AH, THE WONDERS

of home ownership. You've upgraded your kitchen fridge and installed new copper pipes, all while saving your landscaping from the adult Japanese beetle.

With all the credit-card reward points you've racked up as a result, the itch to splurge is unbearable. Should you select that $350 Spa Finder gift certificate (35,000 points, Citibank ThankYou Network), or opt for the round-trip ticket to Europe (60,000 points, MBNA WorldPoints)?

Using your rewards as an escape from reality may make you feel fabulous temporarily, but at the end of the month, it's done nothing to free you from the pile of bills that go hand in hand with owning a home. Mortgage, homeowners' insurance, utilities with that drain on your bank account, no wonder you needed that spa trip in the first place. But with the right card, you can put your reward points to good use, reducing your mortgage, slashing your homeowners' premiums and financing that pricey remodel.

Cards that specialize in home rewards are few and far between, but our experts liked all of 'em, assuming you pay off your balance each month. We've collected three cards to consider, plus four tips to help you maximize your savings:

Playing the Home (Card) Field
Weigh the rewards.
Cards geared toward home rewards offer built-in resolve against splurges State Farm gift checks, after all, can't be put toward a flat-screen TV. But the cash back rates aren't great. "One percent is not a very aggressive rebate in today's reward card market," says Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com, a consumer information web site focusing on credit cards. If you can be resolute in your decision to put rewards toward home bills, a generic cash-back card may be a better option.

Say you charge $2,500 per month. Using the Citi Home Rebate Platinum Select MasterCard, you'd earn 1% back toward your mortgage, or $300 annually. Over the lifetime of a 30-year $200,000 fixed mortgage, those extra payments would save you $18,117.03 in interest. A Discover Platinum card has that same rate for most purchases, but offers bonus rewards of 5% for purchases in its monthly "Get More" categories. (From October through December, for example, cardholders get 5% back for restaurant, movie, book and music purchases.) If just one-quarter of your annual purchases were in Get More categories, you'd earn $581.25 back annually, saving an additional $14,437.65 in interest over the life of your loan.

Use it and lose it.
"It's OK to have a credit card for a specific purpose," says Scott Bilker, founder of DebtSmart.com, a consumer information site focusing on credit cards and debt management. If you're going to fork over $2,599 for that fancy new GE Convection/Thermal Wall oven, it makes sense to get a little back. Use the Chase Home Improvement Rewards Card, which offers three points per $1 spent at hardware stores and home-improvement warehouses, and you'd save $75. Once your project is done, renovate your wallet in favor of a low-interest card that offers rewards outside the home-improvement arena.

Pay off your balance.
Taking on credit-card debt to alleviate your mortgage burden just doesn't make sense. Look at the numbers: A standard credit card carries an APR of 13.08% fixed (14.75% variable), while a 30-year fixed mortgage taken today has the comparatively paltry rate of 6.56%, according to HSH Associates. And forget about those rewards. For example, charging $2,500 on that Chase Home Improvement Rewards Card would earn $25 in rewards. But with an APR of 14.24%, one month's interest amounts to $29.67 you'd actually lose $4.67.

Talk to your lender.
If you plan to use your rewards to pay off your mortgage, make a quick call to your lender first, advises Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, a financial surveyor and publisher. Paying off a chunk of your balance can trigger a prepayment penalty of up to 3% of your outstanding balance. Credit-card rewards alone won't be enough to trigger a charge most lenders only charge the fee for prepayments of more than 30%. But if you make extra payments whenever possible or plan to refinance, check that your rewards won't push you over your lender's prepayment limit.