What steps do you need to take when looking at or apply for a new credit card?
What steps do you need to take when looking at or apply for a new credit card? Credit Cards can be a little tricky. There’s often hidden fees, or special rules for transferring funds. This article is aimed at showing you the best steps to take when applying for a credit card.
The first step you should take is to find out what your credit card score is. Credit Scores range from 300-850. You can get a free credit report, but in general to find your credit score you’ll have to pay a small $9 fee. Credit scores range from 300-850. Generally if you’re above 600, you can apply to any credit card you’d like to and be approved. If you’re below 600, you’re going to have to decide a card that’s appropriate for your credit score. The reason you don’t want to just apply to the best card possible if your credit score isn’t high enough, is that every time you apply to a credit card, your score takes a minor hit. So you should avoid applying to too many cards.
In choosing a credit card there’s a few factors to consider. Do you want Visa, Discover, American Express, or MasterCard Credit Cards? Visa is probably the largest credit card company, followed by mastercard. Discover have developed great rewards programs for their members. Once you decide on the type of card you should look at specific cards. Visa and MasterCard don’t offer cards directly to customers, instead they allow banks to create credit cards for their customers. So there are bank of america visa cards, and chase credit cards, and wamu, etc. Each offer their own unique benefits.
Chase and Bank of America are two of the largest banks, so in general their cards offer the most rewards programs and the most favorable interest rates. However, they are probably the harder cards to get, so you’ll have to have a good to excellent credit score to get their best plans. If your credit score is particularly bad, or you don’t have a credit history, you might want to consider getting a secured credit card to start building a good credit history.
