I need a credit card.
I know very little about what I want.
It's important that it will collect airline miles and I'd like for it to have some sort of reward points too.
I obviously would like a low interest rate.
I don't mind a small annual fee.
I bank at Wells Fargo if it helps.
Any suggestions?

I need a credit card.
Get one, there's a shitton of companies dying to give you a CC. Can I assume that you don't have one?

It's important that it will collect airline miles and I'd like for it to have some sort of reward points too.
Which Airline are we talking about here? I believe that if you have airline miles, that is a reward, and you would be unable to get reward points.

I obviously would like a low interest rate.
If you pay your bills on time it woudln't matter what kind of interest rate you have. Most card will offer a low introductory rate, but after a certain amount of time has passed it will go back to it's normal obscene rate.

I don't mind a small annual fee.
Most cards don't have one. Usually AMEX does, but even then you can bitch to them and they'll give it to you without an annual fee.

I bank at Wells Fargo if it helps.
See if they have credit cards or even a secured credit card. You will have to make sure that whatever card they give you will actually build credit. IE not a check card. They may have rewards cards, but may not have cards that lets you save airline miles.

Any suggestions?
You should get a visa/mastercard first because they're accepted where credit cards are accepted.
Cards like Discover and Amex sometimes aren't accepted even though they accept visa/mastercard.
Pay your bills ontime, don't bring your balance to over half of your credit limit, always carry a balance, and wait.

plenty of resources on the net.
www.google.com

Look at what kind of cards they offer:
www.citicard.com
www.discovercard.com
www.mastercard.com
www.americanexpress.com

i have a Visa debit card through Wells Fargo. I'm not counting that. I also have a Visa credit card through Wells Fargo that I got with overdraft protection. I cut it up. It didn't have any rewards or anything like that. I still get the bill, but it's a $0 balance and is pretty pointless really because I have more than enough money to never overdraft.

I guess the main reason I want one is for the airline miles because I plan on flying a lot in the future.

I have great credit, and plenty of it.

oh, and I know i can search the Internet, but searching for terms like "credit card airline rewards" is like the offers that arrive in my mailbox. tons of junk.

I have the Platinum AAdvantage Mastercard through Citibank. With each dollar I charge I accumulate one frequent flier mile with American Airlines.

Low interest etc., good card, the only bad thing is the relatively high yearly membership fee (85 dollars) and the fact that Citibank is a major Illuminati bank, other than that it's pretty good.

https://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/showSear...MILY_AADVANTAGE

It's a good card, but keep in mind there are dozens of other airline reward cards out there.

i have a black mastercard mannnnnnn

i get money back on everything i forget the percentage!


- testm0

Mexican American Express

You don't want a rewards card if you expect to carry a balance... they usually have atrocious interest rates. Right now I just have a Wells Fargo college credit card from back when I first banked with them (I've since switched banks, except for that credit card), but I eventually plan to have a rewards card that will be my primary card and then some high-limit, low-interest card if there's some kind of emergency purchase that I can't cover from checking/savings.

Never cancel a credit card unless you can use it to boost the credit limit of another card. More credit limit = lower percentage of revolving credit in use = higher credit rating. If you're worried about losing the cards you never use, toss them in a safety deposit box.

best way to build credit is to keep a balance. i know everyone thinks that's terrible but you build credit by making payments. buy a car or big tv or something you need to finance and make payments. just don't miss em or be late on em.

Um, no? Getting and paying off an installment debt (such as a car loan) can build your credit, but keeping revolving debt isn't really a good thing. The only way it might help your credit history is by prompting your credit card company to increase your credit limit, thus making your debt balance a smaller percentage of your available credit.

Basics for building credit:

1) Pay off your bills on time (duh)
2) Ideally keep your balance below 30% of your credit limit. Using a high percentage of what's available can limit your credit score.
3) Hold off on closing old accounts, as the average age of your accounts is figured into your score and your total credit available is used to figure your % used.
4) Even on accounts you aren't really actively using, make a small purchase every 6 months or so and pay it off. If you don't, you run the risk of the credit card company closing your account for inactivity.

Breakdown of the FICO score:

35% Payment history
30% Outstanding debt
15% Length of your credit history
10% Recent inquiries on your credit report
10% Types of credit in use

I'm sorry but you're just wrong. If you have held credit cards, make purchases, and pay the full balance every month, your credit will be shit. You have to carry a balance at one point or another if you want a halfway decent interest rate on a car or house later. My guess is you've never purchased a house or car before? The whole idea is they want to see that you've proven you can make large, recurring payments over a long period of time. It may not be financially responsible to carry a large credit card balance all the time, but carrying a decent balance will help your credit. So will buying a car or other large, financed item.

and I dunno where this "closing accounts is bad" is coming from. if you go to buy a car and have $10-20k in available revolving credit, you're not gettin a good rate.

Just a quick note, if you have a couple of credit cards and don't use one, it's good for your credit as it's seen as capital on your credit report.

Like impala said, carrying a small balance at times is not a bad thing, though you want to show that you can pay a nice amount every month toward your balance.

If you are looking for an airline card, I would look at something like the AMEX Platinum or the AMEX Starwood. The Platinum has a hefty yearly fee on it but the points can be turned into just about anything you want (cash back, airline miles on a lot of different airlines, hotel stays, etc.).

One thing to note on airline miles, the way that these work is that per flight there is a set number of seats available as "Reward" seats or "Points" seats, meaning that you may not get the flight you want for the lowest amount of miles. A lot of airlines have seats available at all times for a higher amount of miles (30,000 instead of 15,000). It's just something to be aware of. If you are continually flying the same airline then you may want to look at that airline's card. Some of the cards accrue double miles and give you a discount on tickets purchased. Continental's MasterCard gives you 5% off purchases at Continental.com for a year.

One other way to accrue miles is to look at the mileage programs through your airline. They usually have a portal to things like BestBuy, Wal-Mart, etc. that allow you to use your Frequent Flier number and accrue miles by buying things at the allotted stores.

I have that card as well and a little secret for you, if you want them to waive the fee, call and threaten to cancel because the fee is just too much and they'll probably work with you to drop the fee. Worked for me at least.

The reason they have the fee is that some people use the card and get reimbursed by their parent company so that it doesn't hold a balance so they want to make something from it since they aren't getting interest.

I have purchased a car before and I got a halfway decent interest rate. It could've been better, but I'd had credit for less than a year at that point. Paying off an installment debt is great for your credit, as I said, but carrying a balance on a credit card does jack. Yes, lenders want to see that you have experience with a variety of account types, but your credit report doesn't show whether you've carried a balance in the past, only your current balance, max balance, and any late payments during the life of the account.

The "closing accounts is bad" advice comes from just about every article I've read on credit card management. Applying for new credit puts a ding in your credit report, but the older your accounts, the better. It doesn't really matter how much credit you have available, so long as you're only using a small percentage of that.

"You don't need to carry a balance on a credit card to have a good credit score. Paying your bill off in full is the best way to keep your finances in shape and build your credit at the same time."

this is what I read from the personal finance writer from MSN, and based on the rest of her credentials, I think I'd believe her over you