I Have A Perfect 800 Credit Score, What Can Credit Cards Do For Me Now?

Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Earning good credit is important, and credit cards can help you to do that. One Reddit user, however, has a score of 800 already. While that score is not perfect (the scoring scale goes up to 850), it’s pretty close, so the Redditor is wondering what the continued benefits are of finding a good credit card since he pays off his purchases every single month anyway. 

So, once you have already achieved a great score, what are the advantages of looking for a great card and continuing to use it regularly for purchases?

Finding the right credit card has big benefits for your credit score and your wallet

Earning a great credit score is not just something that you do once. If you want to maintain a good score, you need to keep using your card and other loans responsibly and continue to develop a positive payment history.

Generally, this means you should avoid closing down old credit cards as doing so could hurt your score in two ways — shortening your average age of credit and affecting your average account age. The longer you have had your credit card accounts open, and the more consistently you use them and pay off the balance in full, the better your score will be.  The Redditor should continue with the pattern he has developed of using his card and paying it off, ideally making sure that the balance reported to the credit reporting agencies remains below 30% of his available credit.

Earning a good credit score also means that you have the chance to sign up for pretty much any credit card you would like. This provides a golden opportunity to shop around for a card offering generous rewards and perks. There are tons of cards out there that can reward you with cash back for purchases you are making anyway, which means you can end up with hundreds of extra dollars coming back to you each year, depending on which cards you select.

You can also benefit from other amazing parks associated with credit cards, including things like extended warranties, trip interruption insurance, cell phone insurance for lost phones, rental car insurance, airline lounge access, and much more. 

The Redditor should shop for a credit card with a rewards program that fits his needs

Since the Reddit poster already has great credit, he can have his pick of credit cards that he wants, so he should take the time to find a card offering a rewards program that he is excited about. This can help to ensure that he has a card that maximizes his rewards and gives him other features that can help improve his financial life.

For example, there are both travel and cash back cards, so the Redditor should think about whether he wants a card that can earn him free flights and hotels or one that provides the added flexibility that only cash back can offer. Many people are better off with cash back cards because they can use the money they earn for anything they want, but if the Redditor is excited about taking trips and would be more interested in a travel card with miles and points, there’s nothing wrong with that. 

The poster should also think about how to best match his card to the spending he does the most. If he wants to keep things simple, he can just opt for a great all-around card that offers the highest possible percentage of cash back or rewards on all purchases. For example, the poster could simply sign up for a card offering 2% back on all purchases or one offering 5% back on gas or groceries, but with a lower standard cash back rate. It depends on how much the poster wants to manage the account and if he has a specific area of spending he does the most.

The reality is, there is a great card out there for this Redditor and for everyone else, and it’s worth taking the time to shop around and find it to get all of the benefits that credit cards have to offer. 

Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

The post I Have A Perfect 800 Credit Score, What Can Credit Cards Do For Me Now? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..