Search For Credit Cards

Studies show that the majority of American credit card holders do not pay close attention to their credit card statements and are paying billions of dollars in fees each year cumulatively because of it. Knowing which fees apply to certain circumstances and how to avoid them is a great way to avoid debt and save money, however there are some credit card terms and conditions that are not clear enough for the average consumer to understand. The best way to avoid “hidden” fees is to find a credit card with minimal fees, also known as a low fee credit card.

Types of Fees

In order to find the right low fee credit card it is first important to learn about the various types of fees that could appear on new credit card statement. These fees include annual fees, setup fees, cash advance fees, international purchase fees, phone service fees, and late penalties (which account for the most money spent in credit card fees each year). To

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If you’re on the market for a 2nd chance credit card and you’re not having a lot of luck applying for the mainstream ones out there, then you seriously need to consider rebuilding your credit score.  You can do this by getting a bad credit card.  This card will help you rebuild what credit score you had left and enable you to get back on the financial ladder in no time…

Now this wouldn’t be called Credit card comparision if we didn’t compare credit cards, so today we’ve got a couple of 2nd chance credit cards for you to take a look at.

Barclaycard Initial

• 29.9% APR.  Might sound like a lot but this is pretty average for a rebuilding card.  They want to make you pay off your balance at the end of every month so they scare you with this.
• Free purchase delivery insurance and identity theft protection.
• Access to the Barclaycard Freedom reward scheme.  This is one of the best reward systems today and basically means that you accumulate cash on your card to redeem at stores when you want.

Capital One Classic

• 34.9% APR.  Much higher than Barclaycard.  We understand that you should be put off spending too much money, but we didn’t mean you should be scared to death of the interest rate!
• Instant decision online when you apply.  Not really in great competition with the Freedom reward scheme from Barclaycard.

There really isn’t much more to Capital One than helping you rebuild your credit rating.  Barclaycard clearly win hands down in this comparison.

APR is an abbreviation for Annual Percentage Rate, which is basically another phrase used to describe a credit card‘s interest rate. Every purchase made with a credit card gathers interest that must be repaid eventually. For example, a purchase made with a card that has an APR of 5% would cause 5% of that purchase to accumulate in interest.

Thus, a $100 purchase with such a card would cause a debt of $105. Some credit cards offer grace periods that give the cardholder a specific period of time before any interest is charged on a purchase. Before applying for any credit card it is best to learn and understand the various aspects of the APR and how it is calculated.

Varying Calculations

Unfortunately, every credit card company uses a different method to calculate the APR> However, they are required by law to specify the APR and the methods used to calculate it as well. New cardholders will usually receive this information in a small booklet that arrives with the credit card in the mail. T

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It’s really the best way forward.  And if you don’t compare you’ll never know how much money you could have saved, or what bonuses and rewards you could get your hands on.  Credit cards are all about getting what you can when you learn to use them properly.  Today i’m going to look at a couple of credit cards and do a very basic comparison…

RBS Credit card

• 0% interest on balance transfers for 15 months (2.9% fee on the transfer amount)
• 16.9% APR
• 0% interest on purchases for first 3 months
• Discount reward system on shopping, wine and travel

Egg

• 0% interest on balance tranfers until Sep 2011.  This is also 15 months, just like RBS; Egg have just tried to make it sounds longer.
• 17.9% APR.  Not as good as RBS,
• 0% interest on purchases until October 2010.  Again this is the same as RBS and Egg are trying desperately to make it sound much, much longer.
• Egg Cashback store.  This is a reward system that offers cashback on online retailers.  This is great if you spend a lot of money online.

So you can see from the comparison that basically the RBS credit card is better than Egg for a variety of reasons, not least among them should be the fact that Egg are trying to fool you rather pathetically!  And that is basically how you do a very basic credit card comparison.  More next time.