There are a host of offers out there that claim to be 0% Credit Cards. This can either be for balance transfers, purchases or a mixture of these. Spread over 3, 6 or 12 months or even longer in some cases.

There was a time where you could move your balance from one card to the next seeking out the 0% deals and thus never actually pay any capital or interest at all. The providers did not take long to wise up to this and an introduction of the transfer fee of anything up to 4% of the balance transferred came into effect. This put a stop to people moving from one to the other. They even created a term called “Rate Tarts” for these people.

However there are still some products out there that have excellent offers but you must look at these and see if they provide what you are looking for. If you think you will get free credit that just will not happen, but you can, with a little bit of homework save money by moving to another card.

Therefore if you are looking at a 0% balance transfer card be aware it may not actually be as good as it looks. Before you decide to go ahead with this you should do your sums. Build in the cost of the transfer, usually between 2 – 4% and also consider what rate applies after the initial 0% offer has expired. It may be that the APR they will charge you after initial introductory offer is over, is a lot higher than your current rate therefore your gains by receiving the 0% will be wiped out very quickly.

Also you should look at how the credit card company you are looking to move to applies your payments when they are made each month. What you may find is that they apply payments to the balance transferred first and charge you full APR for purchases. Therefore the benefit of the 0% will not be for the full promotional period and when doing your sums make sure this is factored in to see if you are getting a good deal or not.