5 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Credit Card

Do you plan on carrying a balance?

If you don’t think you can pay your balance in full each month, the APRs associated with the cards you’re considering should be the driving factor behind which one winds up in your wallet.

This is because any dollars, frequent-flier miles or experiential rewards earned while using the card will be rendered moot if you’re paying interest on your purchases. (As MainStreet has previously reported, rewards cards tend to have higher interest rates associated with them so issuers can foot the bill on all the points they are paying out.) Currently, the average APRs rest at a fairly high 14.71%, but some low-interest credit cards, like the Visa (Stock Quote: V) First Simmons Platinum, offer rates as low as 7.25%.