Credit Cards for Excellent Credit

A number of things separate credit cards for people with excellent credit from the crowd. Some are obvious. Others may come as a surprise. Here are the most important differentiators:

1. Exclusivity – You generally need a long, (mostly) spotless credit history to get an excellent-credit credit card. You also need enough income to justify a spending limit of at least $10,000.


2. Better Terms – Since issuers don’t have to worry as much about missed payments, credit cards for people with excellent credit tend to have lower interest rates and better rewards than other cards.
   
   For example, the average APR among credit cards for people with excellent credit is just 13.16%, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report. Meanwhile, credit cards for people with good and fair credit charge 18.14% and 22%, respectively.


3. Sign-up Incentives – Many excellent-credit credit cards offer big initial rewards bonuses and/or 0% introductory APRs for an extended period of time as a way to attract new customers. Banks are eager to sell more than just credit cards (e.g., investing and retirement services) to members of this elite credit segment, after all.

More than one-third (38%) of U.S. adults have excellent credit, according to WalletHub data. And another 17% are in shouting distance, with good credit. If you don’t know which group you’re in, you can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub.

Doing so will make it easier to gauge your odds of approval for an excellent-credit credit card. Just remember that you credit score isn’t the only factor that an issuer will take into account. Your income and existing debt obligations also contribute to your overall creditworthiness, for example.

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.

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.

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.