OK, lets get right to the point. Credit card companies don’t want you to compare credit card interest rates. The way your provider makes money is by you getting used to using your card for spending, and they are hoping you will over extend and have to pay interest on the outstanding amount each month. However, if you wish to compare credit cards with alternative providers, you could find yourself saving thousands of dollars in interest during the course of it’s use.
You may not know that some credit card providers have a clause in their standard contract that states they can raise the amount of interest without warning if you miss a payment or even late in making payments? You may have previously had low interest on your credit card payments, but if you have missed or been late on a payment before, you could find your rate jump to over 20% overnight.
Obviously, if you have had this happen to you, the best thing to do is to transfer the outstanding amount for that account over to a new specialised balance transfer credit card account which can even have zero interest for the life of the transfer amount. What this means is that you can be paying 0% interest instead of the 20% or even more you might have been paying up until now.
This may not be the best strategy if you do a lot of everyday spending on your credit card though, as these types of cards are designed specifically to have high amounts of interest on further spending. This is where the provider makes it’s money from you. If you need a card for buying groceries and other shopping there are some great rewards cards that have low interest for everyday spending often with quite a long interest free period after the initial spend and rewards associated with the amount you spend.
You will need to at least keep up with the minimum monthly repayments with any type of credit card. If you use your card frequently, then you should really only spend what you can already afford for the month in cash, and pay this amount in full each month. You can still reap the rewards and you won’t get behind and have to start paying interest.
Tags: compare credit cards, Interest Rate, Credit Card