US Finance Sites

0% Credit Cards May Not Be Free

I have actually sung the praises of 0% credit card balance transfers a way to remove some high interest debt. If credit cards want to charge too much interest, which many of them seem to, vote with your wallet by switching card companies!

Here are real solutions to transfer to 0% interest cards! If your current credit card company or bank just jacked your rate up to 27%, by all means, try to qualify for a better interest rate card so you can move your balance and get lower monthly payments and a quicker payoff!

What To Watch For On Low or Zero Percent Interest Cards

Before you make the switch, just be aware of a few things. These “catches” may not matter much, or they may actually affect your decision about which offer you should take.

• Even though you may get a zeo percent balance transfer for some length of time, there could be a fee involved in the transaction. Sometimes this is buried in the fine print. If the fee is small, you could still be better off. But it pays to be aware of this fee in advance.
• Some credit cards also charge a yearly fee. I cannot tell you how many times one particular bank has zinged me with their annual fee. I usually keep 0 balance on this card, so I forget to regularly check for payments online. That fee comes in, I somehow neglect it until after the due date, and then end up paying twice as much in penalties!
• What does the interest rate rise to after the offer period? If you have a high balance that will probably not get paid off in the time they will give you a zero percent interest rate, find out how high the APR will go up. Lots of the times, the original increase is modest. But if you do not think you can really make much of a dent in the balance within the grace period, this is another figure you need to be aware of to see if it makes sense to do a transfer!