Credit Cards for Excellent Credit

Every time you apply for a credit card, your credit score will temporarily drop. And the more applications you submit within a short period of time, the worse the damage will be. As a result, applying for a credit card that you know you won’t get approved for will only set you back, making it harder to qualify for a more appropriate card the second time around.

So make sure to check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub before choosing and applying for a new card. And hold off on trying to get an excellent-credit credit card until you have the requisite credit standing. There are plenty of great cards for people with good, fair or even bad credit that you can use in the meantime.

I definitely agree that cards requiring "excellent" credit most always have the best perks, as there is less liability involved. As someone who had credit problems in the past, I do not recall any of the "so-so' cards having lucrative rewards programs (in fact, most offered no points and involved paying high annual maintenance fees). After re-building my credit and responding to an offer for the Chase Sapphire card in the mail, I gained approval and access to some of the best benefits on the market! I now use my card for nearly all purchases and pay it off in full each billing cycle.

It usually takes a few years to truly establish excellent credit. But it’s possible to get there much quicker, even in a matter of months, if only temporarily. The exact timeframe depends on your starting point and how responsibly you manage your finances. For example, someone with no prior credit history who gets a credit card and makes on-time payments every month will reach excellent credit much faster than someone with severely damaged credit who regularly pays late.

It’s also worth noting that having an excellent credit score isn’t always enough to get an excellent-credit credit card. Your income and debt obligations play a big role, too. For one thing, you have to demonstrate the ability to make payments on a card with a fairly high spending limit.

You can see where your credit stands at the moment, get personalized advice for how to improve it as quickly as possible, and track your progress from day to day by signing up for a free WalletHub account. You can also learn more about credit improvement and how long it typically takes from this WalletHub guide.

I have used a lot of different credit cards in the past, but I have to say that my Chase Freedom card is the best so far. When I was with Washington Federal, they would hold onto my money, and I was unable to withdraw any money at certain times of the day, even if I was one minute late. Then, they would charge me extra money for a late fee. I got so fed up with them that I took out all of the money from the bank except for a penny. I switched over to Chase Freedom and got my card. Now, I can withdraw and transfer my money any time that I want to. It is so much more simple. They also do not put a time limit on the time I am allowed to use the card, or how much I want to use on the card. I have excellent credit, and so there have been no problems at all. I have not even had to call or make a complaint or ask questions with Chase.

You might assume that the best credit cards are the cheapest. But with rewards in particular, it’s often a case of getting what you pay for. Issuers can only give away so much free stuff, after all. So those that offer truly generous rewards may use annual fees to offset some of the cost. But such offers can still end up saving you more money than the no-fee alternatives, assuming you pick the right one and use it strategically.

This is one reason comparing rewards credit cards can be so confusing. It’s also why crunching the numbers to see how much net rewards value each card will provide based on your own spending habits is so important.

With that being said, things are a bit different if you don’t plan to pay your bill in full every month or make purchases on a regular basis. You don’t want to pay a fee to finance a big-ticket purchase or transfer a balance, as doing so would be like paying interest in advance. And most 0% credit cards for people with excellent credit don’t charge annual fees in recognition of the fact that prospective customers want to minimize costs. Similarly, you’ll want to choose from one of the many no-annual-fee credit cards for excellent credit if you plan to use your card sparingly because you might not earn enough rewards to break even.