Credit Cards

Credit cards can be an extremely useful way of sourcing short-term or emergency cash. If you are disciplined about your financial management, credit cards can also provide great additional benefits such as zero per cent interest (introductory periods only) and air miles. It is only when the card balance is not cleared at the end of each month that problems arise, since the interest rate for repayment of credit card debt is almost the highest on the market - up to 25 per cent in some cases.

When you are looking for a credit card, it's important to look for the best deal to suit your financial situation. For example, if you are going abroad and need to source short-term cash with the intention of repaying it upon your return, you should look for a card that offers you the longest time at zero per cent interest. If you have built up credit card or store card debt from past spending and are being charged high interest rates, you can switch to a credit card offering zero per cent on balance transfers for a limited period of time. This would give you some breathing space to get the debt cleared. As long as you are prepared to pay off your credit card in full each month, using it for groceries and other everyday expenses can reap a variety of benefits including free flights and cashback. SimplyFinance has collated the best credit cards on the market for the purposes of comparison. Click on the link below to compare credit cards today and find the best deal for you.

Points to Consider when Comparing Credit Cards

• Compare like for like.  There are many seemingly too-good-to-be-true credit card deals when you only look at the interest rates offered by credit card companies.  Therefore, you should use the APR (annual percentage rate) rather than the interest rate to compare credit cards.  This figure combines the interest rate and any additional fees and charges that you are liable to work out the 'true cost' of each credit card.
• Check how the credit card company calculates your balance.  Calculating using the 'adjusted balance' means that your balance at the start of the billing cycle is adjusted according to payments that you make during that cycle, but not adjusted upwards for purchases that you make. This works out the most favourably for the card holder.  The 'average daily balance' is where the daily balances for each day of the billing cycle are added together and the total is divided by the number of days in the cycle. Payments and purchases made during the cycle are both used to adjust the amount that you owe.  Using the 'previous balance' only considers the amount that you owed at the end of the last billing cycle.  Therefore you can still be charged interest after you have paid off the card, so this method does not work in the card holder's favour.  Ask your card company which method they use.