efore you shop for a credit card, you should be familiar with these terms:

Annual fee or membership fee is the amount you pay each year for the privilege of using a credit card. Some cards have no annual fees. Others, like the American Express Platinum Card, have fees of up to $300 per year.

Cash advance fees are the interest fees you pay when you borrow money on your card rather than purchase something with it. They come into play when you use the checks the card issuer provides you. The interest rate for cash advances is typically higher than that for purchasing merchandise. There also may be a separate fee just for the advance. It pays to investigate this before writing any checks.

Grace period is the time between the closing date of the billing cycle and the due date when you can avoid interest charges if you pay in full. If a card has no grace period, you can never avoid finance charges, no matter how quickly you pay. Even if you do have a grace period, you will be charged finance charges unless you pay off the entire balance.

Transaction fees are charged each time you use the card. They are fairly common but certainly not universal. It's easy to avoid them and you should.