Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Best Credit Card Offers

Credit cards had been one of the most widely used forms of paying various
types of bills. This may range from regular purchases, to bills payment
transactions in large amounts.

This is different from debit cards in the sense that the former may purchase
in its behalf even if the owner does not have a corresponding amount
credited to the card.

Generally, the issuer of the card provides a credit limit. The predetermined
amount is the maximum allowable transaction to be made by the consumer or
owner of the card.

Credit card companies compete for the fast growing market by offering
various promotional strategies such as the following:

1.Interest rates

Credit card companies try to offer the lowest possible interest rate per
payment due. Said interest rate may range from 1.2% up to 5%.

2.Minimum amount due

Every month, the credit card company has a predetermined percentage of
amount due based from the current charges or purchased made by the owner of
the card.

Failure to pay the said minimum due would result to additional charges on
the part of the owner/consumer.

3.Waiving of dues

The usual practice had been that of waiving the first of the cards' annual
dues.

Other offers had been cutting off one or two billing periods without any
additional charges if the consumer did not pay for the period covered by the
promotional advertisement.

Should the consumer pay the whole amount charged to the card before its
billing period, the interest due from the balance is likewise waived

4.Extension card

Supplemental cards are usually offered for the cardholder to enable them to
extend the use of the card for any family member (or friend) to whom they
would want to grant access to its use.

5.Balance transfers

Most credit card companies offer a very low interest rate charging for any
balance transferred to their card from that of another one.

The catch is to encourage consumers to transfer all the balance charges from
their current card to their very own card company.

Payments are arranged on a predetermined period of time. The disadvantage of
this is that if the consumer decides to pay the whole balance earlier than
the stated date, no rebates would be granted.

Consumers that are not wary of their purchases may find themselves in
immense debt if payments are foregone or if the individual makes purchases
more than he or she is capable of paying at the end of the billing period.

Missed payments would result to finance charges that would be added on top
of the month's interest charges. Thus resulting to higher charges.

It has been said that the rampart use of the credit card system had resulted
to the Great Depression of the 1920's.

The rise of the automobiles during this period resulted to a great increase
in the demand for fuel. To accommodate the large purchases, fuel companies
accepted credit payments so as not to loose transactions to their
competitors.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Still, if the individual is wary and cautious when making purchases using a
credit card, one may find that he or she may use it for his or her own
convenience.

Below are some of the advantages of using a credit card:

1.Low risk of loosing cash.

Large purchases may be made without having to carry the money around.

2.Readily available

Emergency purchases, such as that of medicines, may immediately be
accommodated at any store that accepts credit payment.


About The Author: Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over
200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout
http://www.supercreditcardoffers.com and
http://credit-card-offersonline.info.

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