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To search credit cards for the best rates and programs, you need to both know yourself and know how credit cards work. The right credit card for you is not the right credit card for your friends or neighbors, so it is important to search credit cards that meet your needs the best.
Look to Consumer Advocates
Looking to banks or credit card companies for advice on how to find the right credit card is a little like a chicken asking a fox to help it with a security fence around the hen house. You’ll likely get advice that benefits the bank or credit card company, not advice that benefits you.
For advice that helps you as a consumer, look to consumer advocates are not funded or sponsored by credit card companies.
Avoid taking advice from any person who carries advertisements for a specific card on his or her website or who promotes one single company as the answer for each person. A legitimate advocate who is really looking after your needs will recognize that there is no “one card fits all” credit card and will offer advice based on individual situations.
Look for Your Needs
If you need a card specifically to rebuild credit, if you need a secured card, if you are primarily looking for a card with reward points or cash back, or if your primary concern is a low interest rate, then you should do specific searches for that type of card.
A simple Internet search for “low interest rate credit cards,” for example, will return a variety of sites that compare many different kinds of cards from different banks.
Avoid the return pages that advocate one particular card. Again, these sites are not looking out for your interests.
Look for sites that offer a number of different options. The sites may be paid a fee by the credit card companies when you click through and sign an application through that site, but if they are offering a wide variety of cards, you are more likely to get a better deal.
Look at a Large Number of Sites
Don’t stick with just one site, not even one good comparison site or consumer advocate site. While using the internet is the best way to do a credit card search, you want to be sure you are getting the entire picture before you make a decision.
Look at a number of sites and compare the deals between them. Sometimes you can get a better deal from one site than another on the exact card because one site charges a premium and the other does not.
Search Financial Sites
If you are looking for objective credit card advice, a good place to go is an objective financial site.
You are likely to get more choices and more objective analysis from these sites than you will from others, and you know where the information is coming from. With many sites advocating particular credit cards, there is no disclosure about the company sponsoring the site.
How To Search For Credit Cards Properly
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Find the Best Credit Card
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