Understandably in these times of credit crunches and sub-prime subsidence, many customers would balk at the idea of using a credit card for anything for fear of being sucked into a vortex of spiralling interest rates and crippling repayments.

Despite this, credit agencies are throwing crazy deals at customers left right and centre; now more than ever. Weird as though it may sound, there’s never been a better time to make money by spending on your credit card.

The new card from MBNA, for example, allows card members to earn 3 award miles for every £1 spent on the card during the first six months from the account opening date and two award miles per £1 spent thereafter. In addition as a new card member you will receive a welcome bonus of 6,000 award miles when you make your first card purchase within 90 days of opening your account.

Even though we’re now practically on summer’s doorstep, and those thinking about going abroad for the hols would have got their tickets booked and sorted way in advance, you could still take advantage of this offer and rack up some miles for an autumn break – prices for journeys abroad after the summer rush are notoriously cheap, and so combined with some credit-card earned air mileage, you could clean up.

Other cards such as Alliance & Leicester’s Credit Card (also provided by MBNA) comes with a similar cashback scheme in the form of MoneyBack Rewards, which give 1 point for every £1 spent, which is further bolstered by 2,000 points when you make your first purchase. Reward points can be redeemed over the phone or online at sites such as hmv.com and at A&L’s Reward Centre, where you can cash in your points for a number of gifts including vouchers for holidays and flights, home and garden equipment and more.

The Nectar Card scheme, relaunched last year, allows customers to cash in big time when they use their card to spend in selected stores such as Sainsbury’s, and BP garages, where you can earn up to £4 points for each £1 spent. Racking up the points on petrol purchases will still see you saving money in the long run; the more that petrol prices rise, the more you’ll end up saving. Spend enough and you could put the points collected towards renewing your car insurance – AA Insurance is, of course, also part of the Nectar group.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am and is filed under Credit Cards, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.