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Balance Transfer Credit Card – Debt Consolidation
Balance transfer credit cards can provide an excellent option for debt consolidation. Many Americans are currently in debt and struggling for a way out. Some choose to use a home equity loan to help get themselves out of debt, but not everyone has a home with built up equity to use for this purpose. In addition, putting your home up as collateral for debt consolidation can be a bit nerve-wracking and many banks enforce annual maintenance fees and monetary penalties if you try to close the equity line before a specified period of time.
Rising Interest Rates
Anyone that has been a credit card holder for some time or who pays attention to the financial marketplace knows that credit card rates on many cards have been on the rise. Often, credit card companies are more than happy to increase interest rates when the prime rate is raised, but they are not so quick to bring the rates down when the prime rate decreases. By consolidating your debt with a balance transfer credit card, you can remove your debt from your high interest cards and place it on your card with a lower interest rate. The best balance transfer credit cards offer low introductory rates or low fixed rates on balance transfers, making them a great option for debt consolidation.
What to Look For
When looking for a balance transfer card for debt consolidation, you generally want to find the card with the lowest long-term rate. More than likely, you will be consolidating a debt that you will be unable to pay in a short period of time. If this is the case, your low interest introductory period may be over long before you are done paying off the debt.
You also need to be cautious about fees when looking to consolidate debt with a balance transfer credit card. Many credit cards charge a fee for transferring balances from another card onto theirs. The best balance transfer credit cards will not charge an additional fee. In addition, some balance transfer credit cards require transferred balances to be requested at the time of application for the card in order to be eligible for the special introductory offer. While this may be fine for some people, you might want to have the flexibility to transfer balances. In this case, you will want to select a card that allows you to transfer balances any time throughout the introductory period.
For the very best balance transfer credit cards, you will want to find one that maintains the low APR throughout the life of the balance you have transferred. In other words, a balance you transfer on a card may have a 0.00% APR for the first six months, but then rocket to 19.99% when the period is over. On the best balance transfer credit cards, however, the low introductory offer remains in place until you pay off the entire amount you have transferred.
Self-Discipline
Obviously, a balance transfer credit card cannot do all of the work for you. While you can consolidate all of your bills onto just one card, you will need to be disciplined enough to pay the balance off. If your introductory period expires after so many months, you should create a budgetary plan that will have the balance paid off by the time the period is over. You might need to cut out some of the extras, such as the cup of fancy coffee you grab every morning, to help create a little extra cash flow. It will be well worth it when you find yourself out of debt. In addition, the money you are saving in finance charges should be paid toward your credit card debt
Myths on Payday Loans
What are you going to do if someone knocks on your door and hands you a couple of unexpected bills to pay? What if you have already used all of your money to pay for your monthly expenses? In reality, this incident happens a lot. People may have planned their budget well, but there are some unexpected expenses that usually catch them off guard. When this happens, people result to making payday loans.
In the UK, the most popular type of loan is referred to as payday loans. It is an easy and short-term loan used to fund unexpected expenses. People usually have a bad perception with payday loans. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with making payday loans. No matter how hard you try to secure yourself financially, things like this may still happen from time to time. Here are some of the common myths with regard to payday loans.
First myth – payday loans are availed only by poor people with bad credit. This is not entirely true. Although most people who avail payday loans belong to the lower echelons of society, payday loans are also offered to average and rich people. In fact, there are a number of average to rich citizens who are applying for payday loans from time to time. This is used to cover up for their miscalculations during budget planning and to pay for fees that were not anticipated. It is also a myth that payday loans are availed by people with poor credit. Often times, people would have reached their credit limits at the end of the month. But it is also at the end of the month where unexpected expenses arise. Thus, these people result to availing payday loans.
Second myth – payday loans have outrageously high interest rates. The myth regarding inflated interest rates is very much false! Actually, UK payday loans have slightly higher interest rates than regular types of loan. It should be noted, however, that payday loans are intended to be short-term loans. Payday loans are to be paid as soon as possible. Thus, the accumulated interest is not really very high. On the other hand, regular loans are intended to be long term. By the time when people are ready to pay their loan, the accumulated interest is already very high.
Third and last myth – payday loans are peoples last resort. This third myth tells us that only people who have run out of options choose to avail payday loans. This is a very big misconception. Although it is those types of people who usually avail payday loans, this type of loan does not only cater to them. It would actually save you a lot of time, effort, and resources if you would avail payday loans the moment you need them and not wait until you have exhausted all of your resources and options before doing so. Not everyone who applies for payday loans is desperate or free of any other option. In actuality, many people simply want to have more available money so that they can be ready for emergencies.