Now this wouldn’t be called Credit card comparision if we didn’t compare credit cards, so today we’ve got a couple of 2nd chance credit cards for you to take a look at.

Barclaycard Initial

• 29.9% APR.  Might sound like a lot but this is pretty average for a rebuilding card.  They want to make you pay off your balance at the end of every month so they scare you with this.
• Free purchase delivery insurance and identity theft protection.
• Access to the Barclaycard Freedom reward scheme.  This is one of the best reward systems today and basically means that you accumulate cash on your card to redeem at stores when you want.

Capital One Classic

• 34.9% APR.  Much higher than Barclaycard.  We understand that you should be put off spending too much money, but we didn’t mean you should be scared to death of the interest rate!
• Instant decision online when you apply.  Not really in great competition with the Freedom reward scheme from Barclaycard.

There really isn’t much more to Capital One than helping you rebuild your credit rating.  Barclaycard clearly win hands down in this comparison.

RBS Credit card

• 0% interest on balance transfers for 15 months (2.9% fee on the transfer amount)
• 16.9% APR
• 0% interest on purchases for first 3 months
• Discount reward system on shopping, wine and travel

Egg

• 0% interest on balance tranfers until Sep 2011.  This is also 15 months, just like RBS; Egg have just tried to make it sounds longer.
• 17.9% APR.  Not as good as RBS,
• 0% interest on purchases until October 2010.  Again this is the same as RBS and Egg are trying desperately to make it sound much, much longer.
• Egg Cashback store.  This is a reward system that offers cashback on online retailers.  This is great if you spend a lot of money online.

So you can see from the comparison that basically the RBS credit card is better than Egg for a variety of reasons, not least among them should be the fact that Egg are trying to fool you rather pathetically!  And that is basically how you do a very basic credit card comparison.  More next time.

When you choose a cash back credi card you can spend a load of money and earn cashback.  This is perfect if you’re buying things for a business or something like that, or you’re paying for everyday things that you’d usually pay for with your debit card and earn nothing for, like fuel and groceries for example.  If you pay for all this stuff with your cash back credit card then you can earn money to help you pay it off!

When your balance gets a little too high you can transfer it to another credit card that offers cashback and continue again.  You can do this as often as the credi card companies will allow you to without penalising, or until you run out of cashback credi cards!  Of course the credi card comparisons websites will help you find as many as you can.

Online Account Management

Your RBS credit card allows you to register for online credit card management.  This allows you to check your account balance, purchases and make any payments off your balance when you need to.  Sometimes it’s easier doing it this way than through the mail.  Everyone’s doing it online these days.

Optional Insurance and Protection.

You can get the pretty standard payment protection cover and identity protection cover from RBS, but it has to be said that their attitude towards identity theft and fraud in general is not a scratch on Barclaycard; they would do well to read more about Barclaycard.

Credit Limits

Credit limits are £300 minimum.  This is pretty standard, but it must be understood that before you apply, the upper limit is very much reflected by your earnings and your credit scoring.

Minimum monthly Payment

This is very important, and often something that is forgotten when applying for a credit card like this.  The minimum is 2.25% (min £5) now this might not sound much, but if you have a credit limit of a few thousand pounds and realise that you have to pay 2.25% of this off every month as a minimum whilst interest is added, it can soon turn into a nightmare.

Overall: not a bad credit card but not a patch on Barclaycard.

Where to begin with a credit card service like Barclaycard is probably the hardest task a blogger like me could ever do, so i guess i’ll start at the beginning.  I won’t bother telling you all about their interest rates and things like that though because you can get that Barclaycard information here.

Acount Management Online

This is a must for everyone these days.  We’re all too busy to get to a bank and read mail and the ordinary things like that so we’d much rather run our lives online.  Barclaycard’s online account management system allows you to check your balance, purchases and make payments online.  You can also opt for optional text alerts to your mobile phone when your payments are due.

Protection from Fraud

This has to be one of the most important things today, and Barclaycard do their best to help you with it.  With Barclaycard you will not be liable for any fraudulent activity with your credit card as long as you notify them as soon as you realise your card or details have been stolen.  Along with this Barclaycard also promise to monitor any unusual spending activity with your credit card in order to make you aware of possible fraud before things get too bad.

Protection from Identity Theft

There is a confidential helpline available from Barclaycard in order to help if you think you may have been a victim of identity theft or if you just want advice about avoiding it.

There are many more features from Barclaycard Platinum services and i’ll continue them in a couple of days.

