Sara Rathner

And so that's where you can look at cash back cards.

You mentioned the American Express.

There are two versions of that card, the Blue Cash Preferred and the Blue Cash Every Day.

Those types of cards earn rewards more on everyday spending, groceries, streaming service subscriptions.

If you've got kids, you probably have a few of those.

commuting expenses, so gas, sometimes public transit, and even other things like garage fares and tolls and things like that.

So there are cards out there that are quite rewarding for those everyday purchases.

And that can be a really great way to get some money back on all the things you were going to purchase anyway.

A big one is knowing when the annual fee is due, and that has to do with when you applied for the card and got it in the first place.

It's going to be typically due right at the time you get that card.

It'll be on your first statement.

And then a year later, you're charged that fee again.

So that's something to budget for.

Another thing that I like to think about is I use when the annual fee is due as a time to evaluate whether or not I want to keep the card the year after.

And once the fee gets charged, you have 30 days to cancel the card or downgrade it to a no-fee version of the card.

So once that fee hits your statement, maybe it's time to call the number on the back of your card and see what your options are.

There might come a point in time where a card that you got a couple years ago that made sense for you at the time is just no longer valuable for you anymore.

You're not using up all those perks, so you're paying that fee for no reason.

And that's why it's a good idea to evaluate these things once a year when the fee is due.

Maybe if you're applying for a loan, like a car loan or a mortgage or something in the next couple of weeks, maybe it's a good time to just sort of hunker down and not cancel any cards so you don't have to have conversations about that with the loan officer.