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New free tool to quickly find best credit card deal

September 18th, 2008, 4:15 pm · 1 Comment · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

BillShrink.comCredit-card debt in Orange County has been rising as falling home prices ended the option of using a home’s equity like an ATM. So, to save money, you’ll need to research the best credit card deal out there.

A company called BillShrink has done the legwork so you can quickly and easily find the best deal for your lifestyle. This is the same company I mentioned in July with a tool to help you find the best cell phone plan for your budget.

Similar to its cell-phone service suggestion, BillShrink puts a clear dollar figure on how much an alternative credit card can save you compared to your current one.

Just plug in details such as average monthly spending, your general credit rating and the top three categories you spend the most on (gas, entertainment, travel, etc.) It does not ask for any personal details.

The credit card service launched this morning and there was apparently so much traffic that the site was down a lot. Even if you got started in the process, it was difficult to get any results. A company spokeswoman just confirmed that everything is functioning correctly. “Just a ton a traffic due to the big news day,” she said.

So, if it’s not working today, try again tomorrow.

I tested the service myself. I have a pretty good credit card that pays me back 5 percent on gas and other purchases. But it wasn’t one of the BillShrink’s 148 credit cards on file. So, I plugged in the Amazon credit card, which offers discounts at one of my most frequented online stores (Amazon, duh!)

Based on my spending habits, I would earn and extra $1,967 over three years if I switched to the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest card. Eh? Very strange since I didn’t put hotel or travel as one of my top three spending categories, nor have I ever stayed in a Starwood hotel. Switching would also mean giving up  the triple points for every dollar I spend at Amazon.

So, this may not be a perfect tool, but it could help you find cards with lower interest rates or better rewards.  Of course, if you want to do even more research into the best credit cards out there, you should also check out BankRate.com, which has lots of good info on credit plus suggestions for those with bad credit.

More on deals:

Also:

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 One Comment

  • Samir says:
    September 19, 2008 at 11:55 am

    Thanks for the checking out our site - much appreciated! I just thought I’d take a second to chime in on a couple of things.

    Sorry we don’t have your Advanta card in the system yet. We currently have 200+ in the system, but we’ve focused on consumer cards thus far. While Advanta is usually thought of as a small business card, we realize they’re popular and will be adding them to the mix soon.

    Also, wanted to clarify on the Amazon vs. Starwood card comparison. You are absolutely right that you would earn more points with the Amazon card, especially if you indicate that your spending pattern leans towards e-commerce/shopping vs. hotels. But the key thing to remember is that not all points are equal. Amazon points are essentially worth 1 cent each (since you get a $25 gift cert for 2,500 points). Starwood points can be worth much more, up to about 4 cents each, when you redeem them for free hotel nights. Since we are ranking cards based on bottom-line dollar value, we look at both the number of points you would accrue, plus the effective value of those points. If you click on the “earn an additional $1967″ link you can drill-down on some of the details of our calculation that i’ve described above. Ohh, and by the way, you can control which redemption options we consider by using the filters on the left side - this helps us match cards to your actual lifestyle.

    Hope that’s helpful, and thanks again for the post!!

    Cheers,
    Samir
    BillShrink