Best Credits Cards 2013: Cash Back Awards And Bad Score Changes Comparison

The best credit cards in 2013 really depend on whether you want credit card cash back awards, travel bonuses, or if you have bad credit and you’re trying to pay off debt.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, if you are in debt the best credit cards for those with low credit scores are the ones that let you transfer your balance with a zero percent APR for a certain amount of time, which gives some families hit hard by the economy some breathing room.

It’s almost funny that I find myself writing about an article entitled “best credit cards 2013” since I was wondering the same myself just this past weekend. My family has been using the Chase Freedom credit card because it offered a $200 sign up bonus combined with 5 percent cash back on quarterly categories and 1 percent cash back on everything else. While this was nice, some months I found myself never purchasing anything in those categories so I had to wonder if there was something better to fit my particular needs. (The Discover it credit card offers a similar deal.)

What was my answer? Unfortunately, there really isn’t a catch all for the best credit cards for cash back awards. They all have their pros and cons depending on how you spend your money.

For example, the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card is nice because it makes things easy by giving a flat 1.5 percent back on all purchases. No gimmicks necessary. At the same the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express 6 percent on groceries up to $6,000 per year, 3 percent on gas and department stores, and 1 percent on everything else (that seems to be the standard baseline for the best credit card cash back programs).

That’s huge for most families. Based upon my own monthly budget, I compared the Capital One against the Amex and found I would save about seven percent more. And we only have an infant son so our grocery bills aren’t very high in comparison to many American families.

In the end, I quite frankly decided the best credit cards for 2013 was all of them. No, that’s not a cop out answer. The Chase Freedom covers Amazon.com and other specials every so often. The Blue Cash Preferred Card is for groceries and department stores. I have a USSA MasterCard that gives 5 percent cash back on gas (you have to be a military member to use USAA so this option isn’t available to all). And the Capital One is for everything else.

But if you would find that too confusing I suggest looking at your bills before picking one of the best credit cards out there. Figure out your biggest expense in your budget and then choose on that basis. Otherwise, if you want simple I’d just pick up the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card.