Man, I bet a bar association credit card could buy a heck of a lot of drinks. Oh, wait…it’s not that kind of bar...it’s lawyers. Oh, well, still applies. That awful lawyer joke I made up as I was writing it aside, if you’re an American Bar Association member, you might be interested in showing your affiliation by getting an American Bar Association Business Credit Card. You shouldn’t really think of it as the American Bar Association Business Credit Card though; think of it instead as Credit Card X and evaluate it based on its terms rather than its name. In other words, you don’t want to overpay for credit card branding. Starting with rewards, the American Bar Association Business Card offers 1 rewards point per $1 spent. That’s it. Moving on to rates, the Bar Association Business Card gets you 0% on purchases for 9 months. That’s it. As you can probably tell, I’m not wild about the Bar Association Card. At this point you might be thinking, “what are you talking about, it gives you rewards and a 0% intro rate, what more could you ask for?” First of all, you don’t want to settle for an average overall card because it meets two needs. It would be much smarter to get a rewards card for everyday spending and a 0% card for saving on big ticket purchases or transferring debt. You’d get better terms overall that way. Also, there are simply way better cards that you can get with the good or excellent credit you need to get the Bar Association Credit Card.

What are those cards, you ask? Well, if you want rewards, I’d go with the business credit card offering the best terms of your biggest expenses. The Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards and the American Express Simply Cash Card are pretty good options. If you want low rates, I’d go with the No Balance Transfer Fee Slate Card from Chase, which offers 0% on purchases and transfers for 15 months and does not charge a transfer fee. Yes, that is a personal credit card, that is intentional. You aren’t put at any additional risk by using a personal credit card and get to benefit from the fact that issuers cannot increase interest rates on personal credit card unless you’re at least 60 days delinquent.