In today’s economy it’s very common for people to worry about money or simply making ends meet.  Many of us lost savings in the fallout from the recession, and are attempting to rebuild our savings accounts along with our credit scores.

One of the most common ways to build or rebuild credit is by using a credit card in a responsible manner.  Most households receive different credit card offers from a number of providers through direct mail, flyers, email, or even telemarketing phone calls at times.  However, for the sake of your own financial security, you should ensure these offers are legitimate, and that they will help you reach your long term financial goals.

One way to ensure you get the best credit card is to compare all the viable offers using online credit card comparison sites.  Many of these sites display unbiased descriptions of various credit card providers, benefits, and their corresponding interest rates in one convenient location.

These sites are very convenient, and allow you to filter through information on credit cards within minutes.  The benefit of this process is that you can save yourself the time of meeting with banks or creditors to negotiate a fair credit card plan.  Shopping online provides you all the data and the application forms without having to step foot anywhere near a credit agency or their representatives.

In addition to saving time, you will likely find a better deal online than you would by meeting directly with a banker.  When you apply for a credit card or any type of loan, banks often pressure applicants to accept offers on the table with little room for negotiation.

But credit card comparison sites remove bankers from the equation entirely, and allow applicants to review the cards on the table from all relevant providers.  If one offer seems too expensive or includes a number of clauses that aren’t appealing to you, you can feel secure by moving onto the next listed credit card in the hope of securing a better deal.

This process allows you to review all the possible offers from competing credit card providers before committing to any plan in particular.  In the long run, the best credit card plan that you can leverage can help you secure your long term goals of possessing an excellent credit score with sound financial security.

This guest post was written by Jason Bushey. Jason runs the daily operations at Creditnet.com, a prominent credit card comparison website.

With so many myths and misconceptions regarding the credit building process, it's no surprise that many young consumers are turned off by the process entirely. The general misconception is that credit cards are mostly bad, and by avoiding credit cards (and credit card debt) you're regarded as a trustworthy consumer.

Unfortunately, this is simply not the case; having no credit won't get you anywhere if you need to apply for a home or auto loan in the future, and the longer you wait to build credit the harder it can be to do so.

Simply put, you have to earn your credit score; staying debt-free with zero credit card usage isn't the way to do so. Before you learn how to build credit, it's important to understand how your credit score is calculated (according to FICO score inventors Fair Isaac):

[Read more…]