 Credit Card Application Objective
Everyday consumers from all occupations are inundated with legitimate and illicit credit card offers. From email to junk mail, choosing the correct credit card requires the same type of careful shopping as it does to buy a new car. Just like every automobile is not conducive for all drivers, the same rule applies to credit cards and consumers. Prior to scouring through innumerous credit card opportunities, first consider your credit card objectives:
• How do you plan to use the credit card?
• Do you need a new credit card to consolidate other debts?
• Do you need the new credit card to make small business purchases?
• Would you like to save money?
• Are you in need of a cash advance?
Evaluating how you plan to use a credit card is the first step to practicing intelligent personal financing. By answering the above questions, you can devise a list of credit card features to best save you money and maximize your purchasing power.
Create a Credit Card Checklist
Credit cards come with a myriad of features. Before you limit your credit card criteria to a low APR finance charge, it is important to remember that your credit card payment habit s will greatly affect how important an APR affects your overall savings.
 Here is a list of standard features to add or remove from your credit card checklist:
• No Annual fee
• Lowest introductory APR
• Lowest long-term APR
• Balance transfers for the lowest long-term balance transfer rate
• Cash advances
Use the following credit card shopping strategies to help you prioritize the importance of each feature of your credit card.
Hypothetical credit card comparison:
Let’s say a consumer has an average monthly credit card balance of $3000 with a 14 percent APR with and an annual fee of $39 (annual finance charge + fee = $459). But if the same average monthly credit card balance were compared to a credit card with a higher APR of 17 percent and no annual fee, ($570) the credit card with the lower APR would offer the overall saving, $111. (Obviously, this example is based on a credit card user who maintains an outstanding balance of $3000 – each month).
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