How to find the best credit card with a 0% APR balance transfer

November 20, 2008 · Filed Under Credit Card · Comment

When you are shopping for a credit card with a 0% APR balance transfer, you must look for the introductory offer on the card. You are getting more benefits if you have the introductory offer for a longer period. The introductory offer can range between three to twelve months. Your introductory period of 0% will be for a longer period if you have good credit ratings.

You should check for the annual fee before you go for the introductory offer balance transfer with a credit card company. There are many companies that charge their annual fee but in most cases, you should be able to get it for free.

There is a fee on the balance transfer at 0% APR. This is charged by almost all companies. This is a transaction fee for the balance transfers. This fee can be at a range of 3% of the amount of each transaction, and have a minimum. The maximum can go up to $100. Therefore when more than a certain amount of balance is transferred with these cards, the fee may be less than 3% of the amount of transaction. For example, when more than $7,500 balance is transferred to the credit card with a maximum of $75, the fee is $75.00 and less than 1% of the amount of transaction.

The 0% APR balance transfer card has the following features:

This offer can last up to 12 months.

There is no annual fee on the balance transfer

Balance transfer fee is 3% of the amount of each transaction with a maximum of $75.

These features on the balance transfer can save you a lot of money when you are paying high interest rates on other credit cards. Furthermore, if you consolidate all your balances into one credit card without a fee, and then transfer the consolidated balance to the credit card with a maximum of $75 on transfer fee, you still pay $75 towards the fee.

Tags: Credit Card

Have a proper knowledge of your credit cards

November 13, 2008 · Filed Under Credit Card · Comment

Credit cards are used by all almost everyone. If you have more than two or three credit cards, it is easy to treat them as plastic cash. You don’t have to worry about anything when you need to make a purchase. However, while using your credit cards, you must make sure to use it with complete responsibility so that you don’t face any potential troubles down the road.

credit-cards

There are many people who usually don’t remember how many credit cards they do have in their wallet. People often mistakenly assume that the purchasing power increases depending on the number of credit cards you possess. They also assume themselves to be a privileged customer when the credit card company calls them and offers a credit card. The truth is that the more credit cards you have and if you are not able to maintain it properly, you will have more negative effects on your credit ratings. Lenders will often assume that you owe some balance to each credit card company that issued you the card. It might be wise to close some of the cards that you don’t use at all. This will certainly help in increasing your credit scores.

Always watch your spending habits. If you purchase any item on credit, make sure that you will be able to pay the full balance within the due dates. If you pay just the minimum amount or a little more than that, the credit card company will be charging you a certain amount on interests and fees. This is how the credit card company will do business from you when the interest will be tacked on to what you owe.

Know the grace period on your credit card. This is the extra time you get after the date of purchase and before the payment due date. Many credit card companies offer a grace period of 20 to 28 days, however there are some companies that start charging interests from the day of your purchase.

Know the late fees charged by your credit card company if you are not able to make the payment on time. Many company charge $30 or more. Read the terms and conditions carefully before signing the application form. If you are not sure of the charges completely, you might end up paying huge amount just in interests and fees after the due dates.

Tags: Credit Card

Get good credit cards with excellent credit ratings

October 28, 2008 · Filed Under Credit, Credit Card · Comment

If you have excellent credit, you will easily get approved for one of the good credit cards. A lot of benefits come along with these good credit cards. Almost all lenders will be willing to do business with you because of your excellent credit ratings. They will offer you the most competitive interest rates in the market. Good credit cards with 0% initial APRs will be offered to people with excellent credit for longer initial periods.

Whether you apply for a new credit card, mortgage or a car loan, the lenders will go through your credit ratings and figure out how you had been making payments on different accounts and using it. The rates and terms of the loan are decided on the basis of your credit history. You will surely get good credit cards if you have excellent credit scores along with a lot of benefits.

Credit scores range from 300 to 850. Most of the people fall in the credit scores of 600 to 800. If you have credit scores of more than 720, then you will definitely get the best deals from different lenders. If your credit scores range between 620 to 720, you will still be considered to have a good credit rating and get a good credit card.

If you have an excellent credit history, you will be able to get a good credit card with longer introductory period. These credit cards use sliding scale APR’s and different 0 APR periods, and this allows them to approve people with different levels.

You should be able to save a lot of money just in interests over the period of time if you have got one of the good credit cards. Similarly, you will save a huge amount of money on any mortgage or any car loan that you may take out. This will keep your credit scores up. Make sure that you are making regular payments. Your credit scores will go down if you miss one single payment and not only that, the creditors will start charging higher interest rates. Do not take too much debt that turns out to be a burden to repay, and don’t apply for new credit too frequently as it is often harmful.

Tags: Credit Card

Finding low interest rate credit cards

September 23, 2008 · Filed Under Credit Card · Comment

Many people who apply for the credit cards for the first time often get excited about the rewards and perks offered by the credit card companies. They do not give too much attention towards the interest rate offered on that card. Interest rate is however the most important part if you are carrying a balance. Just to include the finance fee on top of the interest rates, your purchases will end up costing a lot more on an airline credit card, which comes at around 15% to 19%. You can get low interest rate cards at 7% to 10% at the maximum. When you are paying high interests on the airline credit card, getting extra miles redeemable for free flights does not sound right because you will be spending a lot in extra interests. If you are having an airline credit card with a 19% APR, you will be paying a lot of money in interests only and it will take long time to pay off the debts. In some cases, it might exceed the price of the airline ticket

How to keep the interest rate on your credit card lower?

You can always prevent your low interest credit card from accruing higher rates. It requires a little planning and managing your cards efficiently. Make sure that you are always making timely and full payments on every billing cycle. If you are revolving the credit on every billing cycle, the credit card company can charge you APR up to 25% to 30% or may be more.

If you have to compare between fixed or variable interest rate on the credit card, choose the fixed rate option because the APR on the fixed interest credit card does not change. The variable rate is tied to the Federal Reserves funds rate. When the funds rate goes up, the APR on the credit card will automatically go up.

Don’t borrow cash from your credit card account. Utilize the low interest credit card for purchases only. If you borrow cash from the low interest credit card, the credit card company will charge you very high interest rates and to make situation worse, your monthly payments will be applied towards the charges with the lowest annual percentage rate.

Sorting out all the credit cards that you have might seem to be a daunting task, but if you compare the savings on each card in your wallet, it will be well worth the effort.

Tags: Credit Card