If you’re like many Americans, you get enough unsolicited offers for credit cards in the mail each day to wallpaper the White House. And forget about e-mail solicitations – hopefully, you’ve figured out how to automatically delete spam and bulk mail, or else you’re spending 75% of your time online discarding yet more unsought invitations from credit card companies. Yet, if you’re an average American, you possess four credit cards. Faced with so many options, how do you know which credit cards are best for you? Do you want a charge card, credit cards, or a debit card? Frequent flier miles, gift certificates, or cash back? The number of choices faced each day about the mechanism with which Americans may spend their money is mind-boggling. Our credit card experts have scowered the net looking for some of the best possible options when it comes to credit cards.

If you're interested in credit cards of your own, please take a moment to look at our "Best Credit Card Offers" section on the right.

Credit Cards that Make Sense for You

There are four types of credit cards, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, from which you can choose. The first, most familiar type is the credit card. Credit cards initiate with big companies such as Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover®, who cooperate with banks, who then issue the actual card and regulate spending and billing according to Visa or MasterCard’s (or other, much smaller competitors) rules. Credit cards permit revolving debt – that is, in each billing cycle, you may spend money up to a certain amount and also pay back some or all of the money spent in the previous cycle. If you carry no debt, then credit cards are a great way to make purchases between paychecks – as long as you pay them off each month, no interest accrues. Credit cards are also ideal for use in emergencies, when you may not have the cash on hand to pay for an immediate necessity. However, many people spend much more than they pay back each month, sending them into a spiral of increasing interest fees and late fees that can result in financial disaster. Credit cards, therefore, must always be handled with care: used correctly, they can be extremely convenient - but used improperly they can end in bankruptcy.

Other types of cards have different pros and cons. Debit cards are linked directly to your checking account, and, as with paper checks, money is deducted directly from your account when you pay for things with them. Charge cards, like American Express and Diner’s Club cards, cannot carry a balance. Each month, you may borrow or charge a certain amount, but your must pay it off at the end of the month. Like credit cards, charge cards are great to use between paychecks, but should never be used to make a big purchase that you expect to pay off over time. Finally, store cards are exactly like credit cards but may only be used at a specific store or set of stores. These are excellent if you’re trying to establish a line of credit for the first time. No matter what your needs, our credit card specialists are on-call to help you maximize the potential of your spending power.