Armed with your credit score, you can better assess your options, said Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com.
If your score is 750 or higher, you ought to be able to qualify for any card offered, including those that demand "excellent" credit. If your score is below that, concentrate on the cards that will accept "good" risks. Once your score slips under 700, the chance of getting a new card becomes remote, he said.
Your second step is to think about how you use your credit cards.
Cardholders are split nearly evenly between people who carry a balance, at least part of the time, and people who pay off their cards every month. Those who carry a balance need to focus on rates; those who use their cards mainly for convenience should focus on rewards, Hardekopf said.
To find cards in either category, go to LowCards.com or CreditRatings.com. Both sites tell you how good your credit score must be to qualify for any given card. (They use a description, such as "excellent" or "good," rather than a score because card issuers won't reveal details about their underwriting criteria, Hardekopf said. The credit assessments on the sites are based on the experience of the site's users and staff.)
If you're someone who carries a balance and wants to transfer that balance to your new card, you'll need to consider both the rate and the balance transfer fee.
Balance transfer fees can be substantial -- as much as 5 percent of the amount transferred. That fee would boost the amount you owe, which then would be subject to the new interest rate. You'll need to add both the interest and the balance-transfer fee to determine whether a new card is going to pay off. For example, if you were being offered the relatively bargain rate of 7.9 percent, but the balance transfer fee amounted to 5 percent, the cost of the card for the first year would be about 13 percent.
Another potential source of low-interest-rate cards is small local banks and credit unions, which made fewer costly mistakes in the credit heyday and now have money to lend. To find credit unions in your area, go to www.creditunion.coop and click on the "Locate a Credit Union" link on the left side of the page.
It's somewhat more complex to choose a card if you're a convenience user who never carries a balance. That's because you'd probably qualify for more cards. But your best bet is going to hinge on how much you use your card and the type of rewards you prefer.
In the past, many experts recommended airline cards even though these cards often charge annual fees ranging from $50 to $100. However, Arnold and Hardekopf said such cards are less valuable in today's market and pay off only for the savviest frequent fliers who are willing to work the system.
The reason: Several airlines have changed the terms of their frequent flier programs, demanding more points and providing fewer free seats. Those restrictions make the cards less valuable and make it less probable that the value you receive will exceed the cost of the annual fee.
Unless you're an avid fan of books or gasoline or you're part of an alumni group, Hardekopf and Arnold recommend that convenience users focus on cash rewards. They're flexible, ubiquitous and easy to claim, and most issuers don't charge annual fees.
"If you go with a simple cash-back card, you get more bang for your buck and you have more control," Arnold said. "Cash is king in this environment."