Debt Free

One of the things that's imperative if you're going to get debt free is that you stay away from credit cards with high interest rates and fees. That being said, in this day and age you'll have a tough time trying to live completely sans credit card. They are required for so many things from car rentals and airline tickets to on line purchasing of, well, just name it. A few years ago there was an an experiment where someone lived in a home completely cut off from all outside sources of anything, and lived entirely on what they could order on line. At that time their selections, while not too limited, at time left something to be desired. These days, you would have better selection on line than in any city in the world, including New York, London or Moscow. Not, however, without a credit card.

So how can you ensure you get the best deal on a credit card without getting stung by unfavorable terms? There are some things you need to do to make sure this happens.

1 Way to Get Good Deals on Credit Cards – Look past the teaser rate on the offer sheet. Often the junk mail you receive is emblazoned with low, but very temporary teaser rates. After the introductory period expires, you'll get stuck with the real rate, often very much higher.

2 Way to Get Good Deals on Credit Cards – Read everything so you can avoid paying excessive (any) fees. The next most popular way for the credit card companies to get your money is by attaching fees to the agreement. You need to shop around for low, or preferably no fee offers. If you do the math and look at the fee as an extension of the interest rate, you'll be amazed at how much worse that makes your card. The less you spend on your card, the worse fees are as a percentage of what you've spent, hence they increase the apparent interest rate you're paying. For example, if your card has a $50 annual fee, and you charge $1,000 a year on it, the fee effectively added 5% to your interest rate. So now that 9% card is a 14% card.

3 Way to Get Good Deals on Credit Cards - Look at the grace period. That's where you can really get hurt. If you have a short grace period and you pay by regular mail, you can get stung badly if your check gets delayed or returned. The extra day or so may be all the lender needs to not only charge you a fee, but raise your interest rate. Once they've jacked up your rate, it'll be at least 6 months before you can negotiate it back down in most cases. In addition, if you don't ask them to lower it, they'll leave the rate high forever. Look for at least 25 days after you made any purchase. Something else to watch for is the length of time between the bill arrives at your house until it's due. In some cases you'll ahve only days to mail the check, so if you do your bills once a week or 10 days, you may miss the cutoff date.