Compare Credit Cards With Confidence

Put simply, a credit card lets you pay for things. Unlike a debit card, rather than taking money from your bank account each time you spend, the credit card company pays and sends you a bill for it all each month. If you pay the balance off in full, you’ll pay no interest.

If you chose to pay a smaller amount, this is carried over to the next month and you’ll be charged an interest on the whole balance until you repay it. If you are on a promotional 0% deal for credit card purchases, you won’t pay interest during the the period of the offer.

Credit cards have evolved over the years with different cards having different features to help with how you plan to use it.

Typically these include

• Balance transfer credit card: Transfer an existing balance to lower interest rates on your repayments.
• 0% purchase credit card: All credit cards can be used for purchases but there are some providers that have promotional offers where you pay no interest which is helpful when spreading the cost of a large purchase.
• Credit cards for bad credit/credit repair: These help improve your credit rating by meeting monthly credit card repayments and building your credit score.
• Cashback: These allow you to earn cashback on your monthly credit card spending. Cashback is typically around 0.5 - 1% but there are sometimes promotional offers which offer up to 5% cashback for a limited period of time.
• Rewards and Airmiles credit cards: This type of credit card allows you to earn reward points on your spending such airmiles for different airline points scheme (e.g. British Airways Avios, Virgin Atlantic) and shopping vouchers.
• Travel credit card: This type of credit card helps avoid overseas foreign exchange charges when you use your card abroad. The benefit is often written as 0% FX (foreign exchang fees).

This is typically based on your income, and how you have managed other credit in the past. If you have low income or a small amount of credit history, you may be offered a lower credit limit like £500.

Each lender will have their own lending criteria, but whether you qualify for the credit card you are looking for is based on your personal details and credit history. Things like being on the voters roll, time at employment, time at address, your employment and income and how you have paid past and current credit commitments will make a difference to how lenders view you.

When you compare credit cards with Monva, you can check your eligibility for a credit card from a range of lenders without affecting your credit score.