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How to Choose a Credit Card?
Choosing the perfect credit card ultimately depends on your needs, your credit score, and spending habits; however, there are a few things to help you start moving forward. These three easy steps should help you choose the best credit card for your needs.
1. Check Your Credit
Understanding your credit score will help you know what cards are available to you and which are not
Your FICO credit score, the most common credit score, is a three digit number ranging between 300-850 that represents your creditworthiness. Basically, the higher your score the better the credit cards that are available to you.
You should be able to find your score through your credit card website or financial institution like a bank or loan office. If not, you can purchase your score from credit score companies like FICO.
Knowing your score allows you to see what credit category you land in. Most credit cards advertise which range of score will most likely qualify for their card. The following is the ranges for credit scores.
- Excellent: 800-850
- Very Good: 740-799
- Good: 670-739
- Fair: 580-669
- Poor: 300-570
Finding your range will help you know what card will be available to you.
2. Think About What Type of Credit Card Matches Your Needs
Before picking a card, you need to decide what type of card fits your needs. Think about how you spend and what you’re planning on getting from this card.
If the main goal of this card is building credit, then your best bet is a card designed for building credit. A secured credit card might be a good first step. Secured credit cards require a refundable security deposit as collateral before they extend a line of credit. This often means that most people can qualify for secured cards, regardless of credit history. Plus, some secured cards allow you to upgrade your card to an unsecured credit card after responsible use.
If your goal is to get out of debt, you’ll want to look for cards that have introductory low or 0% APR for balance transfers. You’ll still have to pay the balance transfer fee normally, 3% or $5 whichever is greater, but then you’ll be saved the normal balance transfer rate for the first introductory period. This won’t solve your debt problem, but it will buy you time before interest kicks back in.
If your goal is to maximize rewards, look no further than a rewards credit card. The best of these cards require excellent credit scores, but the rewards can be lucrative. For rewards, most cards offer cash back, miles, or reward points. When it comes to finding the best rewards card for your needs, think about where you spend most of your money. Often these cards will have bonus categories that maximize your reward earnings, but you won’t benefit from them unless you spend in that category. For example, it won’t help you to have a travel rewards card that gives you 5% on airline flights if you don’t fly anywhere that year!
3. Shop Around for the Best Card in That Category
Once you’ve figured out your card category, you want to find the best of that type of card. The first thing we check is the annual fees vs the rewards. Some of the more lucrative rewards cards have pretty steep annual fees. They can still be worth it, but only if the rewards offer you more value than the annual fee costs you.
Next, check out the APR. You want the lowest APR you can. While we suggest you never carry a balance and therefore never need to deal with interest, it’s still good to keep it low just in case. Some cards even offer 0% APR as an introductory offer.
Finally, check out the other perks. Will you be traveling internationally? Look for a card that has no foreign transaction fees. Or, other cards offer perks like DoorDash memberships or reimbursement for streaming fees. These perks should be the last thing you take into account, but are still fun to have.
How to Apply for a Credit Card
Nowadays, applying for a credit card is pretty simple. For most, you simply have to head over to the credit card company’s website and apply online. It’s also possible to apply in person at a bank or over the phone, but online tends to be the easiest and quickest.
Before you actually apply we suggest you check whether the card you want offers you the chance for pre approval. Being pre-approved or prequalified means they will check your qualification with a soft credit pull. This lets you know how likely you are to be approved without the consequences of a hard credit pull.
If you’re pre approved, move forward with the application. You’ll need to provide your name, social security number, address, bank account info, income, and monthly housing payment. This information helps the credit card issuer to verify that you are who you say you are and what your creditworthiness is.
From there being approved or denied can take as little as a few moments although most take seven to 10 business days.
Then you just wait for your card to show up in the mail.
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