rewards

Banks offer all sorts of credit cards. For the savers, there are cash-back cards. For the indebted, there are balance transfer cards. For the shoppers, there are retail cards. And for travelers like me, there are rewards cards.

Credit card rewards are the new social currency. Citibank customers can now use Facebook to pool their rewards points online. The bank on Tuesday launched a Facebook application that lets users team up to use their points, whether it's for charity, a group gift or a personal goal. Citi says it's the first bank to offer such a feature.

As holiday shopping season kicks into gear, retailers are going into overdrive in the battle for your bucks. And with daily deal web sites like Groupon and mobile shopping apps offering so many deals to online shoppers, the big stores are even more desperate to get you through the door.

Most of us prefer to skip through commercials, or ignore them. At e-Miles, people watch loads of them, on purpose, with no actual TV shows on the schedule. In return, those viewers get airline miles, which allow them to inch their way toward cheaper air travel. So what's the catch? Read on...

Recently, Wall Street Journal columnist Brett Arends wrote about how he's giving up credit cards and going all cash. He cited some compelling advantages to dumping his plastic, but it may not be right for you. Here are five things you give up by switching to an all-cash lifestyle:

The nation's banks are behaving like the airlines these days: As soon as one implements a new policy or program, others pile on. In this case, a mere week after Chase took the ax to its debit rewards program, news comes that Wells Fargo (along with Wachovia, which it acquired a few years ago) is...

PNC Bank, a major regional bank with 2,500 branches in 15 states, announced that it will no longer offer debit rewards and out-of-network ATM reimbursements on its free checking accounts, starting Sept. 12. Unlike some other big banks, though, PNC customers will still get free checking with no...

Consumers love to save on everyday purchases and in 2010, stores and technology combined to offer a new way to do that in the form of location-based discounts, which reward shoppers for coming into a store. The use of location-based rewards is still pretty new, but according to Sports Authority,...

It's not every day that you'll hear us tell you to use your credit card to buy a new laptop instead of using cash, but so long as you can pay it off right away there are many reasons to pay for your next laptop, or other holiday gadget, with a credit card. In our example, we'll use a new MacBook...

Texting and driving may not be illegal in all 50 states yet, but it is a dangerous activity -- especially on touchscreen phones that require more attention to hit the correct key. While you can solve the problem with self control, it doesn't always work. A new app called SafeCell makes it easier to...