The best credit cards of 2018

It’s 2018 — time for a new credit card. But with so many options, which should you pick?

We’ve got you covered. Here are 2018’s best credit cards. Click on a category from the list below, and you’re on your way to finding the perfect card.

What type of card are you looking for?

• Balance transfer
• 0% APR
• Low interest
• Business

• Student
• Travel and no foreign transaction fees
• No annual fees
• Secured

Best credit cards for balance transfers

Credit card debt can pile up quickly, not to mention the overwhelming high interest rates. To get a break from high interest, consider a balance transfer credit card. A good one will offer:

• A long 0% APR period.
• Potentially no balance transfer fees.
• Potentially a low ongoing rate for balance transfers once the promotional rate ends.

Best balance transfer credit cards

Chase Slate® Credit Card

Chase Slate® Credit Card offers the best of many worlds. It offers 0% APR on balance transfers for 15 months — not the longest intro period out there, but substantial. Furthermore, you won’t have to pay pesky fees for balance transfers you make in the first 60 days. Add in a $0.00 annual fee and a 0% intro APR for purchases, and you have the right blend for a top-notch balance transfer card.

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Discover it® Card

As a balance transfer card, Discover it is slightly outclassed by the Chase Slate. But it’s still a good one, with a 0% intro APR for 14 months from date of first transfer on purchases and balance transfers.

Where Discover it® Card wins, however, is strong cash-back options. You’ll receive 5% cash back in categories rotating every three months. On everything else, you’ll receive 1% cash back. Finally, as a sweetener, Discover will match the cash back you earn over your first year.

Though transferring balances comes with a 3.00% fee, you can receive an ongoing purchase and balance transfer APR as low as 13.49%.

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Citi Simplicity® Card

The Citi Simplicity® Card doesn’t pack a ton of features, but it offers one of the longest 0% APR promos for balance transfers at 18 months. Consider it if you want nothing else than to pay off your debt in peace.

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NASA Federal Platinum Advantage Rewards Credit Card

If you intend to transfer balances and keep them on your new card for a long time, consider theNASA Federal Platinum Advantage Rewards Credit Card. There’s no 0% intro APR here — instead, you get a low 9.9 APR for the life of the transfer on transfers you make in the first 90 days. No balance transfer fees, no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees round out an excellent balance transfer card.

To qualify for the card, you’ll need to become a member of the NASA Federal Credit Union.

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Best credit cards with 0% APR

Whether you’re looking for a long intro APR period, strong travel rewards or flexible cash back, there’s a 0% APR card for you.

Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card

With the Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card, you pay no interest on purchases and balance transfers for almost two years.

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Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card

The Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card is a great travel card with a solid 0% intro period of 12 statement closing dates. Its 1.5 points per dollar spent is a decent rate, letting you build a trove of points you can later use as travel statement credit.

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Chase Freedom Unlimited® credit card

If earning travel rewards isn’t your thing, try the Chase Freedom Unlimited® credit card. It offers cash back on your spending and a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers.

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Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express

The Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express might be a good choice depending on your spending. It offers 3% cash back on groceries, 2% on gas and department store purchases, and 1% on everything else.

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Best low-interest credit cards

If you plan on carrying a balance for a long time, you might want a card with a low interest rate. To that end, take a look at the Barclaycard Ring MasterCard and Simmons Visa®. Neither card has an annual fee, and each offers a low interest rate.

Barclaycard Ring™ Mastercard®

The Barclaycard Ring™ Mastercard® is a no-frills but quietly attractive card. You’ll get an 10.49% variable APR on purchases, balance transfers and cash advances. There’s no annual fee, and you won’t have to pay foreign transaction fees. That’s pretty much it as far as features go — but that’s enough to make the Barclaycard Ring an excellent low-interest card.

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Simmons Visa®

The Simmons Visa® gives the Barclaycard Ring a run for its money. It wins on interest rates, offering a 10% variable APR for purchases and balance transfers (no such luck for cash advances, which come with an 14% variable APR). Like the Barclaycard Ring, it comes with a $0 annual fee and no balance transfer fees. You will need to pay foreign transaction fees, but in return you’ll receive travel perks like accident insurance and car rental coverage.

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Best business credit cards

As a business owner, your purchases keep your operation running. That’s when business credit cards come in handy. They reward you for spending on business-related expenses, and they often let you accrue points or miles on cards you open for employees.

