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Credit Card Balance TransfersThey're not as cheap as you might think!
Credit card balance transfers are increasing. More credit card companies have been offering incentives for users to transfer balances to their cards. Typically, the inducement is a very low rate of interest for an initial period of some 3 - 6 months. Of course, the company expects to be able to collect full rate - often 10 - 25% - after the initial introductory rate period. I won't go into the obvious factors of credit card debt. It's expensive! But I do want to point out one of the "small print" costs of using low-introductory credit card balance transfers, even if you have a legitimate reason. [A legitimate reason, for example, might be where you have an amount maturing in, say, 3 months that you are going to use for a major purchase. But, the item is available now at a good price. So you use a credit card balance transfer to "bridge" the time gap until your securities mature.] These promotions typically have a service fee associated such that it costs you a substantial chunk of money to actually access the low-rate financing. Read the fine print carefully to make sure that you save more interest or purchase price than you are paying to access the low rate of interest.
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