Regardless of your lifestyle, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you must not use credit cards to spend more money than you make. Many people end up making the minimum monthly payments of a very expensive and endless credit card debt [1] because they do not follow the simple golden rule of living within their means.
Therefore, your goal should be to always pay your monthly bill in full. In this case choose a credit card that has no annual fee and offers a longer grace period.
But if you really need to carry over a balance from time to time, choose the lowest interest rate [2], stated as an annual percentage rate, or APR. Know that a single credit card may have an APR for purchases, another for cash advances, and yet another for balance transfers.
Were you offered a very low interest or zero interest for a certain period? Make sure that you know the real APR that you will be paying after the introductory or delayed APRs expire. You must also know if your APR is fixed or variable. If the APR is fixed, it may still change from time to time, but your credit card company must let you know in advance of any change.
Of course, if you already have credit card debt [1], choose a credit card with the lowest APR for balance transfers and pay attention to the fact that different rates may apply to different levels of the outstanding balance. In this case, your goal should be to pay off your credit card debt [1] as soon as possible.
If you are disciplined with your credit card payments, you can take advantage of the incentives that credit card companies may offer you: travel-related discounts, cash back for your purchases, free gasoline.
To help you make the best decision, every six months, the Federal Reserve System surveys the terms of different credit card plans and publishes the results at http://www.federalreserve.gov/Pubs/shop/survey.htm [3].