Cheeky credit card balance transfers could hurt later
Ah, you cheeky little card tart you. You're probably reading this because you're one of those people who know what a 'card tart' is. You may have been serially transferring your balance from card to card for years, taking advantage of all of those scrumptious 0% balance transfer offers, and let's face it, becoming addicted. It has got under your skin and into your blood and you just can't give up. After all why pay interest when you can just transfer again and get another X months free? Unfortunately the fact of the matter is that credit card companies are wising up and it's becoming more and more difficult to do this kind of thing. Heed well this warning!
People often change their existing credit card balance to a new credit card for two reasons. Firstly the interest on your existing card may have got too high and now your repayments are hardly touching the amount you owe. Secondly you have seen an excellent 0% credit card balance transfer offer on another card and want to take advantage of it. 0% balance transfer periods mean what it says on the tin; you do not pay any interest on the amount that you owe. The length of time that the transferred balance remains free varies but the average has now hit around 10 months.
The reason is that they have discovered a more direct approach to dealing with the small pockets of resistance: they simply don't give them a card. When you apply for a credit card the card company checks your credit rating with one of the credit referencing agencies. Your credit rating is a record of your relationship to credit companies and contains information on the cards you've applied for, the amount of credit given, how prompt you have been with repayments and so on. If the credit provider notices a tendency of card tarting on a regular basis they will decline your application because you simply don't make them enough money.
So how does the card tarter get around this? Well the best thing could be to take the battle still further underground. You may need to make it look less like you are a card tart and more like you are a normal credit card user. You could perhaps do this by making some token purchases on your credit card and paying them off. Or you could keep the card longer than the balance free period. Of course, this goes completely against the credit card tart's inner nature and the Jedi code but it could perhaps be the only way to make the most of 0% balance transfers. The point is that you have to side with the enemy slightly for your own mutual advantage. If you are declined for an interest free card then you could end up losing a lot more money than if you buy the odd purchase here and there.
And the battle rages on. The introduction of credit card balance transfers was fantastic for consumers. The introduction of fees wasn't so great but you can certainly see why the move was made. Now with the return of the no fee cards, but with the clamp down on who is accepted for the cards, the battle has entered a new phase. It is perhaps time for the rebel forces of the card tarts to evolve too so that the credit card companies don't launch the big ships and pull out completely. Stop being phantom menaces and become the new hope for the future.
People often change their existing credit card balance to a new credit card for two reasons. Firstly the interest on your existing card may have got too high and now your repayments are hardly touching the amount you owe. Secondly you have seen an excellent 0% credit card balance transfer offer on another card and want to take advantage of it. 0% balance transfer periods mean what it says on the tin; you do not pay any interest on the amount that you owe. The length of time that the transferred balance remains free varies but the average has now hit around 10 months.
The reason is that they have discovered a more direct approach to dealing with the small pockets of resistance: they simply don't give them a card. When you apply for a credit card the card company checks your credit rating with one of the credit referencing agencies. Your credit rating is a record of your relationship to credit companies and contains information on the cards you've applied for, the amount of credit given, how prompt you have been with repayments and so on. If the credit provider notices a tendency of card tarting on a regular basis they will decline your application because you simply don't make them enough money.
So how does the card tarter get around this? Well the best thing could be to take the battle still further underground. You may need to make it look less like you are a card tart and more like you are a normal credit card user. You could perhaps do this by making some token purchases on your credit card and paying them off. Or you could keep the card longer than the balance free period. Of course, this goes completely against the credit card tart's inner nature and the Jedi code but it could perhaps be the only way to make the most of 0% balance transfers. The point is that you have to side with the enemy slightly for your own mutual advantage. If you are declined for an interest free card then you could end up losing a lot more money than if you buy the odd purchase here and there.
And the battle rages on. The introduction of credit card balance transfers was fantastic for consumers. The introduction of fees wasn't so great but you can certainly see why the move was made. Now with the return of the no fee cards, but with the clamp down on who is accepted for the cards, the battle has entered a new phase. It is perhaps time for the rebel forces of the card tarts to evolve too so that the credit card companies don't launch the big ships and pull out completely. Stop being phantom menaces and become the new hope for the future.
About the Author:
John Evans writes for various popular financial websites. He specialises on providing consumers with clear information on credit card matters. Find out more about compare credit card and the UK card here.
posted by Debt Consolidation Loan at
1:39 AM
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