Petal Credit Card Holders Could Win Money for Making More Than Minimum Payments

Could you get rewarded for paying more than the minimum?

The Petal® 2 "Cash Back, No Fees" Visa® Credit Card made The Ascent's list of the best credit cards in 2020 for a good reason.

You can qualify without a credit history, it offers a reasonable rewards rate, and it's designed to help you build your credit score. That's why it won our 2020 award for the best credit card for building credit. The Petal® 2 "Cash Back, No Fees" Visa® Credit Card also stands out from many of its competitors because it keeps excess charges to a minimum. It does not charge late fees, foreign transaction fees, or other nuisance costs.

The company recently announced a sweepstakes aimed at saving its users money -- and hopefully helping them build smart credit habits to boot. The best part is you're guaranteed to come out ahead even if you don't win the contest.

Petal is rewarding card issuers who make a smart choice

Starting in January, Petal's new contest will reward card users who pay more than their minimum payment. Specifically, those whose payments exceed the minimum will be entered into a sweepstakes to have card balances of up to $500 fully repaid.

Petal will pick a total of 100 winners, including 50 in the month of January and another 50 in the month of February. You'll be entered if you make your payment on time and it exceeds the minimum due.

It's impossible to guess your odds of winning this contest since there's no way of knowing how many cardholders will participate by paying extra. But it's still a great one to enter because it's a smart move to make more than the minimum payment anyway.

Every little extra you send to your card company will reduce your principal balance faster and you'll pay less interest in the long run. As a result, even if you aren't one of the 100 lucky winners who get their debt paid off, participating in the sweepstakes will still put you in a better financial position.

No matter what card you have, paying more than the minimum is a good way to win in 2021

Petal's sweepstakes provides a nice bonus perk to encourage cardholders to pay more than the minimum. But you shouldn't need a contest to motivate you to make this choice. And you don't need to be a Petal cardholder to win big by paying more than your card issuer requires.

No matter what credit card is in your wallet, aim to pay off the balance in full -- or at least pay more than the minimum every month. If you don't, you're dooming yourself to years of debt and potentially tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest costs. And, you can't count on winning a sweepstakes to deal with your card balance -- it's up to you to make a proactive plan to pay it off ASAP.

The good news is, you don't have to make a huge extra payment to make a big dent in principal. Simply paying a little extra each month will cut years off the time it takes you to repay what you borrowed. Make a point to work more money into your budget to deal with credit card debt this year -- whether it earns you a sweepstakes entry or not.