Cash back cards are now the most common general purpose card in America, and consumers paid $160 billion in card interest in 2024. Those two facts are connected. What funds a rewards program, and the arithmetic that decides whether one is worth carrying.
The Federal Reserve publishes two credit card rates and the one people quote is the wrong one. What a transfer actually changes, the four numbers in the offer terms that decide the outcome, and where the strategy fails.
The CFPB cut its own credit-invisible estimate in half in 2025. Most people who cannot get approved have a file, not an absence. The four routes onto it, what the market charges a new account, and the questions to ask before applying.
