Using Cardweb.com: A Smart Credit Card Shopper’s Resource

The pattern usually starts right around college, the time when the often-naÃ?¯ve student is entering a new stage of life and gets bombarded with a stack of credit card ‘opportunities.’ If they make it to the forefront and manage to ignore applications, albeit one or two, there’s not (usually) too much harm done by graduation. Credit scores today are incredibly important for obtaining not only more great offers, but also for buying a home, refinancing, or getting a car or personal loan. Creditors can pursue a strong candidate relentlessly, and there are both costs and benefits to succumbing to their requests.

However, sites such as Cardweb.com can give anyone an insider’s perspective on what is out on the market. Although it’s not obvious from the start, credit card companies are still businesses. They are looking to make a profit, often at the considerable expense of their consumer. As credit card consumers, it’s wise to ‘shop around’ just as with any other purchasing commitment. Until the Internet, there was no key reference or source of information that could provide the most recent credit card company’s offerings.

Today, shopping for a credit card is much easier with the availability of information on companies, sales, and promotions. Cardweb.com takes it one step further by providing consumers with up-to-date offers. Consider it the online version of ALL of your credit card flyers, promotions, and envelopes that usually end up in your junk mail drawer. The site lists out each offer, giving a visual glance to compare and contrast. Finding a particular card is easy. Cards are also ranked and profiled by rate, no annual-fee, secured, or premium categories making it incredibly easy to sort through and find the best card for your needs.

The site is so comprehensive, that it has crated online directories and databases of all card offers and filed them away for access. Although there is a fee to access the historical data, it is a great opportunity to really gauge how effective a particular offer or card may actually be. The Card Calculator is a handy tool that lets you calculate how long it will take you to pay a particular debt given the APR, minimum payment, and monthly payment. There are other tools and resources on the site for any credit card user that can help maintain and find the best plan for effective money-management. Card incentives, the usual draw of many offers and correspondence, are also listed on the site to give each card’s particular giveaways and expiration dates.

Sites such as Cardweb.com offer consumers more purchasing power by offering timely and up-to-date information. Cardweb.com is a great resource and directory of all available credit cards. Consumers who need to make effective purchasing decisions can do so effectively by really taking a look at what is available, what they can afford, and what type of commitment they’re willing to make. Even though the current offer may seem attractive in the short-term, getting stuck with an outlandish APR in the long-term could cost more than what it’s worth!