Finance & Marketing

The first thing that may cross your mind if you are in financial problems and trying to sort out outstanding debts is why do you need another credit card. Credit cards are all about convenience and are a service provided by financial institutions to their customers and, if anything, will only make you have more debts than reduce them. And to some extent this is true. This article will discuss why a low interest credit card for debt consolidation can help you sort out your financial problems.

Credit cards earn a lot of money for banks and financial institutions. They are crucial to the banks success and thus plenty of thought goes into coming up with new products. A credit card with a good repayment rate or a unique incentive may get more people to take the card. A common incentive is air miles for a purchase. This could appeal to many people but most likely to people that do lots of overseas travel - business people for instance.

In terms of people with financial problems the low interest credit card with a balance transfer option is probably the most appealing. The main aim of such a card is to transfer your existing credit card debts to this card. Depending on the card you go for, you will have a period of time where you don’t have to pay interest on the transferred debt.

With this done, you should be determined to pay of the debts before the balance transfer introductory period is up. In this way, you will save money on interest payments. It will also help you to stay focused on paying off the debt because you know you will save money if you don’t hit the deadline. The debt payment will only be once a month too, making it easier to stay organized and not miss payments, as you may do with many cards.

However, it is important to point out that you have to pay of the debt within the introductory period. Don’t think that you don’t have to worry about the debt for another six months or however long the introductory period is. Otherwise, you will get a nasty shock when the repayments on the transferred balance are due.

So you don’t really need a low interest credit card for debt consolidation. You could try getting a bank loan instead. It would probably have a lower repayment rate than the credit card but it is not likely to have a zero interest rate introductory offer.

However, it is vital that you pay off the debt within the six month introductory period or you won’t be better off. This is something you have to decide about before consolidating your debt. If you don’t think you can pay off the debt within six months then maybe a low interest credit card with balance transfer is not for you. You may save more money by getting a bank loan.

Having said this, another advantage of the low interest credit card is that it is probably easier to get than a bank loan or other form of credit. This is appealing to many people who don’t want to jump through rings of fire to get a way to consolidate their debt.