How Many Credit Cards Will There Be?

Would you be surprised to be told that there are five hundred banks within London? Not branches but the actual bank itself; either the head office or a major office in the case of foreign banks. Now with all those banks the choice of credit cards should be huge and it is but why is there a choice? They all think we need different things from a card and they want to turn your needs into wants and will do all it takes to gain your business. You may be lured by the zero interest on balance transfers but have you considered the 2-3% balance transfer fee? Why should you pay this amount of money when you are paying for the ‘phone call and giving them your business? They think it is because you are a credit card ‘tart’ and when this offer ends you will just bounce off onto another provider. They need to make some money from you up front just in case you are a sensible borrower and won’t err from your path to be debt free.

Choice of Credit Cards.

There are around one hundred and fifty different credit cards on offer within the UK at any one time. Not many when you think about the five hundred banks we spoke about earlier but with our strict rules and regulations not everyone of them can or want to enter the credit card arena; but what about the ones who do? Why is there such a wide variance in what is on offer? Why do some offer zero percent interest on purchases but not on balance transfers? It would seem that we all want different things and these credit card providers are all attempting to give us these but do we compromise benefits and service for the lure of low interest rates?

Credit Card Benefits.

What do you get from your credit cards? Air Miles? Cash Back? Discounts? Travel Insurance? The list goes on and on but have you ever looked at what these things cost in comparison to what they would cost separately? It is always nice to get something for free but it very rarely happens. It does look attractive to have goodies come in but they are linked to your spending; the more you spend the more you get but you have to be able to pay the 2% or £5, whichever is the greater.

Minimum Payments.

What is a minimum payment? In general it is either 2% or £5 whichever is the greater and you have on average 56 interest free days but it never seems to work out that way does it? But what if you cannot afford to pay more than the minimum? You will be a credit card providers dream, you will keep your credit card rating, you will get your credit limit raised regularly but how much will it cost in the long term? If you only ever pay your minimum payment the average credit card bill could take over forty years to pay off but if you stuck to the same figure all the way through it would reduce greatly and cost you a great deal less.

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