"Special thanks to the credit card companies for all of the money."
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Cashing in on Credit Cards:
Making Money by Paying Your Bills by Scott A. Wheeler Trafford Publishing
book review by Lew Koflowitz
A number of books have been published on exploiting offers from credit card issuers to make money. This book is different–it provides many real-life examples of how this is done, with detailed explanations for the reader to follow. Wheeler illustrates how consumers can take advantage of offers like sign-up bonuses, cash-back bonuses, and zero-percent financing provided by credit card companies without any costs, fees, or penalties, as long as they make timely payments on their cards and exit the relationship with the card company when the benefits are no longer available or worth the effort.
In multiple examples ranging across seventeen chapters, the book demonstrates a wide range of money-making strategies that range from simply obtaining a sign-up bonus and/or a cash-back offer, to using multiple cards and purchasing interest-bearing CDs to earn even more money from the credit card offers. The strategies get fairly complex, and to achieve the benefits, consumers must stay on top of the various credit cards they are using, keep accurate records, pay the cards off on a timely basis, and cancel the cards after the benefits have been obtained. If they can't do this, then they will lose the benefits to interest charges and fees.
The reason some consumers can exploit these offers to their own advantage is, of course, that only a small percentage actually do. The offers are put into place to attract paying customers. If too many people began to use the money-making strategies detailed in this books, it would undermine the card companies' efforts, and they would withdraw such offers. However, armed with the information in this book, those individuals who are willing to invest the time and energy required, can reap the benefits.