Qualifying for Zero Interest Credit Card
Generally, if you want a credit card company to give you a zero interest credit card, you have to have really good credit. But if you do meet the qualifications, you can save hundreds, or thousands, of dollars on your credit card payments.
A zero percent interest credit card is particularly beneficial if it lets carry-over part or the entirety of your debt from another of your interest bearing credit cards to them. For instance, if you presently hold a 00 balance on one of your credit cards with an annual interest rate of 12 percent. So every month you are giving about twenty dollars a month in interest to the credit card company. By transferring this debt to a card that charges you no interest, you have essentially saved yourself twenty dollars a month.
It wasn’t too long ago that if you had good credit, you’d literally find your mailbox stuffed with zero interest credit card offers with introductory periods of a year or more. But lately these offers have been getting less frequent. Additionally, different credit card companies have varied definitions as to exactly what “zero interest” really means.
To some companies, zero interest means that the company will bill you zero interest on any thing that you charge during the introductory period. To others, 0 interest will mean that they will not charge you interest on any credit card balance that you transferred to them during the introductory period. To other companies, it can mean both, neither, or something else completely. To find out exactly what your zero interest credit card offer is refers to, there’s no alternative to reading the fine print in the credit card application.
How do you find zero interest credit cards? Pretty much all credit card companies have a presence on the Internet these days, so it’s relatively easy to power up your favorite search engine and type something like “zero interest credit card offers”. This will give you a great starting point for seeing what the marketplace is currently offering.
Another option you have is to visit one of the many Internet websites that rate and contrast various credit card offerings. Web sites like “CreditCards.com” and “CardRatings.com” offer convenient, one-stop comparison web sites where you can easily look at a number of different offers simultaneously.
And, lastly, you can contact your current credit card company to see if they will offer you a zero interest credit card or at least lower the interest that you’re paying on your credit card. If you have good credit, they may be happy to offer you such a deal to avoid the prospect of losing you to one of their competitors.
The really nice thing about having a zero interest credit cards is that it allows you to take advantage of deals that you come across. If you are able to pay off your credit card balance before the introductory zero interest disappears, you have essentially received an interest free loan for the purchase of something that you may have purchased anyway.
And this is why, ultimately, zero interest credit cards are primarily useful for individuals who know how to set a budget and handle finances.
