Reducing Debt Through Balance Transfers

It may sound strange but if you are in debt because you inadvertently charged every single purchase you have made in the past year to your credit card, and yet only manage to pay the minimum - you can actually get out of the vicious cycle by getting another card and then transfer your balances. Confused? Lost? Not sure how that is so? Well, here’s how it works.

When you have a credit card, you are not required to pay any interest if you pay for all your purchases in full on your due date. If you pay only the minimum amount, and then use your credit card for additional purchases, the bank will see this not as an “advance” but more like a loan. Thus, they will charge you interest for your past purchase as well as your new purchases and this interest will be reflected on your next statement. If, again, you choose to pay the minimum and then use your credit card to make another purchase, you will, once again be charged interest (on top of the interest previously given) and then the cycle will repeat itself. It will keep repeating itself until you either stop using the card or settle the outstanding amount in full.

If you have found yourself trapped in this cycle and want to get out of it so you can gradually pay yourself out of debt, but don’t have enough money to pay for the outstanding amount in full, then securing another card and applying for “balance transfer” may be the solution to your problems.

Every card company has a “balance transfer” offer which you can avail of. In this option, the new card company will shoulder the full balance of your previous card which you are to settle in a pre-determined length of time. As a reward for choosing their service over the others, the card you have chosen may give you a break by either charging you a lower interest rate on the full amount, or none at all. The individual offers and benefits derived from balance transfers vary from provider to provider. To know more about the differences between every balance transfer offer and to compare each one properly, you can simply log on to credit-card related websites and review the information posted therein.

There are several sites found on the internet that provide consumers with a comprehensive listing of the services of credit card companies. These sites usually have an image of the credit card being evaluated on one side, and the benefits, promotions and services one can expect from these cards are listed in bullet points either beside or below the image. This precise and clutter free layout is indeed, very advantageous as visitors can just skim through the information and immediately pick up what’s important and what’s not. By going through these websites, selecting and applying for a credit card becomes easier and hassle-free.

So if you’re tired of being in the credit card cycle, go to a website that evaluates credit cards and find one that suit your finances. After you click on apply, you’re already one step closer to a debt free existence.