Save Money By Understanding Your Credit Card

By Peter Kenny 29/09/05

Around £6billion a year is lost due to credit card users not understanding how their credit card works. Too many people are dazzled by the latest deals offered by credit card companies and end up paying more than they should, simply because of a lack of any real understanding on how the introductory deal works that they took advantage of.

Choosing a Credit Card: There are hundreds of credit cards to choose from. This article provides good advice to get you moving
Visa Or Mastercard. Which Credit Card Should You Apply For?: Visa and Matercard are the most popular forms of credit card in the UK. This article explains the differences between them
Pros And Cons Of Credit Cards: An easy to read intro to the use of credit cards.
Credit Problems? Tackle them head on.: Some practical advice on how to tackle debt problems.
Credit Cards - Shamed into cutting charges: At last the Competition Commission takes steps to cut excessive charges on credit cards. This article explains the new rules and names the worst offenders.

Life Insurance News

Millions of us have taken advantage of these offers, which include low promotional rates and the favourite one for the credit card issuers (until it came back to haunt them) the 0% deals on balance transfers or on both purchases and balance transfers, but recent research has revealed that those of us who do not understand the workings of these deals, could be costing ourselves £200 extra in interest payments.

Why am I getting charged interest?

The main reason for this is that most credit card companies always put the payments that you make towards the cheapest debt first and with many making use of the 0% balance transfer deals, where switching your existing debt to one lender to another to save on interest repayments, the lenders will pay the balance transfer deal first, as this is the debt that is carrying the lowest interest rate and any new purchases made on the card will mount up, until the 0% balance transfer deal is over and in the meantime it has mounted up the interest payments on these new purchases, which will be the standard APR in which the balance transfer will revert to when then 0% period is over.

How does this happen?

Lets give you an example of this to make it a little clearer, for talking sake say you have a debt of £3,500 on your credit card and it consists of a balance you have transferred from another credit card company to the value of £2,000, you have made new purchases of £1,000, using the card in the standard way and withdrew cash from ATM's to the tune of £500, with you paying back your card the money will be put towards the balance transfer first and the new purchases and cash withdrawals will be taking on the interest charges right away, which could leave you paying £200 more in interest repayments.

Earlier in the article I said that most credit card companies work this way, which means there are some that don't, most notably included in those who don't are Nationwide and the HSBC Black card, who revert to paying the most expensive debt first, leaving the lower APR debt unpaid until such a time as when the more expensive debt is cleared, which is a fairer and less sneakier way of attributing someone's payments to their debts, where as the others are only taking away the goodness of the deal that they have offered you in the first place, by giving you in one hand and taking it away from the other.

What can I do to stop paying excess interest?

When dealing with these deals read the small print, as it always makes sense of where you stand when it comes to your finances, as knowing where you are in terms of your repayments will save you the cash that you were trying to save in the first place, though always having a clear balance at the end of each month is always the ideal scenario, but as we all know life and our finances are not always that simple.

Some Contacts
Nationwide http://www.nationwide.co.uk
HSBC http://www.hsbc.co.uk
Credit Card Advice http://www.creditcards-gb.co.uk

Author Info:

Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gb.co.uk. For additional articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit cards and loans, please visit us at http://www.creditcards-gb.co.uk and http://www.moneywize.co.uk

Readers please note : You should undertake your own background checks before taking any action on any aspect mentioned in this article. Where the author has mentioned specific product details or given examples of how companies have reacted to specific situations, these should be correct as far as the author is aware when this article was written. In some cases additional background information not mentioned in the article has been used in obtaining the examples. Some examples or quotes may have been taken from information available in the public domain where all the background details may not be available. Insurers do change policy conditions and underwriting approach. They will view each situation on its own merits.

You should be aware that details of the topics written about within the articles can change. Therefore, always check out the current position before taking any action. You should also check that any action you are considering, or any proposed purchase, is suitable for your personal circumstances.

This article represents the author's personal views and is not necessarily endorsed by this web site. These articles should not be construed as this web site recommending any product or service.