Credit cards with cash back programs offer incentives for buyers to use these handy cards in everyday purchases. The merchant who accepts your cash back credit cards pays a commission fee to the bank that issues the card. As a reward for using their card, the issuing bank will offer a percentage of the commission back to the card holder. Cash back credit cards might offer their monetary incentive to the card holder in the form of an annual credit to their account or a check for the amount instead.
Banks issuing cash back credit cards entice buyers with offers of rebates up to a maximim of five percent of certain types of purchases. This will usually drop back to anywhere from two to one-half percent after the introductory period finishes.
Some cards offer other types of rewards instead of cash. Sometimes gas stations offer cash back credit cards that provide a rebate on gasoline purchases. These cards are known as gas cash back credit cards.
These programs include many familiar names, such as Visa cash back credit cards and American Express cash back credit cards rewards. Visa and American Express actually represent a group of banks that have banded together and set the terms for the use of the cards that they offer. Typically small banks join forces with larger global banks to move from offering smaller, more localized credit service to a widespread service that would be accepted worldwide.
House cards, on the other hand, are credit cards that are accepted by a particular business. Today they are commonly associated with department stores offering store credit cards with cash back discounts to buyers on certain services or products as a reward for card use.
Interestingly, house cards are how credit cards were originally used in the United States. A hotel or a gasoline company would issue a customer a card to be used when they purchased merchandise solely at those specific places of business. The first two cards that became popular in the US and were accepted at a wide variety of business establishments were the Diners Club card and American Express cards. Later on, credit cards were issued by a bank, who paid the business owner what was due and processed the billing to the buyer. What we today know as the Visa card and MasterCard got their start this way.
Credit cards with cash back can offer the convenience of making purchases without having to carry cash. However, they need to be used wisely and the contracts examined thoroughly to make sure you are getting the best deal for the types of purchases you will make, the APR offered and how quickly you will pay off the balance.
