---
title: "Cards and money | Benefit Systems"
description: "Cards and money: Every article and term on this topic, grouped by subtopic."
source: "aus dem gebauten HTML abgeleitet"
---
# Cards and money

Every article and term on this topic, grouped by subtopic. [Full glossary](/en/glossary).

## Costs

### Is a credit card annual fee worth it?

Which benefits belong in the calculation, why only used benefits count, how to separate the bonus from ongoing value, and when closing the card is the right answer.

### What are resort fees and do I have to pay them?

Why a daily surcharge distorts the room rate, what it supposedly covers, how it hits award stays, when status waives it and when disputing it is not worth the time.

### When does interest arise on a credit card?

How interest arises on a credit card, why the grace period ends with the first unpaid balance, how points compare against it, and which route leads out of a balance.

## Mechanics

### How do credit card bonus categories work?

What a bonus category consists of, why it rests on merchant codes, which caps apply, how to plan around rotating categories, and when the effort stops paying.

### How do I find out which merchant category code a shop uses?

What a merchant category code is, who assigns it, why the same purchase earns differently, how to find out in advance, and what is possible after a wrong classification.

### How do shopping portals work?

Why a portal pays anything at all, how the tracking actually happens, what makes a payout fail, which deadlines apply, and when the detour stops paying.

## Insurance

### Does my credit card cover rental car insurance?

Why US card coverage replaces the rental company waiver rather than topping it up, what primary and secondary mean at the counter, which vehicles and countries fall outside, and how a claim runs.

### What does the travel insurance on my credit card cover?

How card coverage is triggered, who actually pays a claim, why primary and secondary matter, which exclusions appear in every benefits guide, and when a separate policy is the better answer.

## Payments

### Can you pay rent with a credit card?

Which routes exist for paying rent by card in the US, what the processing fee means against the earning, when a spend threshold justifies it, and where the traps sit.

### Should I accept dynamic currency conversion abroad?

What happens when a terminal offers to bill in your own currency, who sets that exchange rate, why the markup hides inside it, and the rare case where the choice genuinely does not matter.

## Accounts

### Who is liable for charges made by an authorized user?

Who is liable on an authorized user card, how the account reports to the user's credit file, where the points and benefits land, and when adding somebody is the wrong move.

## Balances

### Do I lose my points when I close a credit card?

Which balances are tied to an account, which sit in a programme, what deadlines apply after closing, and in which order to secure a balance.

## Bonuses

### How much is a credit card welcome bonus actually worth?

How to calculate the value of a bonus, which costs sit against it, why the minimum spend is the real hurdle, and when a large bonus is still a bad deal.

## Cards

### Can a sole proprietor get a business credit card?

Why a sole proprietorship is usually enough to apply, how business cards sit outside the personal credit file, what separate books and employee cards change, where the risk sits and when a personal card is the better choice.

## Cash

### How do I withdraw cash abroad as cheaply as possible?

The four charges that can land on one withdrawal abroad, why credit cards treat cash as a loan, and the order in which the costs can actually be reduced.

## Credit

### Does applying for a credit card hurt my credit score?

What a US card application actually triggers, how a hard inquiry differs from a soft pull, why the new account matters more than the inquiry, and how to sequence several applications.

## Decisions

### Should I cancel or downgrade my credit card?

What separates a product change from a closure, what happens to points and account age, which deadlines apply, and when each route is the right one.

## Earning

### Why are bonus points missing from my purchase?

Why points go missing or arrive too small: merchant category codes, intermediaries, promotion conditions and posting cycles. And how a claim for missing points actually succeeds.

## Fees

### What is a foreign transaction fee and when does it apply?

When a card charges the foreign transaction fee, why it can apply to payments in your own currency, how it differs from the exchange rate, and where it can be avoided entirely.

## Payment routes

### Can I pay federal tax with a credit card?

Why the IRS accepts cards only through processors, how the fee compares with the points earned, when a large payment helps a welcome bonus, what the deductibility question changes and when the route is not worth taking.

## Security

### What should I do first about a fraudulent card charge?

Why reporting matters more than freezing, how unauthorised charges differ from merchant disputes, what changes while travelling, which records count and when disputing is not worth it.

## Terms

### How is my credit limit set, and can I get it raised?

Why the limit follows income and file history, how utilisation feeds a score, what a soft increase does, when a request triggers a hard pull and when raising the limit is not worth it.

