How to Get a Cheap Credit Card

It used to be said that, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” These days, though, it’s a different story. If you want to buy a home, it used to be good advice to save everything you could afford before you bought. Today, though, it’s not likely you’ll get a home at all if you wait that long. Because of this, today, you need to borrow for a lot of things. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to pay a lot of interest. You can find many low-cost credit cards and loans, no matter your income level or credit rating. It may take a little work to find these, but you need to find the right credit cards and loans for your needs. Doing so can save you literally hundreds of pounds in interest charges and fees every year.

Shop Online for Inexpensive Credit Cards and Loans

These days, it’s very easy to find an inexpensive credit card by shopping around online. Fortunately, it’s a lot less work than it used to be compared to other more traditional methods. The Internet has made it very easy to find the best deals possible on just about anything you’d want to buy. It’s also easy to find the best rates on credit cards and loans. There are a myriad of web sites out there for you to compare financial products so that you can find the best one for you. When you shop, you should look for those that offer you the best rates, fees and terms. A good option is to use a price comparison website that can compare hundreds of cards from multiple lenders in one go.

Even though online shopping has made it easier for you to find the best credit card and loan rates possible, it’s also true, unfortunately, that this also makes it easier for con artists to find you. If you have an e-mail address and you don’t take proper spam precautions, you’ll doubtless open your inbox every day to find it filled to overflowing with offers for cheap credit cards and loans. Even though a lot of these are legitimate offers and not scams, they’ll still cost you a lot more than you need to pay. And indeed, some of them are scams. Regardless, some may also put you hundreds of pounds in debt without giving you anything in return.

Avoiding Credit Card Mistakes

If you do apply for a credit card or loan without doing your homework first, it’s very likely that you’ll find yourself saddled with all kinds of debt that can quickly get out of control. One of the most basic and important rules to remember when applying for any kind of credit is to read all of the terms and conditions carefully.

This means you read the fine print on anything before you commit to it. Fine print is fine print specifically because it’s difficult to read and can also be difficult to understand, and it may contain information that is to your detriment. If you don’t take the time and trouble to read it, you could find yourself facing lots of extra charges and fees that you unwittingly agreed to when you signed on the dotted line. This is because you are legally responsible for anything you sign for. If you don’t read the fine print, it’s your fault. Therefore, take the time and trouble and read it.

For example, one of the most popular credit card products has an offering of a 150 limit with interest rate below 10%. Even though this sounds good at first, when you read the fine print you’ll find that you’re agreeing to pay an application fee of 60, an annual fee of 40, and perhaps worst of all, a monthly service fee of almost 10. Therefore, if you agree to these terms, your account will be charged 109.95, but your available credit will actually just be 39. On top of that, you’ll also be charged interest until you pay this off, meaning you’ll be paying a total of 159 per year for a credit card with a credit limit of just 150. So not such a good deal after all.

Perhaps the best option is a secured credit card. Almost anyone can be approved for one of these. To get a secured credit card, you need to make a deposit that usually equal to 50% to 150% of your initial credit limit. Most of these types of cards have no annual fees, and they also don’t charge monthly service fees or application fees. This is a much better deal because unlike the fees paid for the so-called “unsecured” credit cards, you can keep the money you would normally pay for fees. You can then put this to good use by leaving it in savings so that it can accrue interest for you, instead of spending it uselessly on fees you neither want nor need to pay.

by George King