It's never been trickier to find the right credit card with over 300 credit cards currently on the market.
The days are gone when all you had to check was the interest rate and annual fee and wait for your card to arrive in the mail.
What to look for: Annual fees Range from $30-$300 and tend to be higher for: *low interest credit cards *credit cards with long interest free periods *credit cards with extensive rewards programs Cash advances and late payments *attract higher fees *attract higher interest rates *generally put an end to any interest free periods Zero interest transfer offers *are good value credit cards if used to pay off a debt *watch out as once the introductory low interest rate period expires you usually end up paying a high rate *this high rate is often greater than on regular cards *late payments rates are also often high than regular credit cards *avoid making new purchases on these balance transfer credit cards as the interest rate can automatically revert to the standard rate No-frills cards *are worth looking are for their low interest rate of 10% *but only if you avoid the high interest magnets of late payments and cash advances Minimum repayments *are now as low as 1.
5% or $25 (whichever is greater).
They used to be set at 5% when credit cards were first introduced.
*if you only made the minimum repayments on your credit card it would take 40 years (and $21,000 in interest) to clear a debt of $3000 *hint: always pay more than the minimum if you can't pay the balance off in full each month.
Rewards schemes *you often have to spend a large amount on your credit card before you get rewarded *eg for every $100 spent, you receive on average between 60c and 80c in rewards.
This means you have to spend at least $20,000 for a return flight from Sydney to Melbourne.
*watch out for bonus point and deals for flight upgrades *watch out for high annual fees (some are as high as $900) *watch out for high 19% interest rates