Finding the best credit card for you

Want to know Australia’s best credit card? Sorry to disappoint you but it doesn’t exist. While Australia’s credit card industry is very healthy, offering a huge range of competitive credit cards, every Australian’s financial situation is different so finding just one card that would suit everyone, is impossible.

But this doesn’t mean you can’t find the best credit card for you!

With so many options out there, looking for Australia’s best credit card can be a bit pointless, due to the difficulty of trying to determine what sort of features Australia’s best credit card may have. A far more useful approach is trying to find a credit card that best suits your particular requirements, spending patterns and financial situation.

Banks and other lending institutions offer many credit cards with varying features intended to appeal to consumers with different spending behaviours. Generally speaking though, credit card users can be divided into two broad categories, known as ‘revolvers’ and ‘transactors’ – with different credit cards best suited to either group.

Transactor

A ‘transactor’ is a person who pays the full closing balance off their card each month, thus avoiding a monthly interest charge.

Transactors are better off selecting a card offering a long interest-free period, say 55 days. By paying out the card balance in full each month, they won’t incur any of the interest charged on purchases during the interest-free term.

Revolver

A ‘revolver’ is a person who does not pay off the whole credit balance by the end of the month, thus rolling an outstanding balance over to the following month – and incurring what can be very hefty interest charges.

Choosing a low rate credit card with little or no credit card rewards would be the best credit card for a revolver. If you are going to pay credit card interest, you may as well pay the lowest rate available.

Controlled spending

While credit cards can be very convenient, you need to control them, not the other way around. Whatever card you choose, be it Australia’s best credit card or not, you need to repay the debt as quickly as possible, and ideally, to avoid interest charges altogether, pay off the entire outstanding balance every month before the due date if you can.

Luckily there are many options for you to explore in order to find the best credit card for you. Use the RateCity credit card comparison tool to begin your search.

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