Using Your Credit Card to Buy Appliances

Credit cards are supposed to dispense with the need to carry huge amounts of cash for making expensive purchases. This is why credit cards are mostly useful when buying furniture.

Why Use Your Credit Card to Buy Appliances

Buying appliances on your credit card could actually be a good idea for several reasons. However, before you simply go out to make your purchase, you should check a few things first.

Interest Free Purchases at over 1,000 participating retailers

With the HSBC Credit Card you can enjoy interest free purchases for up to 5 years at over 1,000 retailers in Australia including home entertainment, furniture, and white goods. The HSBC Credit Card also features a $50 bonus credit just for purchasing on your card.

• $0 annual fee
• 17.99% p.a. on purchases
• 0% p.a. for 6 months with 2% handling fee on balance transfers
• Cash Advance Rate of 21.99% p.a.
• 55 days interest free
• Minimum Income Requirement of $20,000 p.a.

Read the HSBC Credit Card terms and conditions.

Purchase Protection Insurance

Check whether your credit card offers Purchase Protection Insurance for anything you purchase using your card. This can protect you against loss, theft or damage of the goods you buy. Compare some leading credit cards for shopping.

Extended Warranty Insurance

Ask your credit card provider offers Extended Warranty Insurance for buying appliances using your credit card. You should find you’ll gain an additional 12 months on top of your regular Australian warranty.

Let’s face it, how many times have you bought an item that broke only days after the manufacturer’s warranty expired? This option gives you an extra 12 months protection.

Credit Limit

Before you head out shopping for your appliances, take time to check that you have sufficient credit available on your card. If you have more than one credit card, and the one offering the free insurance protection perks doesn’t have enough credit available, you could either request a credit limit increase from your bank or you could take advantage of a low interest balance transfer option.

Interest Free Days

You could find that your appliance purchase could be interest free for up to 55 days. If you make your purchase at the beginning of the statement cycle and then spend a few weeks repaying your purchase, you could find it ends up being interest free.

However, if you made a larger purchase that you can’t repay within the interest free period, you have other options available to keep your interest costs at a bare minimum.

Balance Transfer to a Low Interest Rate Credit Card

Once you’ve made your purchase on the credit card offering the additional insurance extras you wanted, you don’t need to feel obliged to keep that same balance on that card.

Consider switching over to a balance transfer card offering a very low interest rate. There are some cards offering as low as 0% for six months on balance transfers. Essentially, you’d be paying no interest on the appliances you bought.

This way, you’ll be reducing your interest costs as far as possible, but you’ll still benefit from receiving the extra insurance from buying appliances on the card with the perks in the first place.

So if you’re thinking of buying appliances, but were initially worried about using a credit card to pay for the items, consider some of the benefits you could receive. It could turn out to be less expensive than you thought, as well as giving you extra protection and warranty that you may not have expected.

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%