I recently transferred a high interest student loan balance to a zero percent interest credit card and have just been paying the minimum balance due.

I’ve also been saving an amount each month in an online savings account earning 5 percent interest so I’ll have enough to pay off the entire balance when it comes due next July.

So far so good. I’m wondering if anyone out there regularly uses credit card offers to their advantage. I’ve heard of some people employing 5 or 6 zero percent cards at once for nearly all expenses and savings loads of money in CDs, essentially earning interest off of borrowed money (which is what I’m doing).

I’ve also heard of folks who have strategically selected cash back or points-earning credit cards that they earmark for certain categories of purchases that reap the best rewards. I had a gas rewards card but hit the cash back cap. I often see ads for new cards with new rewards, but it opens up a whole host of issues– like what frequent account openings would do to my score and what to do with my old, unused cards.

In theory, I love the idea of using credit not only for convenience but also to fatten my wallet and get free stuff. But I’m wary of diving completely into this gaming the credit cards game for fear that I’ll miss a payment or won’t follow the 5 point type rules and will get burned.

I’m pretty smart, but the credit card companies are darn smart too.

What do you guys think?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 at 11:37 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.