Top credit cards compared

About Top credit cards compared

Credit cards in this ranking are judged on what a household pays, what protects the money on the card, and how easily the account works day to day. The 400 brands here span secured cards for building credit, balance transfer cards for clearing old debt, travel and multi-currency cards, and a few fixed-rate credit lines. Cost: annual fees, balance transfer fees, foreign exchange charges and representative APRs. Safety of the money: fraud liability protection, purchase protection and how the issuer is structured. The account itself matters too, with virtual cards, notifications, ATM access and the number of support channels. The main trade-off is that a card with no annual fee often carries a high representative APR, while a card with a long interest-free period needs a fee to open the balance transfer offer. The median annual fee across this ranking is €0 and the median APR is 16%.

How we picked

Every card in this ranking is scored on cost, offer and trust. Cost carries a weight of 35%, which covers annual fees, balance transfer fees, foreign exchange charges and representative APRs. The offer weight of 25% covers rewards, purchase protection, fraud liability protection, credit building features and account tools such as virtual cards and notifications. Trust carries 40%, which takes in the issuer behind the card, the legal entity, how long it has operated, the protection attached to the card and the support channels on offer. Scores are built from the issuer's own published terms, its app and support pages, and the credit reference and banking registers that list the legal entity behind each brand. Partner cards sit at the top of the list, then the rest by score, and a label appears on a card only where the data supports a computed distinction. Nothing is scored on how popular a card is or on how it is advertised.

Our top picks

1. 4. AXI Card Tarjeta y Credito

   AXI Card Tarjeta y Credito sits low in this ranking because it is a plain fixed-rate card with a €0 annual fee, a 21.59% representative APR and a rewards type listed as none, so the case rests on cost and on a flexible credit line. It asks for a fair credit file (fair), which is looser than the good credit Plazo above requires and tighter than the poor credit the secured cards at the top accept. The foreign exchange fee is 0%. Support runs on phone, email and help centre, a narrower set than most cards in this ranking. HSBC Classic Credit Card, ranked last, has a rewards type of none but adds statutory purchase protection and multi-currency use.

   • APR: 21.59%
   • Loan amount: up to €1,500
   • Term: 1 month

   Pros

   • No annual fee of €0 and no monthly fee of €0 on the credit card, so an unused line costs nothing to hold
   • Funding is Immediate: credit line available on card activation, with the credit line live as soon as the card is activated
   • Early repayment is free, so paying the balance in full shortens the interest charged rather than adding a charge
   • Both a credit line and personal loans sit under credit line and personal, giving more than one way to borrow from the same lender
   • Support runs on phone, email and help centre, so help is reachable by phone, email and a help centre

   Cons

   • Interest is the real cost: 21.59% is above the 15.5% typical of comparable borrowing, and the fixed rate does not fall with a longer relationship
   • The line is small at up to €1,500, so anything larger needs another lender, unlike Creduma ES which starts at from €12,000
   • Applications run a hard credit check, and fair credit history is the stated bar, with no softer prequalification step
   • There are no rewards, none on the card, so spending earns nothing back

What to look for

Annual fee against interest rate

A card can charge no annual fee and still sit at a high representative APR, so read both figures together. Across this ranking the median annual fee is €0 and the median APR is 16%, which leaves plenty of room for cards that cost nothing to hold and plenty that charge real interest.

Balance transfer offers and their fees

Moving an existing balance onto a card at an introductory rate usually needs a fee and a set window. The median initial rate in this ranking is 4.28% and the median term is 60 months, so compare the transfer fee against what the old card would have charged for the same period.

Credit building for thin files

Secured cards report to the credit bureaus and let the cardholder set their own spending limit, which suits a thin credit file. Cards here aimed at a poor credit file make up 21.1% of the ranking, so the secured group is a large share rather than a niche. Cards needing a fair or good credit file are easier to hold but harder to be accepted for.

Fraud and purchase protection

Fraud liability protection from the card network and statutory purchase protection are the two safeguards that matter most on a card used daily. The statutory scheme covers purchases only above a stated minimum and up to a stated maximum, so check both thresholds before relying on it for a large order. Network matters too: Visa accounts for 54.2% of the cards in this ranking.

Foreign exchange and travel use

A card used abroad adds a fee on every conversion unless the issuer charges nothing. The median foreign exchange fee in this ranking is 2%, and the spread between the cheapest and the dearest card here matters for regular spending abroad. Cards carrying a multi-currency or travel focus are marked in the details.

Support and account tools

Instant notifications, in-app chat and a help centre tell you how a problem gets resolved. A help centre appears on 74.5% of the cards in this ranking, and most cards run on easy-access terms, with a median statement period of 60 months and a median balance of €1,162.18.

Frequently asked questions

Top credit cards compared by country

• Australia
• Austria
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Mexico
• South Korea
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV