What's up you guys, sasha here now, credit cards are boring right. Who would want to talk about credit cards? There are far more interesting things to discuss like investing or making money, but what, if i told you that you can make far more money from credit cards than you can do from investing or starting a site hustle in 2021, at least for the vast majority of People in the uk, what if i told you that the average person could go, make something like 320 pounds and save an additional 270 pounds just by applying a smart credit card strategy for a grand total of something like 15 minutes of their time, because that 600 Pounds is how much the average household in the uk can go and earn from just making sure that they use the right kind of credit cards in the right kind of way. Sure the number of different credit card offers available in uk has dropped significantly over the last year and the amount that these credit cards pay has reduced quite a lot, but you can still get paid by using the right kind of credit card instead of some other Credit card or a debit card, and the average household has almost four thousand pounds worth of debt paying about. Seven percent and a lot of people have a lot more debt than that, paying a lot more interest than that and if you're, in a position where you have some kind of debt, where you're paying interest on it, you can save a colossal amount of money.

As part of the strategy over the course of my career, i have worked at or consulted more than half of uk's credit card companies, so here's my take on the best credit card strategy for 2021, just before we jump into it, a really brief disclaimer. I am not a financial advisor. I can't provide financial advice to you and if you do need financial advice, please go and seek a suitably qualified professional. Now i am aware that some people will not be able to go and implement this strategy because they have credit issues or they have had credit issues in the past or they are young or maybe they are new to credit.

They haven't had any forms of credit. In the past, and as a result, those types of people - maybe that's you - you won't be able to qualify for the various products i'm going to talk about. If you are in that position, and you want to go and improve that position and be in a different place in the future, the best thing you can do in 2021 is to do two things. First, go and work on your credit profile.

Make sure that you build your credit history best possible way. You can. I have a whole set of videos, i'm going to link them in the description below where i talk specifically about the methods you can use to do that various different tricks and various different, interesting ways that maybe you haven't thought of so make sure you go and Check them out or - and the second thing you need to do - is to make sure you go and attack any kind of debt that you have and work on your income. If you can go and do something to go and increase your income and the best possible attempt the best possible effort at reducing your debt level as far as you possibly can, that will put you in the best possible position for 2022 to make sure that maybe Then you can go and make use of some of these strategies that i'm gon na talk about today and the first part of my strategy is to go and get the best possible rewards credit card so that every time you go and spend on that credit card.

In a shop or online you go and get rewards and the best possible rewards credit card in the uk, in my opinion, is different to. I think what pretty much everybody else says, because i think the best one is the american express platinum, cashback credit card. Now there are two american express credit cards that sound almost exactly the same. There is the platinum cashback credit card, and then there is the platinum, cashback everyday credit card.

The difference is that they pay slightly different amounts, depending on how you use them, and the differences are different in year, one to what they are in year. Two, let me explain both come with an introductory term and what that means is, if you're, getting the platinum, cashback credit card in the first three months. If you're gon na spend two and a half thousand pounds, you get five percent cashback, which is 125. you're, going to earn one percent for all, spend up to 10 000 pounds a year and for anything above that 10 000 pound mark, you will earn 1.25 cashback.

Now the platinum cashback card, unlike the everyday one, does have the 25 pound annual fee and that's why the amounts that you earn don't work in quite a linear way, because first, you have to actually make up for the fee. And then you have to go and make extra cash back to catch up with the everyday card. What that does mean is in year one when you first get the card for the first 12 months. The cash back credit card compared to the everyday card works better.

If you spend over three thousand pounds so anything about three thousand pounds, you'll actually make more cashback by using the cashback credit card than the everyday card. But in year, two the situation changes because of the way the fee works and because there's no introductory period, the two credit cards actually earn exactly the same amount of cashback. If you spend anything between five thousand pounds and ten thousand pounds and what that means is, if you spend below five thousand pounds, then the everyday card will be better and anything above ten thousand pounds. The platinum, cashback credit card will be better.

So if you're, in a position where you're likely to spend more than five thousand pounds but you're not quite sure, if it's gon na be above ten thousand pounds, you may still go and get the cashback credit card because you're not gon na, be any worse off. But if you're definitely not gon na be spending ten thousand pounds, but you might spend under five thousand pounds in year two then maybe the everyday card will be the better option for you. The truth is the two cards are really similar. The amounts that they pay are really close, the designs are identical and they both allow you to go and smash the like button for the youtube algorithm.

It is so important for a brand new channel like mine, to be able to reach more people so that they can go and watch videos about credit cards and how to make most out of them or any other stuff that i talk about. On the subject of money, so if you haven't done so already, i really appreciate it just go and nudge that like button and make it blue. Thank you so much, let's keep on going. One trick i wanted to mention is that you can actually go make use of this benefit twice if you're a couple.