Ink Business Cash℠ credit card

Chase Ink Business Cash℠ credit card gives you 5% cash back for spending at office supply stores and on phone and Internet bills. That’s pretty generous. Also a nice touch is the 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months.

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Spark® Cash Select for Business

Spark® Cash Select for Business has a simple cash-back structure: 1.5% on all purchases. It’s easier to keep track of, and it’s especially helpful if you make purchases in different categories.

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SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express

SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express is similar to the Chase Ink Business. But perhaps the biggest difference is its 3% cash back on one of eight categories. That’s a potential game changer, because you can earn cash back in categories that include airfare, hotel stays, car rentals and even computer hardware.

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Best student credit cards

A student credit card might be your first credit card. That said, it should whet your appetite for more powerful cards you’ll apply for later. Some cards are forgiving for mistakes you might make as a new cardholder; others aren’t so lenient but offer attractive rewards.

Discover it® Chrome Card for College Students

Discover it® Chrome Card for College Students is immediately attractive because of its cash-back match for the first year, 0% purchase APR for 6 months and 5% cash back in categories that rotate quarterly. But it’s the features behind the scenes that make the card ideal for students: No penalty APR, the first late fee waived and no over-limit fee makes Discover It forgiving for first-time cardholders.

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Bank of America® Cash Rewards Credit Card

The BankAmericard offers generous cash back on things students might need, like gas and groceries. It also comes with a solid intro APR for purchases and balance transfers: 0% for the first 12 statement closing dates.

The only thing to note is that BankAmericard isn’t as lenient on mistakes as the Discover It for Students. Paying late just once can result in a penalty APR as high as 29.99%, for example, and the first late fee isn’t waived.

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Journey® Student Credit Card from Capital One®

You’ll find better cash-back options elsewhere, but the Journey® Student Credit Card from Capital One® is still a good student card. It rewards responsible use of credit by giving you a higher credit line if you pay on time for your first five payments.

It’s a helpful companion on vacation or while studying abroad, since it waives foreign transaction fees and offers travel benefits that include auto rental insurance and travel accident insurance. And though late payments will come with fees, they won’t result in a penalty APR.

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Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card for College Students

If you don’t want cash-back rewards, you might prefer the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card for College Students. It offers 2x ThankYou Points for spending on dining and entertainment and 2x ThankYou Points on everything else. Later on, you can trade these points for rewards like electronics, gift cards and vacations.

The $0 annual fee and 0% purchase APR for 7 months are helpful to any college student. Just watch out for fees and penalty APRs for late and returned payments.

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Best travel credit cards and cards with no foreign transaction fees

A travel card is your best friend when you’re on vacation. Great travel cards will likely offer:

• No foreign transaction fees.
• Strong earnings and flexible redemption for points or miles.
• Travel perks for cardholders.

Best airline credit cards
Best hotel credit cards

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card, the star of the show is its point redemption. When you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards, your points are worth 25% more — that means 50,000 points aren’t worth $500, but $625. And the 1:1 point transfer means you can use your points at hotel and airline programs like Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards and Hyatt Gold Passport.

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Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®

One best features of the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® is its flexibility. Unlike, say, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you redeem your miles for travel statement credit. This means you can use your card for travel purchases and be reimbursed for your spending. You’ll quickly rack up miles too, thanks to the 2x mile multiple on all purchases.

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Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card

The word that comes to mind for the Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card? Simplicity. It’s the card for you if you want something easy to use and don’t need hardcore travel perks.

The BankAmericard is similar to the Barclaycard Arrival Plus in a few ways. You get one point multiple on everything you spend (1.5x), and you can use your points as statement credit. Unlike the Arrival Plus, though, there’s no annual fee. That’s a nice add-on for a solid, low-maintenance card.

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Chase Sapphire Reserve®

With a $450 annual fee, theChase Sapphire Reserve® doesn’t come cheap. However, it may be the most powerful travel card you’ll find anywhere.

Though the annual fee is hefty, it’s worth paying after you scoop up the card’s 50,000-point signup bonus. Further, the $300 annual travel credit lets you recoup much of the fee each year. Best of all, your points are worth an impressive 50% more when you redeem them through Chase Ultimate Rewards — a benefit you won’t find with any other card.

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Best credit cards with no annual fees

A no-annual-fee credit card is a breath of fresh air. You can use it as much or as little as you want, because it costs nothing to maintain it. Of course, you’re crossing your fingers for more than just a $0 annual fee — namely, extra perks you don’t have to pay for.

