Credit Card Deals: The Pitfalls
If you’re searching around for credit card deals and want to avoid paying more than you have to , it’s essential that you take a little time to do your research properly , and ensure you avoid getting ripped off .
People use credit cards primarily because of the ease they offer the shopper , but with the advent of interest free credit card deals recently , they’ve also become an a particularly affordable form of short-term borrowing . Interest free credit card deals are used as a way to attract new business – they offer zero interest credit on purchases and balance transfers for a limited period . By by staying abreast of the market and always moving to a new interest free credit card deal, some people are able to continually transfer their balance and so avoid having any charges made against their debt. Given enough discipline, enough credit cards and the right amount of self control, you can even put your entire mortgage onto interest free credit cards and avoid paying interest on your home .
If these sorts of interest free credit card deals sound like the sort of credit facility you’re looking for, you should shop around and look at the various credit card deals available . Price comparison websites can be enormously worthwhile here. Obviously, some interest free credit card deals are better than others, with the offered interest-free periods lasting for longer periods . Some credit card deals charge an one-off fixed management charge when transferring balances, which should always be included in the calculations you make as to cost . Others will have different interest free periods for purchases and for transfers , so you would be wise always to ensure that you know exactly what the small print says when you’re searching for new credit card deals.
Some interest free credit card deals have fallen foul of the watchdogs recently because of misleading the customer- in particular with regards the the sequence in which repayments are credited to the various types of debt. When looking for interest free credit card deals, always make sure you know what order your payments will be credited in: for example if you transfer ?2,000 at 0% but have a 6% charge on things you buy, and then you go shopping and spend ?500, some cards will not put your monthly repayments towards this ?500 until the ?2,000 is repaid . This means that although you have an interest free credit card deal so far as the transferred balance is concerned, you’re actually going to be paying 6% on that ?500 off for a very long period, until the balance-transferred ?2,000 is entirely repaid.
But that shouldn’t put you off what is essentially a terrific form of flexible lending . But as with all forms of credit , you should enter into this with your wits about you and only look at interest free credit card deals that actually suit you. And once you’ve found the most suitable credit card deals for you, be sure you’re fully aware of the ts and cs and follow them under all circumstances.