First, you can go and apply for the cashback credit card with one person and once you've gone and maxed the first three months worth of cashback. For that 125 pound benefit, if you're gon na be spending the 1000 pounds a month or so on average, then you can go and apply on behalf of the second person and then go and get a supplementary card again for back for the first person and go And do exactly the same thing, but for the second card, i'd probably go and get the everyday card, because you're only going to be using it for that intro period and not anything after it because after it you're better off going back to using the first card. So once you've maxed, the second introductory period on the everyday card, then go back to using the first credit card for that one percent, and then the 1.25, and that's how you can get by far the most value out of this proposition. One thing to remember is that american express don't allow you to go and continuously repeat this over and over again in their terms and conditions.

They say that you have to wait at least 24 months from the point when you first made use of one of these introductory offers until you can go and do it again. So that means you can't just go and keep applying. So if you haven't done it in the last two years, you can go and do this this year. But if both of you go and do it this year, then you won't be able to go and do the same again in 2022..

Now really quickly. Let's talk about some other awards, credit cards that are out there and why i don't think that people should go and get them. There are far fewer rewards credit cards available today than there were a year ago, and that is because of the ongoing economic situation and the uncertainty that it brings in terms of the job market and the ability of people to repay their credit commitments. But there are still some other credit cards available which most other people, including the points guy, think, are better, such as the american express gold credit card.

Now the american express gold credit card offers you twenty thousand points for the first three thousand pounds spent on the card, and after that you get one point per one pound spent, although you do get double, if you spend in airport lounges or if you spend with Airlines, although i think in 2021, that probably won't be the most pressing of people's expenditures. Now american express points are worth 0.5 p if you go and spend them on amazon or convert them into cash or gift cards. However, you can convert them into various online membership programs, for example, into avios and with avios according to various people who go and do that, the best reward rate that you can go and hope to get. If you are able to get, it is between 0.75 p and 1.2 p per point.

So, in essence, what this means is, if you go and convert them into avios, if you go and find that perfect flight, which just happens to be on exactly the dates that you want and happens to actually be available, which i have hundreds and hundreds of thousands Of these avios miles lying in my account - and i hardly ever use them because, most of the time when i'm traveling, i find that the flights that i want to get are not available by avios. They are only available for cash purchases anyway. Putting that aside, the best possible return that you're gon na get from these points is somewhere around the one percent mark or maybe 1.2 percent, if you find the absolute perfect option. So, in my personal opinion, i'd rather have cash paid into my account at the 1.25 percent or one percent rate, and in as well as the introductory rate.

I'd rather have that cash paid into my account, and i decided what i do with it. When i spend it, what i spend it on, maybe you'll be on flights, maybe on something else. Then have this weird rigmarole of points that have the same value, maybe at some point in the distant future. Worse still, after the first year of having a car, you then have to spend 140 pounds a year on the annual fee, which makes it even worse, because the rewards are just absolutely not commensurate with the fee that you're having to pay anyway.

Let's move on to step number two, my strategy step number two is to get another rewards card that isn't an american express. This is really critical, because there's gon na be a lot of shops, a lot of different places where you can't actually go and use your american express credit card, and you need something else that you can use in those that won't pay. You anywhere near the same amount of cashback or the same amount of benefits, but they'll still give you something because otherwise you're losing that value completely now before. Somebody who lives in central london goes and says well everywhere, takes american express these days and can go and pay through your phone.

That just isn't the case for the vast majority of people i live out in kent and in my local town, a lot of smaller shops, takeaways and even the car park in the middle of the town. Don't accept american express and you have to go and use a different form of payment now cashback award credit cards that are not american express have been decimated. Recently, there's been several different reasons for it, partly they're not able to charge the same amount on the transactions that they process as american express can. But that means that you are very, very limited for choice.

Probably the best option available in the market is the amazon platinum credit card which pays you 0.25 points per one pound spent in regular stores or 0.75 points for all spend on amazon, which actually rises to 1.5 points for amazon, prime members. So each point being worth 1p you're, basically getting 0.25 cashback or 0.75 cashback on amazon purchases, which is nowhere near as good as amex, but still much better than nothing. Now, let's move on to step number three in my credit card strategy and step number three is to take any debt that you have on credit cards where you are paying interest or which are at the end of their zero percent promotional term and go and move Them to a balanced transfer credit card, and this is actually something that is quite interesting in that balance. Transfer credit cards seem to have gone the other way over the last week.

