Which credit card is the best?

The price of procrastination should never be underestimated. To prove the point, I found the time to do an investigation into the best credit cards out there in the money market. And what I did was effectively an exercise in finding money.

We all know time is money and so if we waste it, it's like wasting money. But if you invest your time wisely, there can be considerable pay offs.

Fantastic plastic, but what's the cost?
I reckon a lot of time poor people or information poor people haven't tested out how they're spending their money, especially when it comes to that fantastic plastic called credit cards.

Forget the big advertisers
Going to the internet I looked at the websites - InfoChoice and CANNEX - and came up with some information that might surprise those who thought the big advertisers out there, who say they have cheap credit cards, are in fact not the star performers!

How low can they go?
Going for the jugular first, I asked these money websites what card had the lowest rate of interest, because I think that's pretty important to most of us.

BankWest's Lite MasterCard came in at 8.99%. There was one lower but it was with a remote financial group. The BankWest card comes with 55 interest-free days and an annual fee of $49.

Tying for first was St George's Vertigo MasterCard and Bank SA's Vertigo MasterCard, but their annual fees were only $45. So it pays to check the fine print.

What you come to learn is that as you add on features to your credit card, the interest rate and other costs head up.

Adding the frills
I asked to see the lowest rate card that had no annual fee but gave rewards, such as points for air travel and products, and the best was Virgin Money's card but it was at 12.65%. The next best one was NAB's at 17.7%!

By taking off the rewards and still shooting for no annual fee, I found the NSW Teachers Credit Union card at 11.5% was the pacesetter. Among the well-known outfits, Wizard Clear Advantage at 12.4% was the best, after extracting the rewards.
Becoming obsessed with the different combinations and permutations of cards with or without this and that, I next opted for a low interest rate card, but with rewards, and Suncorp Clear Options was pronounced the winner with an interest rate of 9.95%.

Go to the websites!
These websites let you tick the box for your preferences and it helps show you what you should know. The beauty of doing this means you'll check out the saving and then start looking at other aspects of your spending life.

Consider this
Assume you work hard on credit cards and have a $10,000 balance out there for most of the year. If you have the wrong credit card and you're paying 5% over what you could be paying, that means you're losing, sorry, throwing away $500 a year!
The lesson is a good one to learn for yourself or to teach to younger members of your family. Research really can pay off.

Gun for hire
The best trick is to list down all your big spending commitments from home loans and credit cards to mobile phone bills, and then take one on. That's right, really take it on as though you were a hired gun to blow away big bills that can be cut down to size.
You'll be absolutely surprised how much you can save. The beauty is that once you get a taste of saving money and not throwing it away, you'll start reviewing a lot of your other outgoings. The savings will stagger you.

Click here to visit Peter Switzer's website