Credit Card Charges and How to Avoid ThemPosted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010 It is one of the joys of the UK credit industry that prices of credit, and in particular of credit cards, have continued to fall over the past number of years. Today you can get zero per cent on balance transfers, and even zero per cent on purchases, offers that were simply unimaginable just a couple of years ago. This is all the result of increasing competition in the market place from alternative lenders and banks from abroad, particularly US banks. However, there are still many charges out there and it takes some care and consideration to make sure that you don?t end up paying far more than you should for your credit cards. Debt consolidation loans, typically secured over your home, offer far lower rates of interest. You can then reduce your outgoings to a single monthly figure that allows you to pay off the debt at a reasonable rate. Another way to avoid credit card interest rates is to take advantage of zero per cent balance transfers. These can be great opportunities and are offered by credit card providers who are ever more eager to increase their market share and add you as a customer. You will benefit from low or zero per cent rates on any balances that you transfer over to the new card from other credit cards. A word of advice however is to make sure you close the original account. This avoids the temptation of racking up further spending and improves your credit rating by reducing the over all amount of credit available to you. Other charges such as subscription fees are by and large a thing of the past. Some credit cards still charge annual fees on the basis that they offer other rewards or are more exclusive cards but the general advice these days is that you can get just as good results on cards that do not charge these fees so if you are paying a fee, perhaps you will want to switch to a card that is free in this sense. Late payment fees and other penalties are incurred if you fail to keep up with your repayment obligations and you should make every effort to avoid these as they are completely unnecessary. Like it? Share it!More by this author |