The first step to getting a credit card is to take account of your personal situation. What is your credit score? If your score is 700 or above you should have no problem getting a credit card. If your score is between 650-700 you should be able to get a card, but you might want to focus on credit cards for people with “fair credit”. If your score is between 600-650 you will want to focus on credit cards for people with poor credit. The better credit you have the better credit card you will be able to get, credit card companies like to loan out money to people who have proven to be financial responsible in the past. Better credit cards have a better APR, lower fees, and better reward and cash back programs. If you do not know your credit score go to annualcreditreport.com and get a true free credit report, other places such as freecreditreport.com end up charging your credit card 20 dollars a month.
The second step to getting a credit card is to do a little research. You now know your credit score and you know the caliber of card that you can obtain. You want to think credit card companies as much as you think of credit cards when looking for a card. It is important to work with solid companies that have a reputation for treating their customers the right way. APR, fees, and other terms can all change in the blink of an eye, all credit card companies have to do is send you a notice in the mail and everything you thought about your card will change in the blink of an eye. You want to focus on a card that charges low fees and a fair APR. Forget about cash back when you are looking for a card, it does not matter that you get 1% cash back if you work with companies that treat you poorly.
The third step to getting a credit card is to apply for cards that meet your criteria. This step is pretty simple, once you have followed steps one and two and you know your situation and what type of cards you are looking for all you have to do is take the initiative to apply for the cards. It is usually a good idea to apply for 2-4 cards at once. You do not want to put all of your eggs into one basket by applying for just one card, it is easy to get a denial from credit card companies these days. However you have no need to apply for more than 4-5 cards at once, that is overkill and you will be wasting your time if you decide to apply for too many cards, you do not want to wear yourself too thin.
The fourth step to getting a card is to wait and be patient. Most good credit cards are not going to tell you whether you got the card or not within a day or two, this is a one to two week process that you have to be patient with. Let the process work itself out and forget about the whole situation entirely for a while!
By now you should have a card. It is important to take your credit card seriously. Do not run high balances month to month no matter the APR you are paying on the card. Be smart with your credit card and your credit score will reflect it!