Well let’s take a closer look at Egg [all information is correct at time of publication]:

• 17.9% APR.  This isn’t as good a deal as you’ll get from lenders like RBS and Barclaycard.  The rate here is also dependent on your personal situation; if your circumstances differ from Egg’s idea of what is a “normal” client then this rate is subject to change.
• 0% interest on purchases until September 2010.
• 0% interest on any balance transfers until August 2011.  However this comes with a 3% FEE.  This FEE is quite high for a balance transfer and in our opinion all credit card companies could really do with lowering this.
• 23.9% interest rate on cash withdrawals.  It is never wise to withdraw cash from your credit card; particularly at this rate of interest.
• Rewards with Egg consist of the Egg Cashback scheme and savings on Egg insurance.  Well, to begin with, those savings on insurance should be given to all customers and not used as leverage over potential credit card customers; this is simply wrong in my opinion.  The cashback reward system is pretty standard and dependent on what you spend your money on.

So overall Egg is a pretty standard credit card with many of the faults that all credit cards seem to have these days; namely interest!

So what we’ve got for you is the next best thing, or at least the only thing we can provide in a situation such as this.  Here are the top credit cards at the moment.  This credit card comparison website promises to print factual offers from credit card companies that are correct at the time of publication.

Barclaycard Platinum:

• Great credit card if you’ve already got pots of money.  If you’re not earning a huge salary then you pretty much need to leave this one alone because you’ll only be disappointed when you don’t get it.
• 16.9% APR
• 0% interest on balance transfers for 15 months; although this carries a 2.9% FEE.  I’ve written that in capitals because they usually try to put this FEE in the small print.
• 0% on purchases for the first 3 months.
• Barclays Freedom reward points system.

RBS Platinum Credit Card

• Another credit card for the well heeled i’m afraid.  They just don’t make these platinum cards for ordinary people.
• 16.9% APR
• 0% interest on balance transfers for the first 15 months.  However, this too comes with a 2.9% FEE.
• 0% interest on purchases for the first 3 months.
• Different reward system than Barclaycard.  This one has: shopping discounts, travel discounts and wine club offers.

Whether it is a balance transfer or just your first time credit card shopping, there are always loads of websites out there ready to help you find the perfect credit card for you.  In this day and age you’re going to need a credit card, and those without one are quickly pushed to the back when it comes to the world of finance.

When i say the world of finance i don’t just mean credit cards of course, i mean mortgages loans, overdrafts and anything to do with money basically; so that means a lot!  And of course, as we all know, if you can’t get credit then you’re basically lost!

However, some people see that having credit card comparison websites is a bad thing.  This is unusual because i have always been under the impression that more information is better than none at all.  If you can get as many different recommendations as possible (or as you have time for) then surely you can make a much more informed decision about the credit card you want to get, or switch your balance over to.

At Credit Card Comparison we recommend that you not only look at our website, but you look at as much information as you can to make your choice.  All information on this website is accurate at the time of publication, so be sure to check the date because this market changes quickly!

It’s never going to do you any good to go on one credit card comparison website and work it out from that site alone.  To begin with they could be selling advertising space to the highest credit card company and quality of service may have absolutely nothing to do with their ideas at all; it could be all about making money.

So if you find a good looking deal on a website, check it out on another comparison website and see if they agree.  If in any doubt you should really check it out on at least 5 websites to see if the one you’re looking at is ranking in at least the top five credit cards at the time of searching.  That’s another thing to consider.  Sometimes websites won’t update their listings very often and what was the best credit card a month ago could change quite quickly and become not so good; it’s important to get the most recent offers if you’re going to make an informed decision.

Just make sure you use a reputable website, or if at all possible check as many websites as you can.  Don’t rush your decision to get a credit card and pick the first one that appears on the screen or through your letterbox; read everything and you should get a good one.

After all the interest rate is what you will be paying once your honeymoon period is over with these credit card companies and it’s important to know what to expect when you suddenly have to pay the interest rate.

For example, when you’ve had your 12 months or 15 months interest free on your balance transfer, let’s say that you have £5000 left to pay.  Now you’re required to pay the interest rate, so lets say that it’s 16.9%.  Well 16.9% of £5000 is around £845 isn’t it?  You tell me your maths is probably better than mine, but either way that’s a lot of money.

So you see it does make a difference how much the interest rate is when you choose a card.

• At the moment the HSBC is offering there pretty standard credit cardf with 0% interest for 15 months on balance transfers and 0% interest on purchases for 3 months with an interest rate of 16.9%.
• Virgin are offering 0% interest on balance transfers for 14 months and 0% interest on purchases for 3 months with an interest rate of 16.6%.

So take your pick, is that extra month with HSBC really worth the extra .3%?  I suppose it depends on your balance.