The 5 best Mastercard credit cards

Louis DeNicola, Credit Karma contributing writer Written by:
• Updated
•1 min read
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Louis DeNicola is a personal finance writer and has written for American Express and Discover. Editorial Note: Intuit Credit Karma receives compensation from third-party advertisers, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our third-party advertisers don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. Information about financial products not offered on Credit Karma is collected independently. Our content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted.

You’ll still need to zero in on the specific card you want, and that decision will depend on your individual goals as well as your credit profile.

With that in mind, here are our five favorite Mastercard credit cards. Take a look and see if one of them could meet your needs.

How to make the most of a Mastercard credit card

Mastercard doesn’t actually issue credit cards — it’s what’s known as a credit card network. It operates a payment network that connects your card and the card’s issuer with a merchant.

In other words, when you make a purchase, the Mastercard network helps the money flow behind the scenes.

Your card’s network can be important — maybe you’ve tried to make a purchase with a credit card that a merchant didn’t accept. But Mastercard is widely accepted, which may be one reason to consider a card bearing the logo.

Mastercard also offers exclusive benefits that offer cardholders access to events and experiences, as well as other perks. To make full use of your Mastercard credit card, you should understand both the rewards offered by your issuer as well as the benefits that come from Mastercard itself.

There are many different Mastercard credit cards to choose from, and it can be difficult to narrow your pick.

Whether you’re just getting started with a secured credit card or consolidating your debt on a balance transfer card, consider the pros and cons of each Mastercard credit card before applying.