The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
According to the federal Reserve Bulletins` 2006 survey, approximately 74.9 percent of US families in 2004 own a credit card and 58 percent of theses families has a balance while in 2001, 46.2 percent of American families has credit cards and 55 percent of this figure carried a balance.
With the fast growing dependency of Americans to credit card way of payment it is not surprising then to have high figures of credit card holders having balances on their accounts. In times when credit card debt are mounting, opening up a new credit card account might seem not to be the best thing to do, but for most credit card holders this is a good way out of their debt problems.
Opening another account to pay for balances in existing accounts is possible through the credit card balance transfer. This service if offered by credit card companies to attract customers to transfer their accounts and balances. At a three, two or even zero percent interest, this balance transfer can be provided by the new credit card company. The service can actually allow consumers free to pay down the remaining balance on a credit card without incurring interest charges. However despite this luring property of credit card balance transfer, people must be very careful when deciding to use this service. To get the best balance transfer rate one must do a lot of research, comparison and careful reading plus analysis.
Due to its appealing nature to the public, several companies are now offering balance transfer which gives consumers more options and more space to be wary at the same time. Consumers must be knowledgeable with the entirety of the balance transfer offer thus the following details the things that has to be considered and researched on before falling into promotional baits.
Customers must research on the promotional interest rate that is being offered. Also it is equally important to know how much the interest would be after the promotional period. In line with this, customers must be aware of the length of the promotional period. In addition to this it is also wise to research on any fee that the company would charge to complete the balance transfer. Several credit card issuers charge a certain amount to process a balance transfer thus it is a smart move to look for an issuer that would charge less or no fee at all. Another thing that consumers must be aware of is whether the new company has annual fees. It is advisable to avoid such fee if at all possible, if not pick for the issuer with the lowest annual fee.
Now that the credit business is on the go, several companies and issuers out-surfaced thus consumers have privilege to choose among the many options and at the same time this situation is also calling for extra precautions. In a nutshell doing a balance transfer can actually help consumers if they have carefully analyzed the things that have to be considered first and foremost.
At the end of the day everything still boils down to being a wise, active consumer as the best way to deal with the world of alluring promotions.
