Tips for Consolidating Credit Cards
Credit card consolidation may save you a considerable amount of
money, especially if you're transferring the balances from high
APR (annual percentage rate) credit cards to low APR credit
cards, or better yet, one of the many credit cards that offer
zero percentage APR for balance transfers.
There are five distinct reasons why credit card consolidation
may very well be an excellent choice for you.
The first, as we just mentioned, is because your current credit
card or cards are costing you far too much in annual fee or APR.
It may be that the card you use for credit card consolidation
may not offer a permanently low APR but rather a short term zero
or low APR percentage for any transfer. Go for it! You can
always do credit card consolidation, or just one bulk transfer
to yet another card when the low introductory rate runs out on
this newest one you've chosen.
Annual fees can be a strong incentive for credit card
consolidation as well. These can add up, especially if you have
several credit cards. While many cards have annual fees around
$20 or $25 dollars, some can carry an annual fee as high as
$250. Keep in mind, however, that doing credit card
consolidation by transferring to a card that has no annual fee
is only advantageous if you're going to use that card for the
year. If, however, you're looking at a card whose introductory
rate is six months, after which the APR skyrockets, that low or
nonexistent annual rate is not going to be much help to you.
Your other credit card consolidation option may well be a
personal signature or collateral loan. While it might seem that
using a loan as a resource for credit card consolidation is a
little like robbing Peter to pay Paul, the fact is that your
monthly loan payment will be much easier to accomplish than the
use of one credit card. Why? Because you won't have the
temptation to use that credit card and rack up even heftier
credit card debt. If your credit card payments have been
continually late they've probably affected your credit. Credit
card consolidation may be a good way to reduce the debt and
improve your credit standing.
One last reason for doing a credit card consolidation is to make
a little money from it - right up front. There is so much
competition among the various credit card companies that some
literally offer to give you money back immediately if you'll
transfer your credit card balances to them. They do this by
saying that they're going to reduce that debt.
If, for example, you had a total of $2000 in credit card debt on
your current credit cards, you might do a credit card
consolidation with a new credit card that offers to forgive five
percent of your debt. What this means is that the minute you do
the credit card consolidation, transferring your outstanding
balances on your current cards, you've made five percent of
$2000, or $100 instantaneously.
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding
all aspects concerning Credit Cards. Get the information you are
seeking now by visiting Credit Card Consolidation