Ex-coach calls his ban from Penn State facilities 'wrong'

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Happy birthday Abigail C. Fino!

It seems like nowadays all the credit card companies are offering enormous sign up bonuses to temp you to add their card to your wallet. If you&#8217;re excited about the sign-up bonus for a travel credit card and are wondering if you should get the card just to take advantage of the bonus offer &#8212; you might worry that it&#8217;s not a smart idea to do so.Before you sign up for the card, it&#8217;s important that you consider these 6 things.1. How It Affects Your Credit ScoreYou probably heard that signing up for new credit <a href="https://lendedu.com/blog/bad-reasons-for-a-credit-card" target="_blank">has a negative impact</a> on your credit score. That&#8217;s true. Every time you fill out a credit card application that results in a hard credit check of your file, that credit inquiry gets added to your credit history. Because people who are applying for a lot of credit over a short period of time are more likely to be facing financial problems that would affect their ability to repay their loans or card balances, credit score calculations take this into account and adjust your score downwards.If you plan on applying for a mortgage or loan soon, <a href="https://www.capitalone.com/home-loans/learn/mortgage/what-is-hard-pull-credit-inquiry" target="_blank">you might want to hold off on applying</a> for a new travel credit card until after you&#8217;ve done so. The good news is that the hit to your credit score is relatively small and your score should return back to normal over time.Getting a new card could actually benefit your credit if you&#8217;re currently spending or carrying a balance of more than 20% to 30% of your total available credit. Credit utilization is an important factor that influences your score. If you can reduce the percentage of credit you use, then your score will actually improve. For example, let&#8217;s say you have a credit card with a limit of $10,000 and you currently have $5000 on that card. If you get a travel credit card with a $10,000 limit, then your total credit utilization goes from 50% to 25%. That&#8217;s a huge difference and could improve your score.2. Whether You&#8217;ll Actually Get the BonusBefore you get too excited about a travel rewards card, it&#8217;s important to read the fine print. You don&#8217;t get the sign-up bonus when you sign up for the card. You actually have to spend a certain amount of money on your card over a limited number of months. This amount could be as much as $5,000 in two months.Some cards have lower spending amounts than others and some cards allow you more months to qualify. Before you sign up, ask yourself if you&#8217;ll really spend $5,000 on your card in the next two months or whatever you need to spend to quality. If not, it&#8217;s not worth it to get the card.3. The Annual FeeSure, the card company is offering a great sign-up bonus, but what do you have to pay in terms of an annual fee to get the card? Oftentimes, the <a href="https://lendedu.com/blog/best-travel-credit-cards" target="_blank">annual fees for travel rewards cards are very high</a>. If you want to get the card, make sure that you&#8217;ll be able to make up for this upfront fee through the sign-up bonus or other points you might get.Also, if you just plan to use the card for the sign-up bonus, make sure that you cancel the card before you get charged the annual fee again.4. The Interest RateIf you think you might not pay off the balance on your travel credit card at the end of every month, then you should consider how much you&#8217;ll have to pay in interest on your card.Credit card reward points are great, but if you&#8217;re paying more in interest by using your new travel card, then you might not come out ahead. You might be better off keeping your current card or getting a card with a low interest rate.5. Whether You Can Use the PointsSome cards make it really difficult for you to actually use your points. Before you sign up, make sure you find out how you book travel. If there are blackout dates or a limited amount of flights, then you might not be able to use your points when you want to. If that&#8217;s the case, it doesn&#8217;t sense to get that card.6. What The Points Are Actually WorthMany companies offer tens of thousands of points as a sign-up bonus, <a href="https://co-opcreditunions.org/make-credit-card-reward-points/" target="_blank">but what do those points actually buy you?</a> Before you decide to get the card, make sure that you understand how many points you&#8217;ll need for the flights that you are hoping to buy.Should You Get the Card?Once you&#8217;ve considered all these factors, you&#8217;ll likely have a clearer idea of whether you will truly benefit from getting a new travel credit card just for the sign up bonus. Make sure you read all the fine print and fully understand how your new card works and how you can take advantage of the travel rewards it offers.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By David RathmannerLendEDU</bylineMeta></div>

Is it smart to open a travel credit card just for the sign-up bonus?