Financial News

Zero Percent Cards vs. Store Cards

21 06 2008

There are numerous credit card offers that you might want to take advantage of, but are they really that great for you? Sure there are a lot of articles on the web telling you to compare cards and chose the right one for you; however companies make that really difficult by offering very similar credit card rewards and deals. Store cards used to be extremely popular because of the discounts and savings you could earn. Now we are seeing articles warning consumers against the store card market.

In fact in a news release George Osborne states that the high street shops are pushing their store cards on shoppers, which have excessively high interest rates. The Office of Fair Trading may soon become a regulator for the cards to penalize any store with these rates. About 2.2 billion pounds is owed on store cards and the number of accounts in the last five years has double to 13.4 million. Compared to credit cards this is pretty low as there are more than 1 billion credit card holders in the UK at the moment with close to the same amount in outstanding debt.

The store cards are not the answer instead for consumers who need to take care of high debt and get a fair rate on a card they should be looking to the zero percent credit cards. A site www.credit-cards-0.co.uk compares every zero percent credit card offer on the market at the moment. The website is set up to help consumers find the best deal for them.

A zero percent credit card is based on an introductory deal. Most of the cards will have the same purchase rate as other cards on the market, but the balance transfer rate is zero percent for 3 to 17 months. There are also credit cards out there offering life of the balance transfers.

The life of the balance transfer will offer a reduced interest rate by half or even more than half to the consumer. This interest rate will stay on the card until the balance transfer has been paid off. Barclay is one card that offers the life of the balance. In fact their rate has been as low as 1.99 percent for this type of card.
When consumers consider the high interest rates on store cards that are usually five percent higher than a credit card and then you add in the special rates for the credit cards, it makes the store cards look even more unfavorable.

Shopping for a new credit card can be difficult and a long process even using a comparison site like www.credit-cards-0.co.uk. If you are one of the consumers with a store card you might consider checking to see if the new credit card will allow the balance transfer between the cards. It is rare, but some credit card issuers will allow store card balances to be transferred.

The only way to get out of debt is to take a proactive stand regarding credit cards to obtain a card that works for you not the company.

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