Credit Card Offers

If you are currently looking for a new credit card, it is certainly worth doing a bit of research to make sure you get exactly the right one for your needs. One popular type of card is the 0% interest credit card, which can be very useful for many consumers. This article takes you through how they work and some of the key benefits.

What are they?

Interest free credit cards essentially do what they say on the tin. They offer you the chance to make purchases on your credit card at a 0% rate of interest. Read full post…

With so much in the news about hackers, online scamming ventures and identity theft, anyone whos ever entered a credit card number, password or security code into an online dynamic knows all too well the sense of dread that washes over you know knowing your privacy and financial livelihood has just been handed over to a virtual entity that we cant see, touch or hear.

It always fees more like a gamble than a transaction right? Even when were quite confident our transactions are safe, lets be honest, there are thousands of brilliant computer hacks who can make these security measures seem like childs play.

While there are no shortage of tips and ideas to keep yourself protected as much as possible, the fact is, nothings guaranteed.

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Low interest rates and reduced levels of property transactions led to borrowers repaying a record net £9.1billion of mortgage debt during the second quarter of the year, the Bank of England has reported.

A sluggish housing market, low returns on savings and economic uncertainty have put people off taking their cash out of their homes.

It means that housing equity withdrawal being negative in every quarter since the spring of 2008.

The Bank of England confirmed that its latest data showed the highest negative figure since comparable records began in 1970.

Analysts said the record net injection of housing equity reflected peoples desire to improve their personal finances and cut their debt, against a background of high unemployment.

Low savings interest rates, as the Bank maintains its base rate at a historic 0.5 per cent low, have increased the attraction for many people to use any spare cash left over to reduce their mortgages.

The figures were released the day after the Chancellors Autumn Statement, which outlined a package of measures aimed at injecting life back into the housing market, including underwriting mortgages for first-time buyers purchasing new-build homes, to help them on to the housing ladder.

The Government also plans to reinvigorate the right to buy scheme, a policy strongly associated with former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

But lenders and estate agents said ministers should have gone further by extending the current stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers, warning that withdrawing the concession in the spring will disrupt the already fragile housing market.

While peoples focus on paying down their debt may be more prudent than tapping into their housing wealth to supplement spending, it is more bad news for retailers as households budgets remain under pressure from high living costs.

Equity withdrawal accounted for 3.1% of peoples post-tax income during the second quarter of 2010, but during the second quarter of this year they spent the equivalent of 3.5% of their take-home pay on their mortgage.

Dont shed a tear for credit card companies. No matter what the headlines say about their parent entities, theyre mostly doing just fineand eager to earn your business.

If youre one of those highly empathetic people who tend to cry at sad movies (and, if you are, you really need to stock up on handkerchiefs before you see War Horse) then you may have been shedding tears for some of your favorite credit card companies. If so, you can dry your eyes. The parent companies of Chase and Citi may have published less than impressive fourth-quarter results recently, but its not their card divisions that are causing the problems.

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Education secretary Michael Gove’s call for a new royal yacht to mark the queen’s diamond jubilee is grotesque (Give Queen a new royal yacht for the jubilee says minister, 16 January). It’s impossible to believe that Gove could think people would support such a move, let alone see a £60m price tag as money well spent, in the midst of the economic crisis.

Monday’s Guardian was packed with examples of just how broken Britain is. Amelia Gentleman’s article (Below the breadline: the harsh reality of life on Liverpool’s workless estates, 16 January) on mass unemployment in Liverpool, the city top Tories wanted to abandon to its fate in the 80s, showed the poverty and despair that the government’s cuts are causing.

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With Christmas now behind us and many consumers looking to consolidate their debts, MoneySupermarket.com analysis shows that hundreds of pounds can be saved by moving to the best zero per cent credit card deals on the market.

Those unable to pay off their debt quickly and looking to spread the repayment costs over a period of time should ensure they have moved their outstanding credit card balance to a new zero per cent balance transfer card to potentially save hundreds of pounds in interest.

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