Most of the time, a lot of credit card companies, who make a big deal of money from finance charges, are looking forward to get at you. Card issuers crave for your business so bad they are eager to tempt you with plenty of lavish gifts, rebates and promising rewards. One strategic approach that lures many consumers to their product entails the offer of free credit card balance transfers from your old account. Issuers may provide a certain amount of time when they will charge your account for a small percentage of your balance, typically 6 to 12 months. Then the rate increases. Do not allow your debt to stay on with the higher rate when the grace period expires. You will just be leading yourself to overdraft fees, higher credit balance, bounced checks and lots of frustrations.
Most people find such offers annoying. Mails of these concern, whether electronic or snail, are immediately binned. What most folks do not realize is that they can possibly save $1,000 from any annual and hidden fees that issuers charge on their current credit card. Balance transfers that take ten hours of a consumer’s personal time is not that bad if you know for a fact that every hour spent is actually saving $100.
So what should you look for? For beginners, you need to know if the transaction has a balance transfer fee or not. If it does have one, the percentage and the manner how it is calculated should be known to you. Other questions you may need to ask include: how much the introductory rate is, how long it would take before the grace period ends, and how much the rate will cost when the grace period expires.
In credit card balance transfers, you can “play your cards right” if you always read the fine print! Never sign on a card without reviewing the fine print twice. You must find out what exactly you will be getting. Otherwise, you will be paying high interests and will definitely be the card issuers’ perfect consumer.
