Exploring the Best Credit Card: A Step-by-Step Guide to Choose Wisely
With a gradual growth in the Indian credit card market, a variety of credit card options are now available to suit different types of customers. While it’s good to know how many types of credit cards are available, it’s better to understand how to choose the one that best caters for your needs.
If you’re a frequent traveller, shopper, or food enthusiast, there are credit cards that offer special rewards tailored to your spending habits. If you prefer earning rewards across all categories, you can opt for a card like the One Credit Card, which offers rewards on every transaction. Let’s start by understanding how many types of credit cards there are and their benefits to analyse your preferences.
Rewards Credit Cards
These credit cards offer accelerated reward points or cashback on each transaction, which you can accumulate and use for future purchases. For people who prefer to spend on all categories regularly, these cards are suitable.
- With this card, you can earn rewards in all categories, such as grocery shopping, entertainment, fuel and more.
- These allow you to redeem reward points in exchange for gift vouchers, coupons, or additional offers.
- Some issuers provide accelerated points on select categories, like the One Credit Card offers 5X reward points on the top two spending categories in the month.
Travel Credit Cards
These provide special discounts and offers to serve the needs of frequent travellers. They also give travel insurance and lower transaction fees to the card holders. Other benefits of credit cards include:
- Additional discounts can be redeemed on domestic or international flight or train bookings.
- Complimentary access to domestic and international airport lounges for a specific time limit.
- Using travel credit cards can give you priority boarding, car rentals, complimentary upgrades on hotels and other travel-related perks.
Fuel Credit Cards
While travel credit cards allow you rewards on fight and train bookings, fuel credit cards offer rewards on fuel payments. These cards are designed for those who spend more on fuel, offering fuel recharge waivers to help save on costs.
- Fuel stations charge an applicable fuel surcharge fee, which is waived when using fuel credit cards.
- On every fuel refill, you can earn extra reward points, which can be used to get discounts on fuel purchases.
- Some fuel credit cards offer rewards and cashback when used at partnered fuel stations for more convenience.
Lifestyle Credit Cards
If you enjoy spending on leisure activities like dining, shopping, and entertainment, a lifestyle credit card would be the perfect fit for you. With the lifestyle credit card, you can enjoy benefits on ticket bookings, subscriptions, memberships and more. Here are other benefits of credit cards they offer.
- Enjoy dining benefits such as restaurant table bookings, online food ordering apps, bill payment and more with this card.
- It allows you to get additional offers when shopping with several retail partner stores, online or offline.
- You can enjoy extra cashback and rewards on online entertainment ticket bookings such as movie or event tickets.
- You can also gain rewards on subscriptions and memberships for gym, spa, wellness clubs, etc.
Cashback Credit Cards
These cards provide you with some per cent cashback on a transaction instead of a reward. As you get a straightforward benefit of this card, you can choose it to save more on regular shopping and expenses.
- On transactions with this card, you can quickly get some per cent of your amount as cashback.
- Cashback redemption is easy as it is credited back to your credit account.
- Some additional cashback points are available on specific spending categories depending on the partnered brand and store.
Student Credit Cards
As a student with numerous academic expenses, a student credit card is the perfect option for you. This card also helps students learn financial management and build credit scores.
- A student credit card gives you the benefit of an easy application process with fewer requirements.
- To manage your financial spending risks, these cards generally come with lower spending limits.
- As a student does not have a fixed income, this card helps provide a convenient and cashless transaction option for all spending needs.
Secured Credit Cards
As the name suggests, this card requires you to make a security deposit, which acts as collateral. It is an ideal choice if you have a poor credit score and want to improve it.
- As a secured credit card comes with a fixed sending limit, this helps avoid overspending.
- This card requires a security deposit, which reduces the lender’s risk and makes it an affordable option.
- The issuer reports good credit performance to the credit bureau, which increases your credit score with timely repayment.
Knowing all these benefits of credit cards, you can compare and choose the best according to your lifestyle. However, understand that these benefits depend on the type of card and the issuer’s partner. In addition, it’s important to be aware of the annual, joining, and reward redemption fees to decide the perk-to-cost ratio of getting the card.
This is why One Credit Card stands out as it eliminates these hefty charges, allowing you to spend worry-free. With the One Credit Card, you can now enjoy benefits on all spending types and earn 5x reward points on your top two spending categories.
Perfect for daily usage, it also lets you track payments and manage budgets effortlessly through the powerful OneCard App. It is a lifetime-free, metal credit card that gives a wide range of offers, no-cost EMIs, up to 5 add-on credit cards and other benefits. Applying for One Credit Card is fast and easy, with instant online approval. Apply today to enjoy savings!