Is Zero Percent For Real? Looking to pay off hospital bills or getting a self cert mortgage?

The desire to clear credit card debt is universal for anyone who is fighting this problem. And it isn’t an isolated issue. More and more people are finding problems with credit debt especially in these modern times when you just about have to use credit daily.

There is something slightly wierd about credit card companies calling in with offers to help you decrease your credit card debt when its themselves that have instigated the problem in the first place. It’s almost like a drug pusher pushing a new drug that enables you to get off drugs,only to find the new drug is just as addictive as the previous. But when you recieve offers for new credit cards each month, they often are pushing plans to help you get out of debt by going into debt with them.

Hospital medical bills can mount up but there are low intest loans available, so before you decide to use a credit card to pay of the hospital bill look into the loans available to you. 

The offers most widely available and one of the most difficult to over look are the offers to let you do a balance transfer of some of your debt and pay no interest on it. These are often called zero percent offers and they have a team of skilled marketing people writing copies for these offers so you are lead to believe that you are going to be able to have a loan paying no interest enabling you to just pay off the initial debt and that’s all.

So are these zero percent credit card balance transfer offers as good as they appear to be ? Well,they are in the sense that they might transfer some of the funds and yes, the interest rate you will see on the first statement will read at zero percent. But, like most good things, there are catches to look out for.

You need to remember that the credit card companies are entirely in the business of collecting interest.It is the sole purpose of their business, they offer no value to society, build no roads or hospitals, sell no foods or medicine,They sit there, house your debt, gather interest and try to draw you into running up more debt.

So when you get a zero percent offer, there initial concern is recovering the lost money from the time they support your debt and you pay no interest. One way they do that is with a transfer fee.

If you are looking to transfer your money to a credit card with zero percent to pay off bills for buiness account look at the small business loans which are on the market as this may be a better option. 

They will commonly charge you a 3-5% balance transfer fee with a minimum and sometimes a maximum value. Ensure you Read the fine print carefully to make sure you understand how much this transfer is going to be and what you are agreeing to. Be aware that the transfer fee is nothing more than hidden interest.

So you need to calculate that against the interest you would have paid leaving the debt where it is now before you choose a zero percent balance transfer.

You will rarely see a zero percent balance transfer that is doesnt have a very limited time frame, usually no more than three to six months.  So with the transfer fee factored in, you have to decide if the effort of moving  the money is worth it,  and at the end of the introductory period, they will raise your interest rate to a level that they, the credit card company want it to be.  Be absolutely sure you know what that interest rate is going to be and that they adhere to that stated level of interest.

Before deciding on a new credit card why not look at applying for a higher self employed low interest mortgage loan as this maybe a better option for your home.

If you take advantage of the zero percent transfer for three months and then face years at 21% interest, then the only winners are the credit card company.