Credit Card Types

Add a Comment , , , October 16th, 2008

Are all credit cards created equal? Find out the different types of credit cards available before you check out the deals offered by various banks and merchants. This will assist you in deciding which credit card suits you better.

If you need to entertain your guests or make business trips frequently, the amount you spend may differ from one month to another. Charge cards will be useful to you as they do not have credit limits for your spending. They offer short term loans which have no penalties if you pay off in full every month. American Express and Diners Cards are such travel and entertainment cards. For those who need a longer period to make payments of bills, American Express offers other payment options. Some people may use the terms ‘charge cards’ and ‘credit cards’ interchangeably, but there are differences to the two.

Many of us are extremely familar with credit cards, the second type of major cards available in the market. The main credit card companies are Visa and Master Cards, and they work together with banks to issue the credit cards to the consumer. The banks will determine the spending limit on your cards based on your income level. Different terms and conditions apply to different types of cards. If you only pay the minimum amount for your credit card payment, be prepared to fork out hefty sums that stemmed from your interest payments and new purchases. This may add up to quite a huge sum due to the high interest rates as these are unsecured loans.

Business Credit Cards are another type of cards. These cards may be useful to those for small businesses, but you do not need to own a business in order to receive such cards from the banks. These cards tend to have lower interest rates and higher spending limits. Cash flow issues can be easily resolved for small business with business credit cards as you can pay the bills over an extended period.

Finally, we have retail store cards from big companies. Some are linked to shopping malls or other retail stores or we have fleet cards, for various fuel purchases as well. Due to the wide variety of such retail store cards, the terms and conditions are not alike. Only certain countries accept such cards.

Since different types of credit cards offer different conditions and payment options, you need to decide what cards such as charge cards, credit cards, business credit cards and retail store cards suit you best.

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