With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s that time of year again for… credit cards! Before you tear open that Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or even American Express card pitch you just pulled from the mailbox, I want you to remember one important detail. The 0% APR on balance transfers only lasts for a year and it never applies to purchases. Therefore if you don’t have any balances to transfer, I would seriously consider ditching the card. Or better yet, flip it over and take a peak at the APR for purchases and cash withdrawals. I’d be willing to bet it’s sky-high. Hey, they always are. The credit card companies are trying to hook you with the fat ZERO on the front of the document. Rip up the pitch and toss it in the trash can. It’s imperative to do a credit card comparison before accepting any offers.
The world of plastic is not like it was in the beginning. It no longer comes down to what you receive in the mailbox. It’s easy to surf the web and do a routine credit card comparison. Pull up everything MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express have to offer. See who currently has the lowest APR that applies to your needs. By this I mean if you’re doing a balance transfer, you’ll want zero percent on this; if you want a credit card for purchasing, you’ll want the lowest APR possible on purchases and so on. Zero percent APR doesn’t count for anything if you don’t reap the benefits from it. I had my cousin do a credit card comparison last week on her laptop. She had plenty of difficulty pin pointing an interest rate that she actually wanted to pay each month. Ha, big surprise there. None of us can find these.
It’s difficult to keep that APR down! Even after doing a prudent and thorough credit card comparison on the web, and finding that card you need, you’ll still run into annoying increases. Credit card companies are notorious for doing this. Just when you think all is going well, they raise your APR. Now, there probably isn’t even a reason for it. They raise it because they can. Does this really surprise anyone? I doubt it. Anyway, then you’ll be on the phone trying to convince them to lower it back to the original decent APR. Good times!
November 18th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Perfectly true, credit card companies always try to ‘trick’ you into signing up for them. I prefer to use cash, I don’t get people trying to swindle me saying that my $20 bill isn’t usable in Gamestop.
I find them to be more trouble than they’re worth just now, if it gets stolen, its far too easy for someone to rack up a huge bill before you can report it stolen.
November 18th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I have to say that you are 100 percent correct. Do not be fooled by what they are sending you especially if you are the type of person that is very willing to think that you are saving over the long haul. In most cases you are not.
Many people fail to see this and end up in trouble with their credit cards. So even if you need a little extra spending money this holiday season do not give in.