In a recent article at http://www.huliq.com/46843/which-credit-card-best-you the author says that choosing the right credit card is as important as choosing the right mortgage or car loan.

He further says that -

The right credit card for you might not be the right one for someone else. How can that be? Because different people use credit cards in different ways and for different purposes. The WAY you use your credit card determines which card will save you the most money.

For example, if you obsessively pay off your balance every month without fail then you may very well need a different card from someone who carries a high balance every month and only pays the minimum due. Let’s take a closer look at this so you can understand why.

If you pay the total balance due on your card every month then the interest rate that your card carries is of no concern to you whatsoever. What is of concern to you is the grace period that your card offers between the time that you make a purchase and the time that interest begins accruing, and, quite possibly, the other perks that your card offers.

In other words, if you always pay your card in full every month then you need to find a card with the longest grace period possible and you would want to look for a card that has other perks that you could use such as car rental coverage or bonus points that could be redeemed for cash or gifts at some point or low fees for cash advances.

On the other hand, if you habitually carry a balance on your card from month to month then the grace period that a card offers is meaningless to you (there is no grace period if you carry a balance from one month to another) and what you need to search for is a card with the lowest possible interest rate.

In either case the most important thing you need when looking for a credit card is CHOICE. You need to be able to see the features of dozens of cards side-by-side so that you can pick and choose which card has the best interest rate, grace period and other features that make that card a perfect fit for you, your lifestyle, and for your particular financial situation.

Humberto Cruz in an article on the boston.com site had the foll. to say about credit card debt in 2008.

Consumers, who, of course, never charge for purchases they can’t afford, will pay off all their holiday credit card bills in January.

That would be quite a change from this year. According to a nationwide survey by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in November, 319 of 974 people who answered the question said they were still paying off holiday debt from 2006. (And 26 people skipped the question.) Of those 974 people, only 39, or 4 percent, expected to pay this year’s credit card bills right away, and 59, or 6 percent, expected it would take them as much as a year.

You can read the complete article at http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/01/09/
in_08_taxes_are_again_inevitable_but_credit_card_debt_doesnt_
have_to_be/