The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
People often get carried away when using a credit card. With so many attractive offers, often it gets rather difficult to keep track of how much is being spent or what is appropriate. If you have made the same mistakes and are wondering how you can deal with your credit card bills, stop worrying as you are not alone. If you have been thinking of balance transfer cards as the best way out of a credit situation that is bad, then think again. If you make the wrong choices, you could be stuck paying through your nose on purchases and existing bills.
The first consideration when wondering about doing a balance transfer should be about the fees. It is a simple fact that consumers misunderstand 0% to mean they have it easy - a new line of credit, no interest and no fees. However in most cases, this is untrue. When you decide to do a balance transfer, based on the amount that you are planning to transfer a 2-3% fee may be levied in most cases. If there were no hitches to it, then people would spend as they please and simply keep doing balance transfers to avoid the interest rates at all.
Also an important fact is that many cards may have a limit on the number of times you can transfer balance. Sometimes you will have to wait until a certain number of years before being able to opt for this facility again. In the meantime, once the 0% interest period is over, new interest rates would be applicable. It is important that you spend carefully so as to not end up with extremely large bills like on previous occasions. When consumers can plan and do things they will find such services to be more useful and appropriate to their needs.
Another mistake a lot of people tend to make is that they do not wait to see for how long the interest rate is for. When the card is being promoted it is not advertised openly in many cases how long the 0% interest rate is for. When you check the terms and conditions on a card, make sure you are well aware of how long the rates you are looking for are valid. There are many people who move to a new card as soon as the period expires on one but this is not an ideal course of action every time. There may be problems presented by such choices such as credit scores getting affected adversely and more.
The worst mistake most people make is to think of a balance transfer option as the chance to spend again. They think that since 0% interest rates are available for them, there is no need to curb their spending or change what they have been doing. However this can be quite detrimental to the whole process of closing the debts that are already there. If you do not choose to not spend, you may find that new purchases have a different interest rate altogether.
