Saturday, February 16, 2008

Too good to be true?

We are all told there is no such thing as a free lunch or if it's too good to be true, it usually is! This doesn't seem to stop many of us diving in head first to subscribe to the latest money saving offer from our generous, kind hearted credit card company!

Maybe we should all be aware of the golden rule when taking up the latest credit card offer, of 0% interest on balance transfers. This maybe even more important after Christmas when many are desperate to minimise the affect of gross festive overspending.
Well, what is this golden rule you may ask?
If you move credit card debt to a new card offering 0% on balance transfers, never never spend on that card until the 0% period is over.
Nearly all credit card companies will use monthly payments to repay the cheapest debt first. This means that you are paying off the interest free part of your debt, while new spending racks up expensive interest charges.
Many companies also offer a few months interest free on new purchases. Sound great? Not really for the unaware! It just means it takes a few months of further spending, before you realise you are suddenly incurring expensive interest charges, which you cannot avoid until your interest free balance transfer is paid off.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello dave

Anonymous said...

very controversial dave

David John Caswell said...

Maybe not very controversial, but sound advice for those who continue to spend what they don't have!
Dave.

Anonymous said...

rock on tommy

Monique said...

Hi david, isn't it all a great con? We were offered a "great mortgage deal" which would cost us "only" 1500 pounds. Yeah, yeah ... Forget it. No credit cards for us either.

Tomorrow I'm posting episode eleven of Middle Ditch. Just to keep you up to date with that village.

:-)

David John Caswell said...

Dear Monique,
Great to hear from you again. Look forward to checking out Middle Ditch over the weekend.
Dave.