Profitable credit card offers are available to everyone

How lucrative credit card offers are determined

As part of their advertising campaigns, banks present borrowers with lucrative credit card offers. The battle for the borrower's heart begins with the best financing terms. The more options a credit card has, the more optimal and beneficial it is to use the banking product to achieve your dreams.

All lucrative credit cards have several available options that shape both their trust rating and popularity among the public. The main parameters for the profitable use of a financial product include the presence of card commission fees, annual maintenance cost, loyalty programs (cashback), and a grace period.

Annual card maintenance

There is no single criterion for determining the most lucrative credit cards by annual maintenance. In our ranking, you can find a credit card with an annual maintenance of 0 RUB (ideally), while other banking products have an annual maintenance of 10,000 RUB. However, sometimes it is more profitable to get a card with an annual maintenance of 10,000 RUB than a completely free one.

Thus, cards with a high annual maintenance fee offer more additional bonuses and loyalty programs than credit cards with free annual maintenance. For instance, a credit card with a high annual maintenance fee features high cashback (up to 40%) for a number of financial programs offered by the country's financial institutions. Some cards with 0% maintenance only offer a standard cashback of 1—2%.

Cashback — lucrative loyalty programs

The cashback program is a new phenomenon for financial and credit organizations in Russia. Given that lucrative credit cards are linked to business partners, you can get a certain amount refunded to your card account.

The most common type of cashback is 1—3%. The second group of loyalty programs offers cashback up to 8—10%, and the third group features increased cashback up to 30—40%.

However, you can only get such (increased) cashback at stores that are partners of the financial and credit organization's card. Increased cashbacks are also tied not only to a specific partner store, but also to a specific group of goods or services.

Under the standard accrual scheme, funds are deposited after the end of the calendar month, though they are sometimes credited instantly (for example, 1—3%).

Grace period on the card

Lucrative bank credit cards should feature not only an approved credit limit, but also a grace period for interest-free use of funds. This means that if the bank's financial product has a grace period, returning the funds within this timeframe means no interest will be charged. The grace period ranges from 55 days to 180 days for certain banking products.

In addition, some banks provide a renewable interest-free period. That means if you return the funds during the first grace period, a new second period begins for you. The number of such periods is regulated by the marketing program of the banking product.

Commission services — an additional card criterion

Very often, a banking product receives the status of a lucrative credit card if it has the fewest commission services. Commission fees include additional charges if you withdraw cash at an ATM. In addition, commission services may apply to SMS alerts, notification mailings, and more. Some payment instruments have no commissions at all, as they are already factored into the payment instrument's annual maintenance.

General procedure for getting a lucrative credit card

We invite you to carefully study the credit card matching service's offer regarding lucrative banking products. When determining a suitable payment instrument, the service takes into account many parameters. The trust rating for a banking product includes the following conditions:

• The maximum credit limit offered by the bank.
• Annual maintenance cost.
• The interest rate after the grace period expires.
• Availability of cashback loyalty programs.
• Total application review time.
• The grace period offered by the bank's commercial proposal.
• Customer reviews.

When applying for a banking product that suits you, follow these rules:

1. Follow the official link to submit an application at your chosen bank.
2. Fill out the application form in accordance with the requirements set by the marketing campaign terms.
3. After the application is approved, receive the card using your preferred method (bank branch, courier delivery, Russian Post).
4. Activate the banking product (at a bank branch, via courier, or by calling the financial and credit organization's hotline).
5. Conclude a maintenance agreement and clarify the interest rate and the procedure for using the received card.

The bank provides several options for the borrower to repay and track data. Thus, having a credit card, you can receive data on cash flows via internet banking, SMS notifications, hotline calls, or detailed statements sent to the email address provided during the application and questionnaire registration process.

Funds can be used almost immediately after card activation. In some cases, the available credit limit can be used anywhere from 10 minutes to 48 hours after activation.

According to our service's rating statistics for lucrative credit cards for citizens, the most popular banking products are credit cards from Tinkoff, UBRD, Russian Standard, Alfa-Bank, Renaissance, Sovcombank, Home Credit, Europa Bank, and others.