Credit Cards & Rewards
New card launches, reward program changes, sign-up bonuses, annual fee comparisons, cashback and travel cards, and how to use credit cards strategically.
Latest in Credit Cards & Rewards
Most travel credit cards waive the 3% foreign-transaction fee — but your debit card almost certainly doesn’t, costing about $30 extra on every $1,000 spent abroad
A $47 dinner in Lisbon turns into $48.41 on your bank statement. A $200 hotel night in Tokyo posts as $206. None of these overages...
You can reverse a charge for something that never arrived — federal law gives you 60 days to dispute a credit-card purchase
Last spring, a reader wrote to the CFPB’s complaint database about a $400 pair of sneakers ordered from a third-party seller. The tracking number went...
Most cardholders who simply call and ask get their interest rate lowered — yet almost no one with a 21% APR ever picks up the phone
Imagine knocking $300 or more off your annual credit card interest bill with a single phone call. That is not a hypothetical. Multiple LendingTree surveys...
Your credit card’s annual fee is often negotiable — a quick call asking to waive it or match a retention offer frequently works
Chase charges $550 a year for the Sapphire Reserve. American Express asks $695 for the Platinum Card. Capital One’s Venture X comes in at $395....
Most major card issuers now generate a one-time virtual card number for online checkout — so a breached retailer never sees your real account
In May 2024, Ticketmaster confirmed that hackers had siphoned personal and payment data tied to roughly 560 million customer records. The breach followed a depressingly...
Carrying a $6,000 balance at 21% costs about $1,260 a year in interest — but a 0% balance-transfer card can freeze that interest for up to 21 months
Carrying a $6,000 balance at 21% costs about $1,260 a year in interest – but a 0% balance-transfer card can freeze that interest for up...
The average credit card rate finally slipped to 21% from a three-decade high — but on a typical $6,000 balance that still drains about $1,260 a year in interest
A $6,000 credit card balance is not unusual. Credit bureau data from TransUnion and Experian have placed the average balance per borrower in the $6,000...
The two most popular premium credit cards just raised their annual fees again — Amex Platinum to $895 and Chase Sapphire Reserve to $795, even as more cardholders carry debt
The American Express Platinum Card now costs $895 a year. The Chase Sapphire Reserve costs $795. Both fees took effect in early 2026, and both...
Credit card rewards hit a record $47.5 billion last year — but they’re largely bankrolled by the interest paid by the half of cardholders who can’t clear their balance
Picture two neighbors, both swiping the same credit card at the same grocery store. One pays her bill in full when the statement arrives and...
Credit-card APRs hit 22.12%, the highest average in three decades — and a 10% interest cap bill has been stalled in Congress for six months
Every month, roughly half of American credit-card holders open a statement showing interest charges calculated at rates that have never been this high. The Federal...
Credit card delinquencies hit 13.1%, the highest in 16 years — but total balances actually dropped $25 billion last quarter
More than one in every eight credit card accounts at the nation’s largest banks is now at least 90 days past due. That is not...
Credit card annual fees just crossed $800 at Amex and Chase — and people are still paying them
The American Express Platinum card now costs $695 a year. The Chase Sapphire Reserve sits at $550. And both issuers have layered on so many...
A new credit card charges zero interest, zero fees, and requires no credit check or deposit — here’s how OnePay’s Builder Card actually works
Most credit-building cards come with a catch; secured cards want a deposit upfront and subprime cards pile on annual fees and interest rates north of...
The Credit Card Competition Act has bipartisan backing and Trump’s public support — but banks say it would kill your rewards
If you earn cash back, airline miles, or hotel points every time you swipe a credit card, a bill moving through Congress right now could...
A credit card startup just applied to become a national bank for the first time in 20 years — and it only serves people with bad credit
Mission Lane has spent the past eight years issuing unsecured credit cards to people most banks won’t touch. Now the Richmond, Virginia-based fintech wants to...
Credit card annual fees are soaring past $800 — and people keep paying them even as perks shrink
The annual fee on the American Express Platinum Card has climbed three times since 2019, landing at $695 in 2023. Each time, cardholders complained online,...
Premium credit card annual fees are now past $800: here’s when the math stops working
When finance giant American Express raised the Platinum Card’s annual fee to $895, it framed the move as an upgrade. New perks arrived alongside the...
The 5 credit card moves that save the most money in 2026, ranked by dollar impact
If you are carrying $6,000 on a credit card at roughly 23% interest, as reported in the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit statistical release, you...
Credit card annual fees are soaring past $800 — why people keep paying
Last year, American Express raised the Platinum Card’s annual fee to $895, and the backlash was immediate. Social media lit up with cancellation threats. Personal...
Visa’s Level 2 interchange program dies April 18 — small businesses already paying 75 bps more
Starting April 18, 2025, small businesses that accept Visa commercial cards lost access to a pricing tier that had saved them money on business-to-business transactions...