Credit Card

My recommendation is to read Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover, specifically his section on credit cards. His advice is great!

Lisa

Credit cards are NO INTEREST if you pay it ALL off at the end of the month.

Go to your bank you have the debit card.

We have Citibank cards and a company Visa from Bank of America. We like the perks on air miles and cash back

However, I have no clue what any interest rate is because ours are always paid in full.

Please don't make the mistake of biting off more than you can chew.

On our Citibank, we got $1500 cash back after we bought a car. On BOA I get a check from them about once every 3-4 months for $150. We like perks and know how to use them.

Try American Express, they have some that don't require you to pay them off every month if that is the kind of card you are looking for. I have AMEX Platinum, no annual fee, no rewards points, you aren't required to pay it off monthly. I do pay off in full but my interest is 11.2%

I have a low rate with my Citibank Mastercard. Try the website www.creditcards.com it lists tons of credit cards, what they offer and gives the option to compare them as well.

I have a Visa thru my credit union with 8.5% rate. Check thru your bank and/or credit union you can usually get a cheaper rate if you are already a customer. We have no annual fee and gets points for rewards. We charge everything but pay it off each month and never carry over a balance. We only due it for the points. We use those to get birthday and Christmas presents throughout the year...works awesome for us.

We have one thru Citibank and have never had any problems even with all the recent talk from everyone about credit cards raising interst rates and lowering credit liimits, Citibank never did that to us. We normally don't use it on a day to day basis but mainly for larger purchases: appliances, TV's, airlines and travel just for the 'added' protection in case their is every a problem.

You can check out www.bankrate.com and click on the credit card tab. The site has tons of helpful hints for choosing a card and many other things. There is a lot of ads but it is not actually tied to any bank. The one thing to watch out for is that a bank can have a low interest card but actually give you one that is higher. Watch out for those that say if you do not qualify they will give you a higher interest card. You don't usually have a choice to say"okay, give it to me" or "no thanks".

The interest rate will largely depend on your FICO score. Since you haven't used a credit card in such a long time, you may have a hard time getting a low-interest card unless you have established credit through a mortgage, car loan, etc.

I do agree that you should try to pay them off each month. What most people don't understand is that not using credit cards can hurt your credit as much as paying late, defaulting, etc.

We chose a Discover card that we literally put everything we can onto (day care, groceries, cell phone, cable, etc). We pay it off each month in full and get around $800 at the end of the year as our bonus.

We know how to play the system - unfortunately, most people don't.

Good luck!

Don't get a credit card. They are evil. Only purchase what you can afford to buy. Save for what you can't afford.

I just just one from Chase. Seems like they are heavily trying to attract new card members, since I got 0% introductory for one year, 12% after that and no annual fees... but we also have checking accounts with them and this was a "pre-qualified" offer.

We don't do "rewards" since I think they are a scam (most people don't really use them and if you do there are millions of strings attached, I'd rather have a lower rate and skip the annual fee).

I also have a Citi card, which I hate. They gave me a great rate at the beginning and then slowly upped to to 19%!!!. For NO reason! I never carry a revolving balance, so it wasn't really an issue, just plain annoying. I called them and got the rate lowered twice, just for the heck of it and after a year it goes right back up. That's not how I expect to be treated as a customer with great credit, no debt and paying my entire balance on time, every time... so I would stay away from Citibank.
Good luck!

I didn't catch the name of the author about having her interest rise on her credit card before I started writing. Since you do pay off your card each month the credit card company is NOT making any money off of you and that is why they are charging the higher rate. These changes in the interest came about jus as we had a money meltdown in 2008. My friends that had American Express with a high credit lines (that paid on time) were sent letters saying that the credit line would be cut in half.

So to anyone out there read all the fine print and weigh your options. Good luck to you. The other S.