Credit cards can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on how you use them. Interest rates on credit cards are typically astronomical, and if you keep a balance over time, you may quickly be in over your head.

But if you use credit cards with the sole intent of paying them off every single month, they can earn you plenty of savings: a percentage off in savings at specific stores, cash back that you can spend in various ways, perks for travel planning, and even early access to event tickets.

The key is to balance a couple of criteria when deciding which credit cards you should and shouldn’t sign up for. I’ll get into each of these points and why they matter.

If by the end of this post you feel like a card you already have doesn’t fit your needs, don’t cancel it. Keeping aging accounts helps your credit score over time. Just make sure the balance is $0, and then (mostly) pretend it doesn’t exist.

So, what should we all be looking for in a credit card?

Cash Back

Most credit cards have some amount of “cash back” that you get for purchases you make using that card. Where cards vary is in the details:

• What types of transactions qualify for cash back?
• How much cash back will I earn on those transactions?
• How can I spend the rewards I get?

Some cards are only tailored to give rewards for spending on groceries, gas, and other specific categories. Other cards will reward any spending at all, but usually at a lower rate than specialized cards. Sometimes cards will have some combination of both of those things, a percentage back for everything, but a better rate for some transaction types.

Miles

I’m not really a frequent flier, but if YOU are, keep in mind there are cards that will rack up miles on some or all of the purchases you make with them. If you do adequate research on how you’re able to cash in those miles and it turns out you’d save money on your likely inevitable travels anyway, then the prospect of earning miles with a credit card should factor more heavily into your overall card decision.

Store Specific Cards

Some stores, like Target and Old Navy, have their own credit cards. By cutting out the typical credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), these stores save money on each transaction. This incentivizes them to incentivize you to use their cards, resulting in perks not granted to those shopping with cash or other credit cards.

Being from Minnesota, Target is near and dear to my heart, so I’ll use them as an example. Target offers 5% off every purchase made using a Target Redcard. They also offer free shipping on any online Target purchase made with a Target Redcard. Target is able to do this because when people shop using their card, it reduces costs for them, and they can pass the savings along to consumers as a way to market their card.

The watchout for store-specific cards is to make sure that if you do plan to open up a new account, this has an immediate impact on your credit score. Make sure to only apply for cards at stores you shop the most at, and limit the number of store cards you get. You can easily lose track of how much you’re spending when the balances are spread across multiple accounts, and you really don’t want to miss payments on a store card that has an extremely high interest rate.

VIP Status

Some credit card companies will give you special treatment just for having the card (even if you hardly use it). I can think of multiple major events that have happened in recent memory in my area that gave preferential treatment to Capital One cardholders, whether it was getting in free to a convention-type event or early access to event tickets.

Personally, I wouldn’t factor this into which card is best for me, unless there are two cards that are pretty much equal in value to me but one of them gives me extra VIP access. When it comes to saving money in the long-run, this won’t help. But it’s worth mentioning another positive aspect that isn’t as quantifiable.

Annual Fees

There are enough options out there that you could get away with never paying a single annual credit card fee. However, don’t let the idea of paying an annual fee scare you away from a quality option.

It’s likely that if a card has an annual fee, the perks that come with it are going to produce much more value than the fee-free version of the same card. If you intend to use the card in a way that gets you more rewards than you pay in fees, it’s a net positive decision and you shouldn’t feel bad about that.

Keep in mind that if the fee free version gets you X amount in rewards and the annual fee version gets you Y amount, you need to compare Y minus the annual fee to X to figure out which card is a better investment for you. If the decision is as simple as something like 3% vs 4% + annual fee, then that equation might swing in one direction or another depending on how much you intend to spend on the new card.

Use these criteria to help you weigh the pros and cons of various cards and find the option (or options) that make the most sense for you. Think about how a credit card fits into your spending habits and interests. The best cards for me might not be a good fit for you, and that’s okay!

Just make sure not to apply for too many, and unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, never spend more on a credit card than you can pay off in full by time the bill comes. Without the consequences of compounding interest breathing down your neck, you’ll be free to enjoy the rewards and perks you got along the way.