How You Could Lower Interest Rates on Your Credit Card Balance

Finding Lower Interest Rates for Your Credit Card Balance

If you look closely at your credit card statement, you should find that there is more than one interest rate noted. This is because most cards charge you one rate for the items you purchase and another, often higher rate for cash advances.

For households who struggle to repay a credit card balance in full and carry an outstanding balance, this can add up to a lot of unnecessary costs that could be reduced.

Featured Low Interest Credit Card

With a promotional balance transfer rate and interest rate on purchases, the St.George Vertigo MasterCard has consistently been one of the most competitive credit card offers in the Australian market.

• $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.

Lower Purchase Interest Rates

Shop around with different credit card providers to see if you can find one that charges a much lower rate than you’re currently paying on purchase interest rates. Even though you’ll still be paying interest if you don’t repay the balance, at least you know it will be lower than you’re being charged right now.

Don’t Use Cash Advances

Withdrawing cash advances from your credit card often attracts a much higher interest rate on the amount you withdrew. If you can, try to avoid taking cash advances from your credit card balance.

Credit cards have a sneaky way of charging interest that lets them put all of your repayments onto paying off your purchases first. This leaves the cash advance amounts outstanding and attracting a higher interest rate for longer.

Low Rate Balance Transfers

You might find there are several really low rate balance transfer offers available. The object of these types of cards is to roll the balance from your high interest credit card over to a low rate balance transfer card.

You’ll be saving money by reducing how much interest is being charged on your outstanding debt. You could also find that your monthly repayment amount is reduced too.

Always keep in mind that most balance transfer offers are for an introductory period, usually 6 or 9 months. When the low rate expires, your credit card interest rate will revert to the higher purchase rate, so be sure you understand how much you’ll be charged in rates when this happens.

Pay More Than Minimum

Another way to reduce how much you pay in credit card interest rates is to try to reduce your outstanding debt amounts. If you’ve taken advantage of a low rate balance transfer offer, then try to pay more than the minimum payment due each month.

This will help reduce your balance more quickly, which means you’ll be charged less interest as there’s not as much debt outstanding.

There are plenty of ways to reduce the credit card interest rates you pay. Shop around and see if you can find ways to lower your rates. You’ll soon find it’s much easier to begin working on a debt reduction plan when you’re not worrying about paying such high rates.

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%