Let’s look at what is credit card

A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that it does not remove money from the user’s account after every transaction. In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user). It is also different from a charge card (though this name is sometimes used by the public to describe credit cards), which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to ‘revolve’ their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.

Most of us own at least one or even more credit cards now, if you pay off the outstanding amount, it can be very handy in many situations, i.e you don’t have to carry bag of cash each time you want to do some big purchases. It can also come to rescue when the financial situation is really bad. Though there’s a risk, however, credit card is very useful especially considering the growth in online shopping.

Some people still refuse to use credit cards as I believe they were put off by the high interest. They are right, but if you pay off your outstanding amount at the end of the month, I don’t see the bad side of the credit cards.

There are credit cards who give you cash back. Some of them offer 0% interest on purchase for a certain period and some of them do 0% on transfer.

I am going to share my experience. I owed £500 on the plastic 3 months ago, the monthly interest is about £8 because I am paying the minimum payment. I have £1200 in my saving but I did not wish to clear the card because the money was set aside for my 3 weeks holiday to Malaysia.

I searched around on the net and found this card offer 0% on purchase and transfer for 12 months, I signed up without hesitate and transfer my old balance to the new one, then I put my £1200 into another saving with higher interest saving account to make sure it will clear the credit card at the end of 12 months. I also request the card limit to £1700 (they offer a lot more) so I won’t be over spending and make sure I keep up with the monthly payment to avoid any charges.

By doing so, I’ll save about £100 of total interest charged on my previous credit card balance, and earn some interest from my £1200 in the saving account.

If you are after a credit card, I would suggest you to go for 0% on purchase card, with no annual fees. Search around on the web for best deals.

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