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When you have a credit card, it is quite often easy to get carried away in your spending spree. However, it is not necessary that you always know what you are getting into with a credit card as it can spin horribly out of your control if you are not careful. Everyone likes to have money to spend and sometimes, things careen out of control. It is important to know how it works and then to sort out things. Most people keep hearing about balance transfers and the deals offered by the credit card companies make it seem like the best thing ever.
If you have wondered about having an interest free credit card and being able to pay off just what you owe, then that is what you can get if you pick the right balance transfer deal. However, you need to make sure that you are spending enough time on researching and understanding the terms before deciding to opt for it. If you do not consider what you should about balance transfer offers, you will simply end up with an even more expensive card and too many bills to deal with.
There are many things that make a balance transfer attractive, but the ultimate deal is when they offer 0 interest transfers. What you should check before grabbing it is how long the zero interest is for. Often it will specify in the fine print that an offer is for a limited period only. This means that you cannot hope to have a zero interest rate forever on your new card. It will expire at a point and you will have to clear all your payments before that period runs out. In addition many a time, people end up losing money because they do not check if the transfer part is complete and the due date on the old card is still not pending. This makes them defaulters and soon their credit score hits a low.
Another important factor to consider is annual percentage rate or APR. As much as the rates offered as an introductory deal look hard to resist, the APR would be rather disappointing. It becomes important to consider all the details present in the fine print at the bottom of the deal. If you read through it, you will find that things aren’t as rosy as they look. Often much of the information is difficult to understand, make sure you discuss it clearly until you know what it entails.
An additional consideration is with regard to the transfer fees. The issuers tend to charge a transaction fee depending on the amount you wish to transfer. So the bigger the amount you are looking to switch onto a new card, the higher the fee you will need to pay. This can be quite unpleasant and if you are not careful can lead to serious problems eventually. Do make sure you know all the details of the transaction before opting for a seemingly enticing balance transfer deal.
