(MONEY Magazine) – You can't open your mail these days without being bombarded with credit-card offers. Surviving this avalanche requires a sharp eye for fine print and a capacious trash can. Here are four dubious deals card issuers are currently pushing:

Phony no-fee cards. Watch out for cards that spare you an annual fee then sock it to you with other charges. Among the worst offenders: First Deposit National Bank's Gold Visa Gold cards, which hypes a generous $10,000 credit line, no annual fee and low monthly payments of 2% of the balance -- about half the amount most cards require. The catch? Well, there are two: Such low payments are a sure way to rack up hefty interest charges, and cardholders must agree to take out a cash advance of at least $2,000, at 21.9%, when they sign on. Teaser rate cards. With many cards that advertise rock-bottom rates, those rates are designed to last for only a few months before they're abruptly boosted by as much as 10 percentage points. For instance, GTE recently offered a MasterCard with an intial rate equal to the prime rate, recently 7.75%. After six months, the rate jumps to prime plus 10.4%, which is higher than the 17.75% charged by the average card. If you do go for one of these "deals," cancel your card right before the initial rate expires. High-minimum-rate cards. Variable-rate cards often masquerade as cost- savers, says Robert McKinley, editor of CardTrak, since they charge rates that will fall when interest rates generally do. But these cards usually sport a minimum rate that's actually a maximum ripoff. For instance, First Consumer's National Bank offers a secured MasterCard rate of prime plus 10.5%. Today that would amount to roughly 18% -- nothing to brag about. The minimum rate IS worse, though, and it's what cardholders actually pay. That minimum: 18.9%.

Cards that offer cut rates to big spenders. TV ads for Discover's SmartRate program claim "the more you charge, the lower your rate can go!" Not quite. The "deal"? Sign up with Discover, and your first year's rate is prime plus 8.9%, which recently would have been 16.65%. In subsequent years, the rate is determined by your "qualifying" purchases. If your tally falls below $500, the rate is -- ouch! -- 19.8%. If it tops $1,000, the rate reverts to prime plus 8.9%. That means if you charge up a storm, your rate can go lower, but only if the prime has.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: Bank Rate Monitor CAPTION: THE BEST CREDIT-CARD DEALS