They also went and reduced massively in terms of the terms and the features of the credit cards that were available, but the credit cards that are available right now are actually much much better. The terms have crept back up and now you can go and get an mbna credit card for 28 months by just paying a 2.79 fee. Sainsbury's do 29 months, but you have to pay 3, which proportionately is quite a bit more. Alternatively, if you want to actually get better value, you can go and get shorter terms, but where the fee is much lower as well.

So, for example, you could go and do 24 months with nbna for a 1.5 fee or 20 months for just one percent fee with virgin money. That is much much better value. So if you're wanting to go and maximize the value of your transfers, you might want to go and opt for one of those shorter deals so that you don't have to pay the extortionate amounts of interest and that will enable you to repay that debt. Much more quickly, however, if you happen to shift your balances more often, there are even better deals available than that.

Santander are currently doing 18 months with zero percent fee and barclaycard do 15 months, but you probably will find much harder to qualify for that card because of the specifics of that product. But in any case, if you wanted to go and get a completely zero percent, no fee no interest, no anything balance transfer deal. These deals are available they're out there for 18 or 15 months. As so, many people do have debt on their credit cards, and so many people are too busy to go and address it too busy to go and do something about it.

If you just go and spend 10 to 15 minutes going and doing the bare minimum amount of research to go and see, do you qualify for any of these products by literally just going on to the big price comparison website of your choice? Money supermarket is a good place to start. Go and type in your details go and see what you're editable for, if you are 100 eligible or very highly likely to get one of these products, you can go and save yourself a ton of money without then having to spend any time during the rest of 2021 worrying about it and now it's time for step number four, and this is the one that lots of people aren't even aware of. Don't really know that you can do, but it is really really interesting if you have other types of debt, whatever that debt may be. Maybe you have some account with an overdraft where you maxed on it.

Maybe you have loans or some kind of car finance or any other loan out there. That is expensive. That is costing you quite a lot of money that isn't a zero percent deal. You can go and clear those loans as well, but not in the way.

You think now there are lots of loan companies offering consolidation, deals and all kinds of things like that, but those are still quite expensive, pretty much in every single case. What you can do is you, can go and get a money transfer credit card. A money transfer credit card is something that is relatively simple. It means that you can go and get a credit card and essentially move a load of money from your credit card into your current account.

You then get a balance on your credit card, but these money transfer credit cards offer you a zero percent introductory deal. So in essence, you can go and get yourself a loan for the period of that zero percent, which is usually going to be much much cheaper than when you're paying elsewhere. So if you have a loan you're planning to repay in the next year and a half, you can go and repay it much more quickly by doing one of these tricks, so the leader as i'm filming this is mbna and they're, offering 18 months at zero percent. With a 2.99 fee, so in essence, you're paying 3 fee for having 18 months of paying no interest, that's a pretty good deal, that's an effective rate of just two percent per year.

Other providers, like tesco bank or virgin offer 15 to 12 month, deals as well, which will cost you zero percent in interest, but they do charge a higher four percent fee. Still, if you are paying loans that cost you seven nine twenty thirty percent interest, if you can qualify for one of these cards and essentially repay your loan with one of them, then you're gon na be saving yourself. Quite a lot of money. Remember three really important things thing number one is: if you're gon na be doing a balance, transfer or a money transfer, then you really have to go and repay that balance before the zero percent term ends or you're gon na gon na have to shift that balance To another balance transfer credit card: that depends whether those balance transfer credit cards exist at that point in time.

If there's some big economic downturn or your eligibility suffers because you have taken on more debt or any other reason like that, you may not be able to do so, and that means that at that point you may have to begin paying interest and that interest on Credit cards may be quite high. The next really important thing to remember is that credit cards don't allow you to do a balance transfer from the same credit card to a different credit card by the same provider, and that is sometimes not obvious, because the provider is not just the brand. It is the overall bank, so, for example, you can't go and get an at west credit card and repay an rbs one because they're both part of the same bank. The third point: if you're planning to use step number three in step number four, my strategy at the same time is: if you're planning to go and get a credit card to go and do balance, transfer and a different credit card to go and do a money Transfer, you may find that you are not eligible the second time if you're trying to get that credit card from the same provider.

So, for example, if you want to do both deals with mbna once you get the first credit card, they may actually not accept your second application for the money transfer credit card because they've already just given you one credit card with a high limit and you might Be breaking some of their internal rules in terms of the number of products that you can hold with them, or the total limits that you're able to have, or something else like that. So just be extra careful because if you're wanting to maximize both of those deals, you may want to go and choose different providers for them, so you don't get that conflict. I hope you guys found this useful. If you have please, if you haven't done so already, please make sure you go and smash the like button for youtube algorithm.

Thank you so much for watching. I really really appreciate it and i'll see you guys later.