Help! What Kind Of Credit Card Is Good For Me?

Find the right credit card for you and your financial situation

Promotional Credit Card Offer from St.George

The St.George Vertigo MasterCard is currently featuring a special promotion for new applicants, where you will have the opportunity to access low interest rates both on new purchases you make on your credit card, and on balance transfers for any existing credit card debt you transfer from a store credit card or any other non-St.George bank credit card you own.

• $55 annual fee
• 13.24% p.a. on purchases
• 0.99% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers
• Cash Advance Rate of 21.49% p.a.
• 55 days interest free
• Minimum Income Requirement of $15,000 p.a.

Read the St George Vertigo terms and conditions.

Interest Free Days on Purchase

If you are able to pay your balance off each month, this may be the credit card for you. Of the (right for you) kinds of credit cards, this will be the best sort if you do not roll over balances each month, thereby giving you free interest on all your purchases. Remember, interest is charged on any rollover of the previous months balances, and this may be one of the reasons that this credit card type will not work to your advantage. If these (right for you) kinds of credit cards are utilised properly, you can make all the purchases you want without ever having to pay interest. If there is a rewards program with it, all the better for you.

Low Interest Credit Card

If you are unable to pay your entire balance each month, then the credit card issuer will charge interest on the amount of rollover. Obviously, in looking at the (right for you) kinds of credit cards, you will find that the lower interest cards win out. The reasons behind this are that you get to use the full balance of your credit line and you pay the lowest interest possible. This means with these type of credit cards, when you do pay them down, more of your payment goes towards the balance, rather than interest, and they are paid off more quickly in this manner.

Of course, as you carry a balance month to month, you get no days of free interest, as all purchases start being charged interest from day one. However, if you have a low interest rate such as 10%, the reasons for owning this credit card become evident. It won’t matter much in the long run that you did not get free interest days. Remember, even with this type of card, you still want to pay your balance down as much per month as possible, thereby limiting the amount of interest you do pay.

Balance Transfer Cards

Reasons for owning these kinds of cards are quite simple. You may have several credit cards with balances at high interest rates. A balance transfer card may be taken out to transfer these higher interest card balances to it. The best balance transfer cards offer 0% interest for six, nine or twelve months. Some may offer initial interest rates around 2.99%, but if you have other cards charging 29 to 32%, the balance transfer card interest is negligible.

When you transfer balances to this card, pay as much as you can while you are getting the favourable interest rate. It is much easier to pay balances down at this point, as most if not all of your payment amount goes towards principal and not interest. Be aware, however, that at some point the interest rate will go back up at the end of the introductory period. Read the card application before you apply so that you will know how long the special interest rate lasts and what the interest rate will normally be.

Check out today's featured offers:

Westpac Low Rate	Citibank Clear Platinum	Qantas AMEX Discovery	ANZ Platinum
0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers	2.9% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers	$0 annual fee Up to 10,000 Bonus QFF Points	0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers

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Popular Credit Card Offers

			Interest Rate (p.a.)	Balance Transfer Rate (p.a.)	Annual fee	Cash Advance Rate (p.a.)
	Westpac Low Rate Card - 0% Offer	A credit card with a low rate offer on both balance transfers and purchases, plus a low annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 13.49% )	0% for 6 months	$45	21.49%
	Citibank Clear Platinum Card	Competitive interest rate on purchases and balance transfers offer.	11.99%	2.9% for 12 months	$99	21.74%
	St George Vertigo	Take advantage of this great offer from St.George with a low rate on purchases and a low balance transfer offer.	13.24%	0.99% for 12 months	$55	21.49%
	ANZ Platinum Credit Card	An introductory interest rate offer on balance transfers and purchases, plus a $0 first year annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 19.24% )	0% for 6 months	$0 annual fee for the first year( $87 thereafter)	20.99%