Make the Most of Your Credit Card

Jan. 20, 2007 — -- Americans love credit: Right now there are 692 million credit cards in the country, and many will be swiped at malls, restaurants and movie theaters this weekend.

With so many credit cards, Americans carry a total of $711 billion in credit card debt -- more than the gross domestic product of India. But that isn't keeping credit card companies from luring more customers with attractive perks and talk of low rates.

Ron Lieber, staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, recently visited "Good Morning America" to talk about what consumers can do to make sure they're getting the most out of their credit cards, and not just stuffing their wallets with extra plastic.

Lieber ran down the list of the three best cards for perks.

Miles: the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card
This card is a hotel card and a miles card, so you get points for hotels as well as travel. The card earns 1.25 frequent flier miles for every dollar charged. That's about as good as you're going to get on miles. There is one caveat -- you can't use the miles on United or Continental, but it works for all other airlines.

Cash Back: Fidelity
Fidelity has a card that delivers 1.5 percent of every purchase back in cash. That doesn't sound like a ton of money, but if you're charging a lot, it adds up. And you can have that money put into a brokerage account or a college savings account if you want to save for your kids' education.

Cash Back: Chase
Chase offers a card that allows customers to earn 5 percent back at gas stations, and at grocery and drug stores, and 1 percent everywhere else. So every time you use your card at the grocery store, you're going to get 5 percent of what you spend back.

Merchandise: American Express
When it comes to merchandise, the American Express cards tend to do the best. They have a membership rewards program, and they offer a wide variety of merchandise to choose from. This isn't a great value, because you have to spend a lot of money to get enough points to buy these things. So you're not going to get the same return on your money as with the travel and money-back cards. But if you're into the merchandise, the American Express cards are best.