Quicksilver® from Capital One®

The Quicksilver® from Capital One® is a simple card, offering 1.5% cash back on all purchases. That’s a great haul for a no-annual-fee card, especially considering you also get a intro APR for purchases and balance transfers.

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Citi® Double Cash Card

Another solid no-annual-fee option is the Citi® Double Cash Card. It offers 1% cash back on all purchases and another 1% cash back when you pay off those purchases.

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Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card

The Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card has made appearances throughout our best credit cards list, and that’s a testament its versatility. Along with a $0 p.a. annual fee, the card offers 1.5x points per dollar spent everywhere — points you can later use as travel statement credit. If you prefer travel rewards, you can’t go wrong with this card.

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Discover it® Card

Consider your spending habits and see if the Discover it® Card is right for you. The card offers 5% cash back in rotating categories and 1% cash back on everything else.

The 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 14 months from date of first transfer is a sweet deal. Even sweeter is Discover’s cash-back match for everything you’ve earned at the end of your first year. That’s incredibly attractive for any card, especially one with no annual fee.

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Best secured credit cards

If you have bad or nonexistent credit, a secured card can help you out. This type of card requires you to put money down as collateral in case you fail to make payments.

Since your main goal with a secured card is to build credit, look for cards that offer payment history reporting to all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Discover it® Secured Credit Card

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is a solid pick with no annual fee, no penalty APR and your first late fee waived. But what really sets it apart are its cash-back features — rare bonuses in this category.

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Secured Mastercard® from Capital One®

With the Secured Mastercard® from Capital One®, you can get an initial credit line of $200 with less than a $200 deposit. Depending on your creditworthiness, you’ll pay $49, $99 or $200.

Also attractive is the possibility of graduating to a semi-unsecured card. When you pay on time for your first five monthly payments, you’ll get a higher credit line without having to put down an additional deposit.

SDFCU Savings Secured Visa Platinum Card

The SDFCU Savings Secured Visa Platinum Card is the sleeper hit on this list. It deserves its place mainly because of its low purchase and balance transfer APR (13.49% variable) — especially helpful if you plan on carrying a balance month to month.

To qualify for the card, you’ll need to become a member of the State Department Federal Credit Union. Here’s more information on how to join.

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Your questions about the best credit cards, answered

• What’s the best way to apply for a credit card?

  To apply for any of the cards you see on this page, click the green “Go to site” button next to the card in our comparison table. Fill out the application on the provider’s website, and you should receive an answer on your application within a few minutes to a few days.

• What makes one credit card better than another?

  There are a variety of reasons that a particular card will be better for your situation. Of course, the most important are those that work for your needs and spending habits.

  Often there is a primary factor that differentiates cards. For example, you may be looking for a balance transfer card. In that case, the primary consideration might be how long the 0% APR transfer period is.

  When multiple cards are strong in that primary factor, compare the secondary features. Does a card offer a $0 annual fee? A 0% intro APR for purchases? Excellent cash-back options? Chances are you’ll find a well-rounded card that’s attractive for you in every respect.

• What does my credit score need to be before I apply for a card?

  Required credit scores can vary. Typically, however, you will qualify for most cards with a good or excellent score (680+). If you have fair, bad or nonexistent credit, you may be limited to secured cards. These require initial deposits but will help you build your credit as long as you make timely payments.

• What is an APR?

  Short for annual percentage rate, it’s a card’s interest rate expressed yearly. Basically, it’s the fee you’re charged for the privilege of borrowing money through your credit card company.

• What are cash back, points and miles?

  With cash back, a percentage of your spending is paid back to you. For example, if you get a 1.5% rate on $100, you’ll get $1.50 cash back.

  Points and miles are based on the same concept, except you trade them for other rewards. For example, you may get 2x miles per dollar you spend — that’ll net you 200 points if you spend $100. You can later redeem those miles for rewards like vacation getaways and travel statement credit.

• What is an intro APR period?

  An intro APR period means that you’ll pay a special interest rate for a certain period of time. For example, “0% APR on purchases for 15 months” means you’re not charged interest on any spending in the 15 months after you open your card.

  Keep track of when your intro APR expires. If you haven’t paid off your purchases by the end of your intro APR, you’ll immediately accrue interest on your balance.