In general individuals that often carry a balance on one or
more bank cards which they simply cannot completely pay down,
are the ones seeking out the zero % balance transfer promotions.
If you're able to easily pay your bills monthly, you won't need
this. Not that it isn't appealing, for sure, but your purchase
rate following the transfer period may or may not be as low as
you are currently paying. For those of us with tons of debt and
credit cards, this could very well be a great strategy to
minimize the amount of interest we are paying, at least for the
short term, till the time we can pay down the credit card debt
further. So read on to find out the best way to go about it.
Your First Best Option
If you have any credit cards that don't have any balance on them
at all, get in touch with those credit cards suppliers first to
find out if they have either a 0 percent balance transfer offer
or a life of the balance transfer offer. The second option is
the most desirable, though fewer companies are offering them any
longer. Nonetheless, you really should ask, because you never
know and it can be best to pay 5.9%-7.9% for the life of the
balance rather than 0 % for 6-12 months, then 12-14% or
sometimes more for the remainder of the balance.
Your Next Best Option
If you don't have a credit card available with out a balance,
get in touch with the ones you have with the lowest balances to
check out just what special transfer rates they have. Do not
transfer your money yet! In the case one of them does have a
special you think sounds good, ask them exactly how long you
have to take advantage of it. Based upon what they say, try to
pay down as much as you can on the card first. This way you
won't have much if any with the higher percentage rate as well,
because you understand the credit card companies probably will
post your monthly payment to the reduced interest balances
first.
Your Last Option
If you have to apply for a brand new credit card with a
0
percent balance transfer offer, then research them first
before you put in a request. You want to have the longest period
available at 0%, and yet almost even more critical is the
purchase percentage rate after that period of time ends. You
need it to be reasonable. Dependent on your own credit ranking
together with monthly payment history, you can expect to pay
anywhere between 10%-20% interest. Of course the lower the better, but it
really is based on your credit standing. Also the credit card
companies are substantially more stringent now than they were
before, that being said 12-14% interest is not bad if you have decent,
but not first-rate credit.
You should certainly bear in mind what you are paying now as
well. You would not want it to wind up being any higher than
that. You generally will need to apply first before they will
tell to you exactly what the interest rate will be,
unfortunately. Don't forget that you want to minimize the amount
of applications you fill out to 2-3 within a couple of months
time frame, mostly if you get declined, because that will likely
knock off a few points off your credit score.
Shelling out higher interest than you have to really can make it
take a long time to pay down your debt, but obtaining cards with
lower interest rates or even a
0 percent balance transfer
rate can honestly help. Consider the simple steps outlined
here and you should do well.
There's also a search table below, where
you can put in any criteria you want to find the
perfect card for you.
Click here for
best low rate credit cards,
or
reward
credit cards,
cash back credit cards, or
travel reward credit cards
Here's one with a low initial transfer rate currently 1.99%, but they have pretty good purchase rates as well, and no annual fee, so I'm going to list for you as another option.
Click here for a few
secured credit card offers if your credit isn't so great, but not terrible either. They have decent interest rates.
Search for any kind of credit card you want:
