Credit card suggestions??

Credit unions credit cards are usually pretty good. They tend to offer better interest rates.

Why would I want to pay a fee for a credit card?

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Better rewards

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This.

The southwest visa has like a $59 yearly fee, but when I got mine, they gave you like 50,000 miles or something. I used it for two months and cashed in for $550 in walmart gift cards.
Could have gotten a few free flights.

Whatever you choose, airline or hotel cards are good reward cards and seem to offer more value than cash reward cards.

I very much liked my American Express Hilton Honors card.

An example offer, GEMC Federal Credit Unioun, "as low as 8.90% Annual Percentage Rate." no yearly fee.

Okay, let's start at the beginning:

What kind of card are you looking for?
-Will you pay it off every month?
-If so, would you like your rewards to be in the form of points, miles, or cash back?
-Note that you will likely get the most bang for your buck with business specific points/miles, but they are less flexible than general points/miles.

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But do the better rewards outweigh having to pay $59/year?

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Very quickly for most cards.

ETA: here is a great example: LINK /

Flask is right, it matters to some extent what kind of card you want:

-use it every day or just large purchases?
-pay it off or carry a balance?
-type of rewards?

Just doing a quick glance at nerdwallet, chase and capitalone, I think you should look at Chase Slate, Chase Freedom, & CapitalOne Cash Rewards.

They all offer 0% interest on balance transfers for at least an intro period (12-18 months or so). That would be helpful for your balance, but none of these cards have amazing rewards.

The intro rates on the balance transfers won't last forever. Also, I think the cards all charge a transfer fee despite having a 0% intro rate on transfers. You will probably want to do a little analysis to see how quickly you can pay it off, if the fee is worth the low interest rate, and which card is the best for you.

Purely based on the limited info you've given, I'm leaning towards saying Chase Freedom is the best option for you (normal rewards rates, only $100 cash back bonus, but 0% on balance transfers for 15 months).

Hope this helps.

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what about applying for 2 cards? 1 w/ the 0% APR for 12 months to pay off my balance (my interest rate is ridic b/c I missed a payment 2 years ago) and 1 w/ good rewards to use in the future?

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Ehh, I don't know about that. Honestly, I'm not a credit score/report guru, but I don't know if applying for 2 cards at the same time is the best idea.

If it were me, I would probably get the freedom since it has pretty decent rewards by itself, pay the $60 transfer fee (3% of $2,000) and then pay $134/month on that transfer balance for 15 months. Either pay it off slow like that or all at once at the end of the 15 months. Don't pay it off faster, use any extra cash to pay extra on your student loans. Just make sure you have the $2k CC debt gone at the end of 15 months if you can.

As for the 2nd card, I think I would personally wait a while. I may be mistaken, but I believe that hard inquiries only stay on your credit report for 2 years(you would get 1 per card application and 1 each time you applied for a credit limit increase). I would get the freedom or some other balance transfer card, use it for at least 2 years and then probably get another.

And in case you didn't know or just a reminder, don't close the old CC account(s) after the transfer. The longer the history of the card, the better for your credit score. Also, having multiple accounts open is a good thing (assuming you can be responsible and manage them well).

Don't get one if you don't plan on paying it off at the end of every month. With that being said, what type of rewards do you prefer (hotel, air, cash back, ect?)