In the first part of our series on choosing a credit card, we talked about determining your needs — what you’re really looking for in your next credit card. Knowing what you want isn’t enough though. You can’t compare credit cards if you don’t have access to various credit card offers to compare. Today we’ll discuss two ways you can find credit card offers, including the benefits and drawbacks of both.

Credit Card Comparison Websites

Credit card comparison sites, like CreditCardOffers.com.au, are popular tools for finding and comparing many credit card offers at once. The main benefit of these sites is that they offer details about various credit cards all in one place. That saves you time and hassle. Some sites also offer reviews or they highlight the best offers available in various categories, like we do here.

Another benefit of credit card comparison sites is that you can often apply online directly through the site, via a secure online application form. You don’t have to fill out paperwork and wait on the post, and you don’t have to give out personal details over the phone.

The potential downsides of these sites include the possibility of outdated credit card offer information (although reputable sites work hard to keep their profiles updated with the latest rates and information available). There is also the possibility that you’ll feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of credit card offers to compare. However, that’s why sites like ours break down credit card offers into various groups, like balance transfer cards or frequent flyer credit cards, to help you narrow things down.

Banks (and their Websites)

Another option for finding credit card offers is to contact a bank directly. For example, if you would prefer to get a credit card through your existing bank, you could call them or ask about credit cards the next time you visit your branch. This information is usually available online as well. Just visit the website of any bank you’d consider doing business with, and you should be able to easily find their available credit card offers.

The primary benefit of finding credit card offers this way is that information should always be up to date. A bank’s website is probably the first place an offer is updated when terms change or promotions expire.

On the other hand, it could take you a much longer time to assemble a list of potential credit card offers to compare this way, when credit card comparison websites list them all in one place.

Choose a method that works for you and make a list of up to five credit card offers that seem appealing based on the needs you determined based on our previous article, choosing a credit card. In the next post of our series on choosing a credit card, we’ll move on to actually narrowing down the credit card offers you’re considering until you’ve found a credit card you want to apply for.