Is Your “Low Interest Rate Credit Card” Really Helping You To Save Money Or Are You Spending Even More?
Time to look beneath the surface of the attractive offers! The choices are never ending when it comes to getting a new credit card. But it’s difficult to come across low interest rate credit cards. After the recent economic crisis the credit card companies have become cautious because they have suffered a large amount of defaults. So now you really need a great credit score definitely above 700 to qualify for an interest rate of 9 to 5.5%. So whether this task will be an uphill one or not is directly dependant on your credit history.
If you have a bad credit history and you find that you qualify for a low interest rate credit card then check if it’s an introductory offer of some kind. Many have fallen into such traps, the offer looks attractive in the beginning with 0% APR but when the offer time period ends the bills are astronomical!
Even people with good credit history face many troubles, as these days to be extra secure the credit companies have started charging many kinds of fees including high annual fees, which are not all stated before, so you end up paying more than you bargained for!
When you start looking for a low interest rate credit card then ensure that you do a lot of research before you decide upon one company. Also while doing research you should have a clear idea of what you want, for instance the interest rate may not affect you that hugely in case you do not carry a balance every month, but like in most cases if you use your credit card to make purchase expensive things and you carry balance forward into the next month then low interest rate credit cards could help you.
You should try to read the terms and conditions carefully, it may be a task that is totally uninteresting but it can save you from choosing a bad offer. Like, you may be attracted by the various rewards that you can earn but these may be applicable only in cases of a high interest levied, no point in opting for it if you have a large amount unpaid at the end of the month, you should then instead worry about the interest rate as you would be paying more than you could earn.
Things like balance transfer fees also could play havoc with the amount you save! You may decide to transfer the balance to another card but the balance transfer fees can be approximately 3 % of the amount thus burning a huge hole in your pocket!