If you're feeling weighed down by the debt on your credit cards and wondering how you're going to make up enough to pay off the interest, let alone make a dent in that seemingly insurmountable balance, there is a solution to help you pay off your credit card debts without incurring loads of nasty interest charges.
In these days of the consumer society where we're all out spending like there's no tomorrow and racking up huge credit card bills, the banks are all desperate to get their teeth into us and take on all that debt (or more importantly for them, interest repayments), so much so in fact that they're willing to offer you inducements to switch your credit card balance to them.
This marketing ploy by the lenders is designed to give you a short term benefit in the hope that you'll stay with them and start paying interest (and thus earning them money) long after the initial interest free offer has elapsed. Human nature after all shows this to be true time after time. This, you can use to your advantage.
So let's say that Bank A is offering a credit card deal with a zero percent on balance transfers for 6 months. OK, so the first question is what does this mean. Simply, it means that in turn for transferring your debt to their bank they're willing to give you an interest free loan for 6 months to cover your balance. Nice.
So, you can get rid of those nasty interest payments and start concentrating on reducing the card balance for the next 6 months. All good so far, but after 6 months you'll start paying them the interest and, if you haven't cleared the balance by then, you'll be back to square one (albeit with a slightly smaller balance, if you've been good).
OK, so what's so great about that then? All we've achieved so far is saving 6 months worth of interest payments and you're still in debt, back to paying interest and not much better off: Right? Wrong.
Having already benefited from 6 months interest free credit on your card, why not do it again? There are plenty of banks out there all keen to take on your credit card balances so why not just keep on signing up for card after card until you've managed to pay off your full balance without paying a penny of interest?
Of course, there's also the matter of all the plastic that you'll have floating around having gone through this exercise, and this is where you need a little discipline. Rather than transferring your balance and just leaving that old card in your wallet, tempting you to come out and play, cancel the card once the balance is clear, then shred the plastic.
Follow this simple logic and in a matter of time (depending on the size of your balance and your ability to pay it off), you should be left with no huge debts, only one credit card in your wallet and a feeling of satisfaction that you just managed to get the banks to pay off all your credit card balances without charging you a penny of interest.
Paula Marriss is a financial advisor and editorial contributor at The Money Zone where she writes regular articles on Credit Cards and other Personal Finance topics. To read more please visit http://www.money-zone.net/creditcards/
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