0 credit cards (which means zero interest initially), are now common. The credit card will change to more than zero interest after a certain period, sometimes one year.
The first use of credit cards was in USA in 1950. They are now common in most parts of the western world, although more heavily used in some areas than others. The countries which use them most include USA, Canada and UK, while in Japan only very big businesses typically use them at all.
The companies which issue credit cards make their profit mainly from interest charged on outstanding balances, although they sometimes charge various fees in addition to this. They use the lure of zero interest initially to encourage new users to get the cards. The 0% interest charges might be applicable to balance transfers, purchases or sometimes both, although there can be additional rules for example sometimes cash advances are treated separately.
Sometimes cash advances accumulate interest from the first day they are obtained rather than the interest being charged from the billing date as it is with purchases. Also, sometimes repayments are applied to everything else before being applied to cash advances and they might even have a different, higher, interest rate.
Debt can be managed much more effectively while interest is not paid on it. Transferring existing borrowing to the new account avoids any interest for the initial period, and so enables the repayments to decrease the debt itself rather than just paying the interest every month.
Another use of zero interest balance transfer offers is to use the available funds to put into a savings bank account, thus making a real profit on the available capital. Other investments can sometimes be funded in this way, including stocks, shares, forex or commodity transactions. Sometimes the money needed to start a business is found this way. There is a rumor that the Google business was started using hardware bought this way.
Some profitable movies were funded using this method, and these include "Clerks", and "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming".
0 credit cards can be valuable if used wisely. - 31377
The first use of credit cards was in USA in 1950. They are now common in most parts of the western world, although more heavily used in some areas than others. The countries which use them most include USA, Canada and UK, while in Japan only very big businesses typically use them at all.
The companies which issue credit cards make their profit mainly from interest charged on outstanding balances, although they sometimes charge various fees in addition to this. They use the lure of zero interest initially to encourage new users to get the cards. The 0% interest charges might be applicable to balance transfers, purchases or sometimes both, although there can be additional rules for example sometimes cash advances are treated separately.
Sometimes cash advances accumulate interest from the first day they are obtained rather than the interest being charged from the billing date as it is with purchases. Also, sometimes repayments are applied to everything else before being applied to cash advances and they might even have a different, higher, interest rate.
Debt can be managed much more effectively while interest is not paid on it. Transferring existing borrowing to the new account avoids any interest for the initial period, and so enables the repayments to decrease the debt itself rather than just paying the interest every month.
Another use of zero interest balance transfer offers is to use the available funds to put into a savings bank account, thus making a real profit on the available capital. Other investments can sometimes be funded in this way, including stocks, shares, forex or commodity transactions. Sometimes the money needed to start a business is found this way. There is a rumor that the Google business was started using hardware bought this way.
Some profitable movies were funded using this method, and these include "Clerks", and "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming".
0 credit cards can be valuable if used wisely. - 31377
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Want to find out more about Credit Cards, then visit Thomas Goldman's site on how to choose the best 0 Credit Cards for your personal needs.
