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How To Sort Through All Those Credit-Card Offers

(CBS) – More banks are offering credit card rewards for everything from airline miles to hotel rooms to cash in an effort to get your business.

But trying to decide which one to choose can be overwhelming. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker helps you cut through the clutter in this report.

"I have Chase Freedom, I have a CapitalOne Quicksilver, and I have a Macy's American Express," says Angela Fabiano, a big fan of credit cards that offer rewards for dining and travel.

She expected bonus points when she dined at a local pub, but she didn't get them because the pub was listed as a sports center on her credit card; it didn't qualify as dining.

She lost out on about 500 points, which she says equaled about $50 in travel.

Complaints about consumers expecting rewards and not getting them are showing up at the Better Business Bureau. One woman applied for a credit card offering "50,000 bonus miles ... after spending $2,000."

Then she learned she wasn't eligible for that bonus because she owned the same card last year. She wrote: "This is very bad business practice."

Value Penguin research analyst Robert Harrow agrees.

"Banks have been fined in the past for misleading practices," he says.

Harrow warns consumers to always read the fine print. That is something Angela Sanchez learned the hard way when she missed the notice that thousands of her rewards were about to expire.

"I missed out on a lot of free things that I could have gotten," she says.

One way to limit complaints is to make sure the reward credit card you choose fits your lifestyle. After studying numerous reward cards, Harrow concluded that hotel cards offer the best value -- up to 3 percent back for every dollar you spend.

Airline cards offer the biggest bonuses, like free tickets. Catherine Meyers favors Southwest and recently got a free flight.

But most cards charge fees. And if you pay more in fees than you collect in rewards you are wasting money.

"If you're spending say $12,000 a year or less on credit cards, a cash-back credit card, for example, would be a safe choice," Harrow says, especially if you want to maximize your reward.

Patricia DeChant chooses Quicksilver and Discover, which carry no annual fees and return about $500 a year.

"We just use that cash when it accumulates to pay off our card," DeChant says.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently reviewing credit card practices, including transparency, when it comes to rewards offers. The agency is expected to present a report to Congress later this year.

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