Christmas is coming – Credit card advice
The festive season will soon be upon us. With Christmas becoming an all too expensive occasion now is the time to review your credit card spending and obtain good credit card deals.
The media, whether the internet, television, radio, newspapers or magazines, all contain advertisements offering you credit card deals. Often these credit card deals come with 0% APR lasting for any period between six to fifteen months or a low lifetime APR at say 4.9%. If you are not on a 0% APR or low lifetime APR credit card deal it will pay you to shop around whether you are obtaining a credit card for the first time or wish to transfer an outstanding balance from your current credit card/s. Very often the credit card issuers rely on customer inertia in not seeking to review their credit card options.
As the name suggests, on 0% APR credit card deals you do not pay any interest during the currency of the 0% APR credit card deal. All payments made during this period will go towards reducing your outstanding balance. You will be charged a balance transfer fee typically between 2% and 3% if you are transferring a balance from another credit card. If by the end of the 0% APR credit card deal you have not cleared off the balance transferred and you wish to transfer the remaining balance on to another credit card you will more than likely incur another balance transfer fee.
Another option to the 0% APR credit card deal is the lifetime APR credit card deal on balance transfers. Although you pay a higher APR, say 4.9% it is for the life of the balance transfer that is until the amount transferred has been repaid in full. Therefore you can take as long as you want in repaying it. You will, as in the case of a 0% APR credit card deal, be charged a balance transfer fee typically between 2% and 3%. However, you will not incur a further balance transfer fee.
The credit card market in the UK is very competitive and credit card issuers are falling over themselves to offer you an attractive APR to secure your business. So let it work in your favour and always be on the look out for the best credit card deals. With this in mind go about securing the best credit card deals you can so that the festive season will be one of cheer and not doom and gloom. Happy Christmas!
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