The time has come to ditch my old, usurous, credit cards and consonlidate my debt into the lowest-rate card I can find. Has anyone had a particularly good/bad experience with a particular card vendor? Any recommendations?
Read the fine print.
I’m getting multiple interest free (ie 0 percent interest) offers until October 2004 for the max limit of the card(s). I’ve found it’s less an issue of a specific brand “X” MC/Visa/Amex/Optima/Discover cards offering a deal, and more of a issue of cards that made money on me in the past deciding they’d like to take a run at me again and see if I screw up by making a payment late so they can jack it up to 15-22% (They rarely win ;)), or new card companies that see my credit is golden and are looking for new business.
Your best bet is to simply call bunch of banks issuing credit cards cards and see what kind of deals they are offering. This is the only reason I have not put my tele # on the “Do not call” registry. I get at least 2-4 calls a year from card companies offering unbeatable low or no interest rate deals and I roll my card debt around to the lowest rate.
The bottom line, as badmana indicated, is also to read the fine print, and what that tells you in most cases is that the low/no interest rates deals and practically everying else that’s important, is only in effect so long as the card company decides it is, regardless of what dates and other deals are being promised. You will also find that the penalities for late payments are severe ( $30- $50) and making more than one late payment will kick you up to an insanely usurious rate schedule.
I would also be careful about consoldating everything on one card unless you are supremely assured of your ability to make the payment on time. If you’ve lumped everything on one card and screw up, and the interest rate goes to 21% you’re effectively screwed.
Also bear in mind that if you have good credit you can negotiate with the card company that wants your business within limits. They are dozens of promos going on at once at any large card issuer. As an example for the zero rate deal till 10/2004, they wanted 100 to roll my balance onto the zero rate card and I told them I wouldn't pay more than 50 for a roll and she agreed. At first when I called about their deals they offered July 2004 at first until I told them competitior card Y was offering zero till November 2004 and they came back with October 2004. It’s all a game. They’re just hoping you’ll mess up.
It reminds me of this A.A Milne poem
Make sure whatever offer you take doesn’t have a ‘transaction fee.’
All the zero or super low rollovers I’ve done in the last year or so have had balance transfer transaction fees of about $ 50 or so involved given that the transferred amounts were well in excess of several thousand dollars, and given the interest savings it has been well worth it to pay it.
Here’s the best way to go about negotiating these kind of things:
1: Get into the habit of paying off each month’s balance, in full, each month. Do this like clockwork for several months. (As a byproduct of keeping an effective running 0.00 balance on your credit cards, you can enjoy the increasing stream of panicked “we’re raising your limit!” and “please use these ‘convenience checks’! PLEASE! OH GOD PLEASE!” mail the issuers will send you.
2: After a few months of the above, call up one of the issuers of your cards. Navigate the auto-response phone maze until you get an actual person. Tell them, “I would like you to give me a card with a lower APR/no annual fee/whatever.”
If they say yes, you’re golden.
If they say no, say, “Oh. That’s too bad. In that case, I need to cancel this card.” Be forewarned that this is like finally breaking up in a relationship where your partner is extremely emotionally needy and clingy. They’re not going to want to let you go. They’ll probably try to wheedle with you, and may well grab onto you and weep. Don’t be angry with them, just be gentle and firm.
Regardless of the outcome, card offers are going to pour in continually anyway. Pick and choose from them if you need another.