Picking My First Credit Card! Help!!
 

Can anyone give me some advice on how to pick my first credit card? There are thousands of sites and every credit card I look out sounds great, but there has to be some sort of catch right? Everytime I find a site and a card i think i like i look up the card on a different site and it has different Terms and conditions!!!

I am really into traveling and both of these sites have a lot to offer.

Welcome to FT!

Your choice of credit cards is your own personal choice, but some things to consider include the following

Are airline miles important to you?
If so, do you have a preferred airline?
Do you want to fly on 1 airline (ie - CO) or do you want a choice (ie - AX Membership Rewards)?
Are hotel points important to you?
Are AGR (Amtrak) points important to you?
Do you have a favorite store/sports team/college/etc... to affiate with?
Is cash back important to you?
Do you want to pay an annual fee?

You need to answer these, and other questions, to determine "which is best". It may be different for you than it is for me.

Also keep in mind that a program like Membership Rewards and those offered by the likes of Capitol One that "promise use of miles on any airline" are not the same! :mad: A program like Membership Rewards allows you to transfer xxxxx miles directly to FFP "A" this year and then transfer xxxxx miles to FFP "B" later. A program like Capitol One (while calling their rewards as "miles") are not "miles" that you can transfer to FFP "E" so you can use them for an upgrade or other award. These programs require you to get a set number of "miles" (usually 25,000), and then the credit card company buys you a coach ticket (usually for under something like $400)! If they can not find a ticket for $398, but there is one for $525, the answer they will give is "There are no seats available"! :mad: And you can never use these "miles" for an upgrade or for First Class - unless you can find a Frst Class seat from BOS to SAN for under $400. (Then they might! :rolleyes:)

Credit Card Choice
 

You know there are so many parameters you can use to pick a card that we would need more info to recommend one. Your credit rating may have an impact on this decision as well. There are many good threads in the various forums - there are 3 credit card forums, each frequent flyer or stayer program has one or more credit cards to choose from (with and without fees usually). Some have high interest and you would want to pay off the balance in it's entirety each month. www.FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com has a lot if info on the various travel related cards. The MilesBuzz forum here has info too.
This forum is mainly about free stuff and great deals so may not net the result you want.

Good luck,
Frenchie Flyer

Hi welcome to FT. I think this post better fits in the Credit Card Forum. I am moving it there.

As others have mentioned, Are you looking for a rewards card as your first CC? Or are you looking for a good starting point for building your credit history? For me, my first, many years ago, was a non-rewards card with good terms & conditions(low interest rate and no annual fee). These are the long term accounts that I still hold for longevity reasons. If you think you'll ever carry a balance(and pay interest) then a non-rewards card might be a good place to start. Most if not all of the rewards cards have terrible interest rates and are generally not an account you want to carryover a balance on. There may be a handful of sweet rewards cards with low APRs out there but I haven't seen any. It may be good to have a card with favorable interest rates in the event you are in a pinch and know you'll have to carry a balance temporarily.

I went through similar decision for my son. I decided on a no anual fee cash back card because because it will take too long for him to build up 25K points or mile to cash in on a reward. I have the following rule when deciding on a credit card:

1. Never keep a balance. If you can not pay it back, don't charge. Hence the low activity on my son's card.
2. Don't pay anual fees unless if you can at least 10x the benefit each year. If I can get $1000.00 benfit each year in goods and services from the points earned (above the benefits from a no fee card), then I am willing to pay $100.00 anual fee.
3. Make sure you are rewarded at least once year. My son's card give him cash back at the end year each year. He is one happy young man on that day.
4. Once you have an estimate of yearly spending, then you can decide on the type of reward you want. If you charge less than $25K, then it might be best to get a cash back card.

Nancy

If it's your first credit card ever, you might have a tough time getting it. You may want to get a couple of retail cards (sears, jc penneys, etc) to get your credit score up a bit before applying.

Or, go to your primary bank and apply for a card there.

If I misunderstood and your credit is already OK, then I prefer hotel cards over airline cards for travel related awards. I just think they're a better value and far easier to use.

Anyone else think the OP is SPAM?

I hadn't thought of it... but now that you mention it. Probably correct. Suckered a bunch of us, if it is!

Wow, right on about that one... On the second read of the OP I agree... At first not a chance...

Somehow I don't think it is SPAM b/c the second link goes to a page that just has "Test" on it. :)

But if it is, it sure fooled me.

Suspecious spammer
 

Me 2. I didn't think of that when I first saw this thread in our S.P.A.M. forum.

OP's last and only visit to FT (log in status) was when the thread started, which was 4 days ago. If I were the OP and started a new thread sincerely asking for advice, I would have come back to get updates at least once a day, if not more. Giving that, I think it's quite reasonable to raise the spammer flag.

Another example of why newbies shouldn't be allowed to start threads.