia isn’t suggesting that this will lead to any dramatic rush of new sign ups for these credit card companies. In actuality, they found that the consumers eligible for these particular types of cards already have 2 or 3 credit cards in their wallet which can make even a very enticing offer seem impractical.

Obviously the increased competition makes for a better market for the consumers of  rewards cards issuers , the study warns that potential customers should still be conscious of hidden rates and fees that get buried in the fine print.

For example, most frequent flier cards and cash back credit cards come with annual fees that may be waived for one year for first time card holders. Without the annual fee, these cards can seem extremely lucrative to those who pay off their balance in it’s entirety each month, however once the fees are reinstated (which can sometimes climb into the 100′s of dollars) the free flight you may be rewarded with in the beginning may not seem like such a freebie after all.

Some Points to Consider:

Most cards come with a “teaser 0% intro APR rate” which usually vanishes after the first 12 months. The APR consumers are stuck with after the promotional period is usually 11-27% APR.

8 out of every 10 new credit card offers  come in the form of “rewards credit cards”

US credit card offers have more than doubled to 1.4 billion at the end of last year from 551 million at the end of 2009

You can check out the full report here.

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