While it may give you a temporary headache, reading the fine print on credit card offers does pay off.
Consumer Reports composed research to narrow down the best credit cards available, and in the process it found a few so bad it had to warn us to stay away in its October issue. Here are the three cards they say are the pits; if you come across other cards with similar terms, steer clear.
- First Premier Bank Card: Its 9.9 fixed APR is fine, but the card comes with first-year fees up to $276.
A grace period is the period from the date a statement was prepared by the issuer (statement date) to the payment-due date. No interest will be charged if the whole balance is paid by the end of the period. These interest-free grace periods typically last 25 days, but 20-day periods are becoming more common.
The Farhat family
relied on nine credit cards, until Good Morning America challenged them to go credit card-free for one month in a test to find out if cash-only spending means spending less overall. They snipped eight of their nine cards to pieces and
kept one card in their freezer in case of emergencies.
The family's 30-day challenge has come to an end, and
the 24 percent savings they achieved compared to the month before is enough for them to consider permanently switching to cash.
Best Buy's "featured offer" seems like a no-brainer for buying brand-new electronics — two years with no interest comes across as a great way to buy it now and pay later without punishing interest charges. If you're not turned off by the notion of being accountable for
yet another credit card, then here's something else to consider that might make you think twice about financing your new TV with a store's zero-interest proprietary card.
You know that a credit inquiry can temporarily
shave points from your score, but the low credit limit on these store cards may have a more negative impact.
