Best credit cards - How to find the best card for you
Choosing the right credit card for you has more to do with your credit card spending and repayment patterns than anything else. If you carry a balance over from month to month, you need to look for the lowest rate interest card available. Some cards charge high rates of 18% and upwards per annum, others charge less than 10% per annum. The interest rate makes a huge difference to the monthly minimum repayment amounts and also the ease at which you can pay down debt. A low interest rate is more important than a rewards program if you are carrying debt. When evaluating which credit card is right for you, it is important to consider the late payment penalties. If a late fee is charged, what is it? Is an increased interest rate also enforced as a penalty? Some companies more than double your interest charges if you pay late even by one day. It is also helpful to consider a company’s track record in looking after their clients. For example, Virgin Credit Card absorbed recent interest rate rises and maintained its 12.99% annual percentage rate. G.E. Low Rate Mastercard, on the other hand is passing it on. Easy access to customer service is also important. Why not phone the customer service lines of your short listed credit card companies? Who do you want to deal with? Are you kept on hold for an excessive length of time before someone takes your call or are you answered quickly? If you can’t get good customer service from a company, you should probably forget them. Another important consideration is whether they are using overseas call centres that have access to customer’s private details. If you don’t have a problem with this, fine. However, if you don’t want your details available to overseas call centre staff, then you need to ask this question and make sure you are dealing with a secure Australian site. When looking for the right credit card for you, you will find that there are two main types of credit cards: those that offer interest free days and those that don’t. Generally, those that offer interest days charge a higher interest rate after the end of the interest free period or charge an annual fee to compensate. If you intend to use your credit card to pay bills and will pay the complete balance each month, look for a credit card that offers the best value in terms of interest free days and rewards. However, if you are going to be in debt from month to month, look for the lowest interest rate, lowest annual fee and fairest calculation of penalties (because things can go wrong sometimes). If you are juggling a number of credit cards of varying interest rates and have overall high monthly payments because of credit card debt, then consolidating your credit card debt on one low rate interest credit card could be the answer you are looking for. By consolidating your credit card debt on one low rate card, you will dramatically reduce your minimum monthly credit card costs and improve your ability to pay down debt. Debt consolidation, using a low rate credit card, can also provide more flexibility than a personal loan. If an emergency occurs then the credit is still there to use. The obvious risk to this, however, is using the credit and never getting out of debt. Debt consolidation with a credit card requires discipline and commitment to get out of debt. Click4credit.com.au can make comparing credit cards a quick and easy process. They even offer an online application facility to further streamline the process. Search for the type of card you want now using the menu to the left or links below: Homepage featuring our Top 5 Credit Card Offers Low Interest Credit Cards Rewards Credit Cards Frequent Flyer credit cards - offering Qantas Frequent Flyer Points
For additional information on credit cards or related topics please visit our library of credit card articles.
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