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Here are three questions you should ask yourself before making a credit card application.

1. What is the minimum income requirement?

Many credit cards have a minimum income requirement and they will not approve customers who do not earn that minimum per year. If you apply for such a card, you will be refused outright. This refusal will appear on your credit record, which will mean that your credit score will go down and your personal finance situation will be negatively affected, since lower credit scores make it harder to obtain loans. If you are turned down for too many credit cards, your credit score may become so low that you will find it difficult to obtain any credit card.

2. How do you use your credit card?

Depending on how you use your credit card, you should look for various features.
If you have your personal finance in control and pay off your balance in full each month, you should look for a card which offers a longer interest free period. This period will allow you to essentially enjoy an interest-free loan while you accrue interest on money in your savings account.

If you enjoy spending a lot with your credit card, you may be interested in a great rewards program.

On the other hand, if you do not pay off your balance in full each month, you should consider a card which offers low interest rates. This will make it easier for you to repay your debt and will mean that your total cost of using a credit card will be lower.

3. How much do you spend each month?

Credit cards offer different kinds of rewards programs. Generally, the more lucrative the rewards program and more "premium" the card, the higher will be the annual fees. Calculate honestly how much you tend to spend each month using your credit card and you will come up with an annual spending figure - you can then convert this to points and check what kinds of rewards you will be eligible for. After that, deduct the annual fee of the credit card to see whether the rewards credit card is really worth getting. You may find that you don't really spend that much to make it worthwhile to obtain a rewards card with a high annual fee, and you might be better off going for a low-interest credit card instead.