The Search for the Perfect Credit Card: Part 1
Image Courtesy of Andres Rueda
Now that I have talked about the bad parts of having a credit card, it is time to focus on the good. As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have decided to get him his first ever credit card. According to CreditKarma.com (where you can see your Transunion credit score for FREE and run simulations to see how different actions will affect your credit score), my husband’s credit score would go up thirty-six points just by opening up a credit card. In this posts and the posts to follow, I will talk about our journey in the search for a new credit card.
Defining What We Were Looking For–Our first step in our search for a credit card was to define exactly what we want out of the card. The first idea that came to both of our minds was that we want a card with no annual fee. We don’t use credit cards nearly enough to justify getting a card with one. Our second decision was that we want a card with a strong rewards program. We have always done really well at paying off our balance in full every month. We have never had to pay any interest on my card. Since we plan on using his card sparingly and also paying it off each month, there is no reason not to get a card with a rewards program (if you do hold a balance on your credit card, I would strongly advise against getting a card with a rewards program). We do not really need to consider interest rates since we have no intention of ever accruing interest on the card. The final main decision we made about the card was that we want a simple card. We don’t want the rewards program to be so confusing that we do not know how to use it.
Familiarizing Ourselves With the Options–After we defined what we wanted out of my husband’s card, we were ready to start looking at the various options available to us. We used several different sites to compare credit cards. Creditcards.com, Creditcardgoodies.com, Creditcardguide.com, and Cardratings.com ended up being valuable resources for comparing different credit cards for us, although there are many other sites like these. These sites were only starting points, though. The real information came from the websites of the credit card companies themselves. There, we were able to learn about different rewards programs available.
Narrowing It Down–Once we got a good idea of what is out there, we decided to narrow down our choices. We decided that we either want a card that pays us strictly cash back or a card that gives us points towards gift cards. We also decided to get a card that would maximize our rewards considering that we do not spend much on the card (in other words, we did not want a card that you had to spend a lot before you started earning rewards). In the end, we came up with this short list: the Discover Open Road Card, the Discover More Card, the Capital One No Hassle Cash Card, and the Citi Driver’s Edge Master Card.
In my next post, I will discuss each of our various options on our short list and talk about the pros and cons of each card. Stay tuned!
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Thanks for sharing. It is useful for me.