Columbia Aged Care

Credit Card Offers have provided three useful credit card tips for seniors to follow If you’re 50 or older, it might be time to rethink your approach to using credit cards.

All of your financial decisions, including which credit cards to use and how to use them, must be adaptable to your changing life as you age.

Are credit cards you opened years ago still giving you the best value? Consider how your lifestyle has changed over the years, and how you expect it could change in the near future. Will interest rates and fees matter more to you in retirement? Would you prefer to earn different rewards (or cut out rewards programmes altogether)?

The following credit card tips for seniors are designed to help you make better decisions about your credit card use moving forward.

1. Compare spending habits with income changes.
Even if you choose to stay with your existing credit card companies, you might need to change how you use those credit cards as you get older. For example, if your retirement income is significantly lower than your previous working income (and you don’t have adequate savings or investments to make up the difference), then you may want to stop financing larger purchases with interest in favour of paying off the card every month.

2. Evaluate your rewards programmes.
Rewards programmes offer you an incentive to spend money on your credit card. But do you still need your current rewards?  For example, some elderly individuals have health conditions that make travelling either impossible or at least inconvenient. In those cases a frequent flyer card, like the Emirates Citibank Platinum credit card, might prove to be more costly than beneficial. Keep in mind that rewards cards often come with higher annual fees for entrance into the rewards programme.

3.  Be prepared to negotiate.
If you discover that your current credit card terms aren’t as attractive to you later in life, you may be tempted to close them or transfer balances to another card. While than may be an option for some, remember that if you have a lower income as a senior you may have a more difficult time getting approved for a brand new card. Instead of starting your credit card search from scratch, first consider calling your credit card company to negotiate. It’s less expensive for a company to work with you and give you more favourable terms than it is for them to lose you as a customer and have to find another to replace you.

Being a senior doesn’t necessarily mean you should cut back on credit card use. It just means that you have to be conscious of life changes and how they’ll affect your financial health. If you haven’t taken a good hard look at your credit card terms lately, now is the time to do it before you end up paying interest you can’t afford or yearly fees for rewards programmes that just don’t deliver anymore.