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→How to use your rewards
*##Many cards give you points that you can redeem for cash or a gift card or spend directly on purchases. Gift cards and direct purchases can often be redeemed for more value than the cash equivalent. By leaving the points in the care of the credit cards for longer you give yourself the option of an alternate redemption method if it works out for you.
*#Frequently take the points out, in the form of a check or transfer to your checking account, or as a statement credit. This has a couple advantages:
*##If you do this you can put the cash in something like a [https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/09/high-yield-savings-account.asp High Yield Savings Account] (check out [https://www.wealthfront.com/ Wealtfront] which currently provides High Yield Savings accounts with a 1.82% [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/apy.asp APY]. This means you earn a little bit of interest on the money in the account. Now you are earning interest on the cashback that is sitting around waiting to be used. As of the 2022-01-18, High Yield Savings accounts are offering approximately 0.5% APY.
*##Some of these cards only offer cashback as a statement credit. If you save up the rewards and can only redeem for a statement credit, you can't really "use" the money immediately unless you charge your new expense to that card. If you take the statement credit and then move the equivalent amount from your checking to your High Yield Savings it essentially gives you access to those funds.
