The top five best credit cards

From purchases to balance transfers, cashback cards to reward cards, these are the best bits of plastic in the market today!

Now is a great time to be on the hunt for a credit card - it doesn't matter whether you need a new card to cover a big expenditure, to transfer over an existing debt, or even if you fancy getting something back for all the spending you do on the thing each month, there's plenty of choice open to you.

Let's have a look at the absolute best cards in each category - these are the cards you really should have in your wallet!

The best purchases card

If you have a large expenditure coming up, and need to spread the payments out a bit, then you need a credit card with a nice long period of 0% interest on purchases.

And the clear market-leader - and it has been for a while - is the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard, a nifty little card which gives you a whopping 12 whole months free from interest!

And if you happen to do your shopping at Tesco, as I do, this card becomes even better, as you get five points for every £4 you spend in the store, and one point for every £4 spent elsewhere.

Do your shopping with it, and take your clubcard as well, and you'll soon be rolling in points!

Just make sure you can pay off the balance in full before the 12 months are up, or you'll start incruing interest at 16.9% APR. Ouch!

The best balance transfer card

This is one area where you are almost spoilt for choice! If you have a chunk of debt that you've built up on existing credit cards, but want to pay it off over more than a year, without being hit with interest, you need a 0% interest balance transfer card.

The market-leader is still the Virgin Money credit card, which gives you 16 months of 0% interest - an absolutely amazing amount of time!

However, the Virgin card won't be the perfect option for many of you, as it is run by MBNA, which provides an absolute ton of balance transfer cards (including the cards offered by Premier League clubs), and you cannot transfer a balance from one MBNA card to another.

The good news is that there's a load of cards that offer 15 months of 0% interest - the bad news is that for most of them, they're only available to existing customers.

So unless you have an existing account with NatWest, RBS or HSBC, it's the Santander deal or nothing.

Otherwise you might have to make do with 13 months of 0% interest, though thankfully there are plenty of options in this area too, including the MBNA Platinum Visa, the Halifax Plus Mastercard and the Nationwide Classic Visa.

The best all-rounder

If you can't be bothered with having separate cards for purchases and balance transfers, then you'll want an all-rounder - a card that offers the same period of 0% interest on both purchases and balance transfers.

This way you get round negative payment hierarchy - one of the worst tricks around - where you are forced to pay off your cheapest debts first.

For a fair while now the best card for this purpose - and one I've raved about - has been the Halifax All in One card.

However, in the past week, Sainsbury's has revamped its own card offering, with its Sainsbury's Finance Mastercard now providing users with 10 months of 0% interest for both purchases and balance transfers.

It's the new must-have!

The best cashback card

If you pay off your card in full each month, then you need a cashback credit card - you get money back, just for spending on your card. Brilliant!

The best cashback card in the market is the American Express Platinum Cashback Card, which pays an absolutely massive 5% on spending in the first three months, up to £100.

After that, you'll earn 1.25% cashback, so long as you spend more than £7,500 in the year - an absolutely fantastic deal!

Just be aware that, unless you pay off your bill in full each month, you'll end up paying out far more in interest than you would earn in cashback. So only spend what you can afford to pay off on this card.

The best rewards card

Now, this is very subjective, because there are all sorts of different rewards available from different credit cards.

If you do all of your shopping at Tesco or Sainsbury's, then going for their own credit cards is a must. I've already talked about the Tesco card, and the Sainsbury's card offers a similar boost, this time to your Nectar points.

With it, you get four points for every £1 spent when using card in conjunction with a Nectar card in a Sainsbury's store, two points per £1 when only using the card, and one point per £5 spent when making any other purchase.

If you are more interested in getting hold of British Airways miles, to help pay for a holiday, then you should have a look at the British Airways American Express card (1,000 BA miles if you spend £500 in the first three months, one mile for £1 spent thereafter) or the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card (6,000 bonus miles when you first use the card, 1.5 miles for every £1 spent thereafter).

And the MBNA Reward card is also worth a look - you get one point for each £1 you spend, which you can use not just for travel purposes, but also for high street shopping from stores like Selfridges, John Lewis, Boots, Halfords, WH Smiths and Debenhams.

So there you have it, the best credit cards in the market today. If you are on the hunt for a new plastic friend, make sure it's one of these - you won't regret it!

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