## Terms on this topic

- [5/24 rule](/en/glossary/5-24-rule): The 5/24 rule is a US issuer policy: an applicant who has opened five or more card accounts in the past 24 months is declined for certain cards.
- [Airport taxes and charges](/en/glossary/airport-taxes-and-charges): Airport taxes and charges are government and airport levies contained in the ticket price and passed on to third parties.
- [Annual fee](/en/glossary/annual-fee): An annual fee is the fixed yearly price of holding a card, charged regardless of how much is spent on it or which benefits are used.
- [APR](/en/glossary/apr): APR is the price of borrowing on a card account, expressed as an annual percentage rate.
- [Authorisation hold](/en/glossary/authorisation-hold): An authorisation hold is an amount blocked on a card account that hotels and car rental firms use to secure a later payment.
- [Authorized user](/en/glossary/authorized-user): An authorized user is a second person given a card on someone else's account, whose spending the primary cardholder is liable for.
- [Bonus category](/en/glossary/bonus-category): A bonus category is an area of spending where a card credits more points per unit of spend than its base rate, such as travel or restaurants.
- [Card fraud](/en/glossary/card-fraud): Card fraud is a payment made without the cardholder's authorisation, for example using stolen card details.
- [Carrying a balance](/en/glossary/carrying-a-balance): Carrying a balance means leaving part of a card bill unpaid so that it rolls into the next month and accrues interest.
- [Cash advance](/en/glossary/cash-advance): A cash advance is withdrawing cash on a credit card, which counts as borrowing and therefore carries its own fees and interest rules.
- [Churning](/en/glossary/churning): Churning is the repeated opening and closing of card accounts with the aim of collecting welcome bonuses more than once.
- [City tax](/en/glossary/city-tax): City tax is a municipal levy per overnight stay that the hotel collects and passes on to the local authority.
- [Co-branded card](/en/glossary/co-branded-card): A co-branded card is a credit card issued by a bank together with an airline or hotel chain that earns directly in that programme's currency.
- [Collision damage waiver](/en/glossary/collision-damage-waiver): A collision damage waiver is the rental company's promise not to pursue the renter for damage to the vehicle, usually subject to a deductible.
- [Credit inquiry](/en/glossary/credit-inquiry): A credit inquiry is a lender's check of a credit file; a hard inquiry is recorded and visible to others, while a soft inquiry is not.
- [Credit limit](/en/glossary/credit-limit): A credit limit is the maximum balance a card account may carry between statements.
- [Credit score](/en/glossary/credit-score): A credit score is a number a bureau uses to express how likely a person is to meet their payment obligations.
- [Credit utilization](/en/glossary/credit-utilization): Credit utilization is the ratio between the balance on a card and its credit limit, expressed as a percentage.
- [Deductible](/en/glossary/deductible): A deductible is the amount the insured person pays on every claim before the insurer covers the remainder.
- [Dynamic currency conversion](/en/glossary/dynamic-currency-conversion): Dynamic currency conversion is the offer to settle a payment abroad in your own home currency, with the merchant side choosing the exchange rate.
- [Foreign transaction fee](/en/glossary/foreign-transaction-fee): A foreign transaction fee is a percentage charge added by the card issuer on purchases that are not in the card's billing currency.
- [Interbank rate](/en/glossary/interbank-rate): The interbank rate is the exchange rate banks trade at with each other, and it serves as the benchmark against which any markup abroad is measured.
- [Interchange fee](/en/glossary/interchange-fee): An interchange fee is the share of a card payment that the merchant's bank pays to the card issuer, and it is what funds points programmes.
- [Losing points when closing a card](/en/glossary/points-after-closing): Losing points when closing a card describes the forfeiture of a balance held in the issuer's own programme as soon as the account is shut.
- [Merchant category code](/en/glossary/merchant-category-code): A merchant category code is the four-digit code a card network uses to classify a business, and it decides which bonus points a purchase earns.
- [Merchant of record](/en/glossary/merchant-of-record): The merchant of record is the party that appears on the card statement and is therefore the legal counterparty to the payment.
- [Minimum spend](/en/glossary/minimum-spend): Minimum spend is the amount that must be charged to a new card within a defined period before the welcome bonus is credited.
- [Once-per-lifetime rule](/en/glossary/once-per-lifetime-rule): A once-per-lifetime rule is a condition stating that a given card's welcome bonus can be earned only a single time per person.
- [Pre-existing condition](/en/glossary/pre-existing-condition): A pre-existing condition is a health issue that existed before cover started or before departure and can limit what a policy pays.
- [Primary coverage](/en/glossary/primary-coverage): Primary coverage means a card's insurance pays first in a claim; secondary coverage only pays what another policy has not already covered.
- [Product change](/en/glossary/product-change): A product change is swapping an existing card for a different one from the same issuer without closing the account and reapplying.
- [Resort fee](/en/glossary/resort-fee): A resort fee is a mandatory daily hotel charge for bundled amenities, added on top of the room rate that was displayed.
- [Retroactive credit](/en/glossary/retroactive-credit): A retroactive credit is the later posting of points or miles for a stay or flight that did not appear in the account in the first place.
- [Service fee](/en/glossary/service-fee): A service fee is the intermediary's own charge for making the booking, added on top of the fare or room rate and not passed to the provider.
- [Shopping portal](/en/glossary/shopping-portal): A shopping portal is a programme-run page used to start an online purchase so that points are credited on top of what the card itself earns.
- [Statement credit](/en/glossary/statement-credit): A statement credit is an amount the card issuer refunds against qualifying purchases instead of awarding points for them.
- [Travel medical insurance](/en/glossary/travel-medical-insurance): Travel medical insurance covers medical treatment abroad, including repatriation, which state health systems usually do not pay for.
- [Trip delay insurance](/en/glossary/trip-delay-insurance): Trip delay insurance is a card benefit that reimburses necessary extra costs during a long delay or an interrupted trip, such as hotels and meals.
- [Welcome bonus](/en/glossary/welcome-bonus): A welcome bonus is a one-off points credit for opening a new card and meeting a minimum spending requirement within a set period.