Consumers can use free Internet tools to quickly compare credit cards charging the lowest interest rates and fees. One easy-to-use example is Mint.com’s free online calculator, which is found under the website’s Find Savings menu.
The Mint calculator organizes user input into 3 simple steps. This article has 2 additional steps that will help consumers to independently decide which credit cards best fit their financial needs and offer the best money saving ideas.
Specify How Credit Cards are Used
The first step enables consumers to quantify how they intend to use credit cards.
The top panel of the Mint calculator first asks users to enter their estimated total amount of credit card spending per month. Users also choose up to 3 categories for which consumers plan to spend the most with their cards. Users have a drop-down list of 21 categories from Air Travel to Restaurants, and can allocate a monthly amount beside each unique category selected. The system automatically calculates the remaining monthly charges under the catchall Everything Else category.
The middle area of the top panel lets consumers click a radio button to specify whether they pay off their cards every month. If no, users can click and drag slider bars that show the:
- monthly balance of credit card debt
- annual percentage rate (APR) for that balance, and
- typical monthly payment amount.
The top panel’s right side has a drop-down list with 5 categories for the user’s credit score, from Excellent (720 to 850 points) to Limited or None (0 to 299 points).
Filter Credit Card Searches
The next step for using the Mint calculator is to point and click on specific criteria for desired credit cards. Users can fine tune with 3 slider bars to select maximum credit card interest rates for balance transfers, purchases and overall ongoing expenses.
For consumers with a specific type of credit card in mind, there are 6 sets of checkboxes under the titles Reward Type, Specialty, Issuer, Network, Bonus Reward Categories and Bonus Reward Merchants.
Rank Credit Cards by Maximum Savings
After users enter how credit cards are used and apply filtering criteria, the Mint calculator automatically displays a list of credit cards ranked by estimated savings over 1, 2 or 3 years.
Below is a sample ranking of 6 credit cards for a consumer who racks up $2,000 in monthly credit card charges. Of that amount, $800 is for groceries, $500 is for gas and fuel, $400 is for air travel and the remaining $300 falls under the everything else category. The consumer makes a $1,860 monthly payment towards an existing credit card balance of $10,000 with a 12% interest rate.
Results were filtered for all reward types, specialties and issuers for a consumer with an excellent credit score.
- IBERIABANK Visa Gold Card … US$2,052 in 3-year savings (8.25% ongoing rate plus 1% cashback)
- IBERIABANK Visa Platinum Card … $1,908 (8.25% plus 1 reward point)
- Simmons First Visa Platinum … $1,795 (7.25% no rewards)
- Simmons First Visa Platinum Travel Rewards … $1,762 (9.25% plus 1 reward point)
- IBERIABANK Visa Classic Card … $1,692 (7.25% no rewards)
- IBERIABANK Visa Select Card … $1,564 (7.5% no rewards).
Identify Credit Cards with Lowest Rates
It is important to understand that the Mint calculator displays results from sponsoring credit card companies only. This constraint limits prospective credit card providers to those who pay to advertise their products on Mint’s website. There well may be better deals out there for consumers to discover on their own.
What consumers can do is copy and paste results from Mint calculator searches into an MS Word document. After cleaning up unnecessary images and formatting elements, users can create a table with separate rows for each credit card and its attributes.
While tables are among the most powerful features in MS Word, most power users then copy the properly formatted data from the word processing software into a spreadsheet like Excel.
The resulting worksheet has columns for the credit card name, balance transfer interest rate, purchase interest rate, ongoing interest rate and rewards including cash back or points. Because the Mint calculator presents 1, 2 or 3 year savings as graphical buttons, users will have to type or copy and post those amounts into separate columns.
Independent Credit Card Research Including Fees
An Excel spreadsheet allows users to easily make calculations including a host of other mathematical comparisons.
In addition, consumers can add columns to the spreadsheet for tracking any annual, balance transfer and processing fees for a specific credit card.
To improve the objectivity of their comparisons, consumers can add credit cards from non-sponsoring companies as separate rows in their spreadsheets. Filling out details for each new card will prove whether or not a specific credit card is the best fit for consumers.
Thoroughly researched credit card information will clearly show which card truly saves consumers the most amount of money.
Sources
This article provides independent calculations and insights based on credit card data for U.S. consumers from Mint.com’s online credit card calculator.
RES101
Daniel Workman - A senior business and finance writer who also does French translations, notably international trade and insurance materials.
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