by Marco Angioni II

Created on: July 09, 2009

Credit card offers are everywhere. You may have received them in the mail, seen them in your bank, or been asked to open an account when shopping at your favorite department store. With all of these offers available to you, what should you do to obtain the best credit card offer?

As stated above, credit card offers are everywhere. However, if you do not carefully read the "fine print" in the credit card offers, you may apply for and receive a credit card that is not only inferior to other credit cards but that will also cost you money. Do not get stuck with high interest, high fee, low credit-limit cards when many other superior credit cards exists.

The best way to obtain the best credit card offer is by comparing the credit card offers that are available to you. Start by gathering all of the credit card offers that you have received in the mail. Go through this stack and find the offer that best fits your needs. For example, if it is an absolute necessity that you have a credit card with rewards, set those offers to the side. Check out all of the credit card offers without rewards and see if any of them are amazing (for example, a credit card that has a fixed 4% interest rate and no annual fee). If none of the other credit card offers stand out, throw them away (make sure you shred the offers through a cross-cut shredder before throwing them into the garbage to protect against identity theft).

Now that your mail pile is smaller, it is time to filter through you credit card offers that have everything you want. Find the best card offer (i.e., best reward, lowest interest rate, no fees, etc.) and throw away every other offer (remember to shred). At the end of this process, you should have one offer left that is the best of the best.

Now that you have this one offer, take it to other places, such as your bank or other credit granting institutions, and see if they can beat that offer. It is important that your bank beats the offer and does not simply match it. Remember, you are looking for the absolute best offer, not two really good offers. If after investigating a couple of places, nobody can beat the offer that you have found, this is probably the best offer you are going to get and should therefore apply for the credit card (assuming you have the financial ability and responsibility to do so).

If have never received a credit card offer in the mail, simply start your search elsewhere, such as your bank or other credit granting institutions, and follow the same steps.

Remember, you want the best credit card offer available for your needs. Therefore, do not ask for a matching offer, ask for a better offer. If you investigate around, you should be able to find the best credit card for your needs and your financial position.

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