When searching on the internet for information on the best options for credit cards, it is hard to keep it all straight. There are literally hundreds of sights claiming to have the most comprehensive information to help guide you through the process. But how do you know that you are looking in the right place and are receiving an unbiased and straight forward account of what is available to you? Your finances are a part of your identity that you need to protect and handle with caution and care, so which sites out there help you do just that? Where can you look to get clear and secure information that you can actually use?
Straight to the Source
Each individual bank offers a plethora of information on their individual sits. Chase and American Express, and the rest of those large corporate lenders spend tons of money on their web accessibility simply to help draw in people like you and get you to get credit accounts with them. They want your money and they are willing to put in the effort to help you find them quicker in your search, and make their products look shinier as a means to compete with other banks.
Don’t be too quick to settle, in addition to these larger banks, there are smaller options in every city across the country and large credit card companies that have competitive offers and bonuses that may suit your needs a little more personally. American Express and Discover for example have multiple cards that offer different features making finding one here that may suit your needs a tad bit more probable. Remember to look at every option, and don’t just settle for the bigger ones because you see them first and they are flashy, consider every option.
Get Some Help
There are many helpful sites on the internet that will give you all the information you need to compare all of the major offers out there and the biggest benefit of these sites is that they have all the information in one place so that you can easily pit one against the other to find the offer that best fits your needs.
Comparecards.com
CompareCards offers extensive details on all of the most prominent offers from all of the larger lenders. You will find benefits, APR rates and suspended interest information, among other facts, for each card featured. There is a great deal of information on this site, you can explore each cards cash back rules and regulations and the interest rates on balance transfers and everything in between.
Citibank, American Express, Chase and Discover are all featured here, and the sites biggest perk is it is just the facts. The site is not cluttered up with a ton of other articles and advertisements making it hard to navigate. You can compare the offers easily and when you find one that you like, you can click and are linked directly to the secure site for that lender.
Nerdwallet.com
NerdWallet is great because it gives you, the consumer, the opportunity to complete a thorough questionnaire detailing your spending habits, your credit history and your intended use of the card you are searching for. Then based on your own personal answers, they search thousands of offers to find the ones that seem to fit your needs the best. You can then compare the offers and whittle them down until you find the one that is right for you.
Using this site is like having your own personal finance assistance spending hours contacting lenders and analyzing offers for you, and it is free to boot.
CardRatings.com
CardRatings.com is a site that offers the same comparisons as the other sites; it summarizes and offers up key points associated with the offers available from those larger lenders. This site is particularly helpful in that you can answer a few questions and it will do a search for the cards that might best suit your needs and lifestyle, giving you a list to consider and considerably cutting down on your research.
Don’t forget to keep looking at all the options before you pick one, just because a card seems to fit your needs perfectly does not mean that it is the only one that will. CardRatings also offers answers to frequently asked credit questions and fills its site with helpful tips on searching for the perfect card and features select offers with particularly enticing perks.
Jennifer Ricci works in the field of private student loan consolidation. Her work allows her to help graduates find the answers to the questions they are looking for regarding their personal finances.