Credit Card Now

If you are looking for a new credit card this year, you may well be considering the potential of cards ideal for credit balance transfers. These can be a very useful sort of credit card, particularly if you have an outstanding balance on a current card. Read on to find out how these cards work and some of the key benefits.

What are they?

Balance transfer credit cards can sound confusing but really they’re very straightforward. Let’s say you currently have a credit card with an outstanding balance of £750 on it. That balance is charged at an 18% rate of interest, meaning that by the end of the month, that £750 will be worth £885.

This means you can end up paying a considerable amount of interest, but if you were to get a balance transfer card, you could move that £750 to your new card for a small fee and then pay off the balance at a 0% rate of interest. This me Read more…

Tags: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Earlier this month, you and your significant other may have sat down together at the kitchen table to formulate a financial plan for the New Year. However, you may have already encountered some level of frustration, feeling that perhaps debt relief and savings will remain unattainable as the weeks and months go by.

As it turns out, this is far from the truth. According to financial experts, there are a few basic steps that ordinary Americans can consider taking to help improve their financial situation in 2012 and beyond.

Create a budget: Sit down and take a hard look at your expenses and your income. Determine how much you need to cover your basic expenses and how you can limit your spending.

Try lowering your interest rates: Contrary to popular belief, credit card companies may be amenable to lowering your interest rate (depending upon both company policy and your payment history).

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Bank charges on unauthorised overdrafts are “too high, too complex and impossible to compare”, according to a report from consumer organisation Which?. It is calling on the financial regulator to put a stop to these “complicated and exorbitant” charges.

Which? asked a group of consumers to work out the cost of an unauthorised overdraft at four different banks by giving them a mock bank statement. Not one got all the calculations right, with the volunteers only managing to get seven out of 48 correct between them. One volunteer, despite currently studying for a PhD in maths, only got two out of the four calculations right.

Which?

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Tags: Charges, Unauthorised Overdraft

We always see increased activity in our Credit Talk Forum as the new year begins.  It makes complete sense since the start of a new year often brings a renewed sense of urgency to get your financial house in order.

And for a lot of people these days, the number one thing on their mind is cleaning up their credit reports and getting their credit scores back to an acceptable level so they can purchase a new home, car, or get their foot in the door for a new job.  So how do most people start the process?

They typically begin researching online, joining forums, pulling free credit reports, and wondering “when will these old debts I’ve been trying to ignore for all these years actually go away?”  This is a question I’ve seen and answered in our forum at least a dozen times this month, so I thought it would be a good idea to quickly address it here on the blog as well.

The truth is old debts never really go away until you pay them off or reach a settlement with the debt collector, but that doesn’t mean they can’t disappear from your credit reports before a settlement occurs.  According to

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Not all balance transfer credit card offers are created equal.

But before you leap straight for the 0% interest rate card, it’s worth comparing a zero rate balance transfer offer with a low rate offers to see whether they really are a better deal.

St George Vertigo MasterCard

This card is currently offering balance transfers of $200 or more at an introductory rate of 0.99% APR per annum for the first 12 months, available until April 2012.

This reverts to the standard variable rate for purchases which is currently an attractive 13.24% APR per annum. C

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Tags: Balance Transfer, Balance Transfer Credit, Credit, Transfer Credit