Whether you have high credit card balances and are looking for a way to bring them down, or if you have a great credit rating and are looking to keep it that way – the easiest way to do it is to research carefully before you apply for or accept a new credit card.  There are cards out there that will help greatly in both of the aforementioned situations, but there are several variables that determine which cards will actually help you, and how much they’ll help.

One thing to keep a very close eye on when considering obtaining a new card is the APR.  A credit card’s APR isn’t just some random number, if you are the type of consumer that carries any type of credit card balance (as most people are) than that number can make a significant difference in your financial future.

You can save yourself a substantial amount of money by transferring balances from high interest rate credit cards to cards with lower APRs, and you can save even more money by selecting a card that has a super low (sometimes as low as zero percent) introductory rate.  By switching your current balance or balances from cards with average APRs of over 15% to a card with a six month introductory rate of 0%, followed by a fixed rate of 9.99%, for example, you could conceivably save hundreds or even thousands of dollars (depending on your current balances), not to mention drastically reduce your projected pay off time.

You can also save quite a bit of money if you’re planning on making a larger purchase and paying it off over the next several months.  The lower your APR is, the less money your credit balances are costing you on a monthly basis.  With the high interest rate credit card that’s in your wallet now, you may pay for that flat screen TV twice over before it’s actually paid off when interest is calculated in.

Though opting for a lower interest rate is always a very good idea, there are still things you need to be careful of before procuring your new line of credit.

Introductory rates can be very appealing, but that isn’t the only number that you need to look at – always be sure to check out how long that great rate lasts and what the APR is once the introductory rate is over.  You also want to be cautious of variable APR’s; credit card companies will tell you that the rate may go down, which is technically true, but the odds are much more likely that the rate will go up – a low fixed rate APR is almost always a better idea than a low variable rate APR.