Getting A Low Interest Credit Card for Debt Consolidation
It may seem slightly odd for someone trying to consolidate debt to get another line of credit. After all, credit cards make it easy and convenient to spend money. This money doesn’t even belong to the person using the card and they can get into more unwanted debt. To a large degree this is true however if used correctly, a low interest credit card for debt consolidation can actually help to solve your financial problems. This article will show you how this can be done.
The credit card industry is highly competitive so banks try to make better offers to potential customers and trump their competitors all the time. New incentives are dreamed up to encourage a certain niche to use their credit card. So air miles might appeal to business people that jet all over the place to hold meetings. Whereas credit or money back on clothing purchases may appeal to avid fashionistas.
For people with large debts, a low interest credit card with a balance transfer feature is probably an attractive option. For someone in debt, the major advantage of such a card is to transfer all the debt to the new card. A feature of these cards is a low or zero interest rate for any balance transfers for an introductory period.
Your focus should now be on paying all or as much of this debt off within the specified time period. This will save you money on interest repayments and it will drive you to pay off your debt problem. It will also make it easier to manage payments as you will only have to find one payment per month rather than many from numerous cards throughout the month.
However, it is important to point out that you have to pay of the debt within the introductory period. Don’t think that you don’t have to worry about the debt for another six months or however long the introductory period is. Otherwise, you will get a nasty shock when the repayments on the transferred balance are due.
So in reality, you don’t really need a low interest credit card for debt consolidation. You could try to get some other form of credit, like a bank loan instead. A bank loan will probably have a lower repayment rate than a credit card. However it is unlikely to have a 0% repayment rate for the first six months.
However, it is essential that you can repay the debt within the six month introductory period. Otherwise, you may find that a low interest credit card with balance transfer will not save you money by comparison to a bank loan or an equity withdrawal on your mortgage. the interest rates would not stack up by comparison to these types of loans after six months.
Having said this, another advantage of the low interest credit card is that it is probably easier to get than a bank loan or other form of credit. This is appealing to many people who don’t want to jump through rings of fire to get a way to consolidate their debt.
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