When you have finally made the decision to get a credit card, you embark on the next crucial step of extensive research. There are numerous credit cards in the market and you have to carefully select the one that suits your needs best and saves you money. Being honest about your discipline level, your expenditure habits as well as payment routine will guide you along during the research. There are several websites that allow you to compare credit cards and apply for your favourite online. Credit cards come with great variance. What do you compare and where do you start? The following provides you with 5 main features to be used as guidelines to help you begin.

Rates

Credit card marketing often focuses on the rates. The most common rate that you will see in advertisements is the interest rate, also referred to as Annual Percentage Rate (APR). However this is not the only rate that you should be concerned about. Annual fees, late charges, over-the-limit fees, interest rate on cash advances and fees charged on cash advances are some of the other rates you should be compare. It is very important that you read the agreement because there may also be other hidden fees and rates arbitrarily added on. Be aware of all rates on the credit card. Select one that costs you the least.

Terms

Terms include a variety of issues. To help you understand how varied this can be, a few examples are provided below:

• Some low rates may be only be introductory and may increase significantly after a period of time.
• Introductory low interest rate may only apply to purchases and not cash advances.
• Although the consumer may have been paying an interest rate of 15% for a whole year, he may realize one day that his interest rate has suddenly shot up to 18%. Upon investigation, he comes to understand that this happened because he missed the previous month’s credit card payment.
• The terms in the agreement may have stated the practice of “universal default”. This means that even if the consumer has been prompt in the payment of his credit card bills, his interest rate could be increased if he runs into problems with payments for some other loan or credit card.
• The calculation of credit card balance that the APR is applied to varies among the companies. Consumers tend to be charged most if the company applies APR to a two-cycle balance and they benefit most if the APR is applied to the adjusted balance.

The above are just five examples of policies and practices of credit card companies which the consumer may not be aware of. This is due to the fact that not all terms are mentioned verbally or found in bold in the credit card websites. They are often found in fine print in the agreement. It is your responsibility to read the fine print (no matter how daunting it may seem) in order to prevent any rude shock later. Comparing the terms will help you choose the better credit card.

Incentives

As the credit card industry is highly competitive, companies usually offer rewards and perks for signing up with them. If you are signing up for a card only to be used for emergency purposes, these rewards or perks may not make much difference in your choice. However, if you are the sort to use your card regularly, identifying the rewards and perks that would suit your needs and lifestyle most will help you pick a card that is most advantageous to you.

Solutions

Find out what kind of solutions the credit card companies have to offer for some of your specific needs or potential problems. If you know that you fly often and you’ll be using the credit card to purchase airline tickets and services, enquire if they have any card that would help make you any savings on your purchases and even prioritize you as a preferred customer of the airline. You may also want to check on their procedures in handling credit card fraud. Ask how readily they handle chargebacks and how efficient they are in providing you with a replacement card and reporting the incident.

Services

Last but definitely not the least, the customer support services provided by the credit card company is crucial. It must be available round the clock with short waiting time on the phone. You do not want to be caught having a problem with your credit card overseas and waiting on the line for ages to be helped. Obtain reviews about the quality of service provided by the company from their current consumers. It might now be easier for you to understand why the research has to be extensive. Most consumers often find out the significance of looking for the right card, not just based on the interest rates but more comprehensively based on the 5 features mentioned above, the hard way. You can avoid being one of them and save yourself much heartache and stress in the future.

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