You simply have to analyse your income and expenditure closely before you even bother to apply.  I don’t mean look at it the way a credit card company does, which is basically to see if you are earning enough per year to match their records.  You may very well be earning enough money and your credit score could be fabulous, but you never know what might happen and it’s best to control yourself.

You need to take into account what you’re paying out of your income, and seriously ask yourself why you want or need a credit card.  If it’s for the rewards or cashback and you intend to pay it off every month then this is a great idea – IF you stick to it that is!

The amount of people who get themselves a good credit card and ruin it because they don’t keep up what they said they were going to do is astronomical!  You simply have to pay it off in order to get all the benefits from its use.  Remember that the credit card company doesn’t actually want you to pay it off in full every month, and when you start doing this they’ll increase your limit if you’re not careful, and this is where you could fail.

So what are you into?  Travelling?  Shopping?  Music?  Whatever you need there is a credit card for you.  The trick is not to go for the first one that accepts you (unless of course you’re really desperate and you can’t find many that will have you), simply because you’re not going to want a card that offers you free airmiles if you don’t go away anywhere are you; i once had a friend who had an airmiles credit card from Amex i think, and he was afraid of flying!

The best thing about getting a reward credit card that’s good for you is that you can practice safe and efficient account management with it and get the full benefits without paying a single penny in interest.  If you ensure that your balance is paid in full at the end of every month then you’ll never have a problem with your credit card.  This is what more and more people are doing these days and there is nothing the credit card companies can do about it except put up their interest rates in the even that some of these people fail to deliver on time; and this inevitably will happen.