6 Genius Credit Card Moves To Make Before the End of 2025
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Written by
Adam Frankel
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Edited by
Levi Leidy
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Reviewed by
Jasmin Baron
Credit cards, like any lending product, require your attention and review periodically to make sure you’re maximizing your financial potential. Making these smart money moves with your credit cards can help keep your financial house in order and finish out 2025 with a bang.
Check Out: How To Maximize Credit Card Rewards
Discover: Ways To Elevate Your Summer Travel Adventures
Pay Off Debt
If you have credit card debt, your No. 1 financial goal should be to focus on paying it off.
Credit card debt is some of the most expensive debt you can carry, often charging higher interest rates than mortgage, auto or student loans, and it’s easy to see a small balance quickly turn into something unmanageable. You may find that shifting your debt to a balance transfer card with an introductory 0% annual percentage rate (APR) offer can help you reach your debt-free goals more quickly. Some of the best balance transfer cards have up to two years interest-free, which means more of your money will go toward knocking out the principal balance instead of being used to pay interest charges.
Enroll and Use Your Benefits
It’s increasingly common for credit card issuers to offer perks that can offset the cost of any annual fees. Features like a hotel card free night certificate, DoorDash credits or streaming subscription credits can save you money, so it makes sense to take full advantage of any potential freebies that come with your card before they expire.
One thing to know: Many of these potential perks require some kind of action on your part to be used, whether it’s enrolling through the issuer to activate it or calling a specific phone number to use a free night credit or a discount on a room or flight. Some cards offer elite status with hotels or car rental loyalty programs, but it’s not automatic. However, in many cases, it takes just a few seconds to log in to your account and activate the benefit.
Check Your Card Before You Pay For Travel Insurance
Before booking travel between now and the end of the year, check your credit cards to see which ones might come with travel protections.
Many top travel cards come with robust insurance like trip cancellation or interruption coverage, lost or delayed baggage coverage, primary auto rental coverage and even referrals for emergency services. Booking your plans with one of the best credit cards with travel insurance can save you a bundle versus buying a separate policy or paying for extra collision coverage at the car rental counter.
Cash Out Rewards
If you have credit card rewards piling up, what are you waiting for? Make it a habit to regularly check rewards accounts and get your money.
This is especially true for travel rewards programs like airline miles and hotel points. These travel loyalty programs can change and devalue without any notice at all, so hoarding points and miles could mean they’ll be worth less as time goes on. Think of rewards currencies like getting a new car: The longer you hold them, the greater the depreciation.
Freeze Your Credit
It’s completely free to freeze your credit with all three of the main credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — and takes just a few minutes to do so with each. When your credit is frozen, no new lines of credit can be opened in your name, which means scammers can’t use your information to create a credit card account. This small step can prevent a lot of headaches that come with identity theft.
When you do need to apply for credit, you can simply log in to each bureau to unfreeze entirely or set up a thaw for a specified period of time.
Give Your Existing Cards a Glow-Up
End the year on a high note by knowing you’re practicing good financial hygiene. Reviewing your credit cards and their perks can ensure that you’re getting the maximum benefit from this type of financial product.
If you have an old card from years ago that doesn’t earn rewards, consider calling the issuer and seeing if you can make a product change to one that does. Or, if you’re paying a high annual fee on a card and aren’t getting your money’s worth, ask if you can switch to another card that has a lower fee.
Just don’t close a card that you’ve held for many years, as that can negatively impact your credit score. The amount of available credit you have and your overall average age of accounts are two factors that go into determining your credit standing. Most issuers will have other options and allow you to make a product change and keep the same line of credit open, just with a different card.
