Friday, April 27, 2012

No One Size Fits All Credit Card

Guest post 

I have been thinking about switching to a different credit card lately, but it is kind of an overwhelming task to figure out which one is going to be the best for me. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different cards to choose from all with different incentives, interest rates, perks, and pitfalls. There are so many factors to consider before you can even narrow down what is important to look for? Do you pay your card off in full each month or are you paying interest as you pay down your debt? Do you travel frequently, especially to foreign countries? Are you a student or a business owner? I have been trying to do my own research in order to compare credit cards, but then I found there are websites which will do just that for you. You are able to see all laid out for you the benefit, uses, interest rates, signing bonuses, etc. so that comparing cards is actually easy. For me personally I think a card which has a good rewards program is the most ideal feature. I generally pay my balance in full, but use my card a lot in order to earn extra points. I am not sure yet if I want to go with a card that specializes in frequent flier miles because ideally I would love to start traveling more, or if that will give me the most “bang for my buck” so to speak. I have seen some cards which give you a pretty decent amount of points just for signing up which would really be nice. If I had a balance I still needed to pay off on my current credit card and was paying interest, the most important thing I would be looking for is a card which allows for balance transfers with a 0% interest rate for at least a few years. Because I do plan to travel more in the future, especially out of the country, it is probably important for me to also look into the service fees associated with money exchange and using your card out of the country. It's hard to be sure you are getting the best fit (and deal) possible when there are so many options, but at least there are tools which can help you sort through what is worth and what is not.

No comments: