As we have covered in other pages, there are hundreds of different credit cards available at the moment. One of the typical offers is a reduced or 0% rate of interest on any balance that is transferred onto the credit card when it is taken out. These deals are attractive for both the customer and the credit card companies. The customer has the opportunity to save substantial amounts of interest charges if they move a large outstanding balance from an interest charging card to the new 0% deal.

For the credit card companies. although they have to effectively lend money at 0% interest for a period of time, they are gaining new customers of exactly the type they want - people who not only spend reasonably freely on their credit card and do not pay off their balance in full, leaving an outstanding balance on which they can be charged interest. It was often the case until recently that people saw these interest free deals as a means to getting an interest free loan. They would move a large debt on a new card, benefit from the interest free period for as long as it latest and then sign up for a new card, again with an interest free period, and move the outstanding balance over to it. As long as they kept doing this the never paid any interest on the money they had borrowed. Credit Cards companies always knew this was going on but there was still a benefit to them to offer the deals as the number of people doing this was small. Well finally they have started to change their minds as things must have got worse for them as the technique became more popular.

They still like the idea of attracting high spenders who don't payoff their debts, they just don't want you to move on after they have given you the interest free period. So the trick now is to pin some nasty exit charges to the deals to make you think twice about leaving with your debt. