About the Credit Card Information Center
Credit Card IC is a plain-English guide to how credit cards work — the different categories (travel rewards, cash back, balance transfer, secured, student, business, and no-annual-fee cards) and the foundational concepts like APR and building credit. Our goal is to make a confusing, high-stakes topic clear, accurate, and honest.
We are not a bank, a card issuer, or a financial advisor, and nothing here is financial advice. The information on our pages is drawn from official, unbiased sources — primarily the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Reserve. Because APRs, fees, and rewards change constantly and vary by issuer, we describe how they work rather than quoting figures that quickly go stale — and we tell you to compare current offers and read the issuer's terms before applying.
We help people compare card offers, and we may earn a commission from partners linked on this site, at no extra cost to you. This never changes the information we show you, and we keep our guidance neutral and non-predatory: we make no "guaranteed approval" claims, no rate or credit-score promises, and we do not promote credit-repair or debt-relief schemes.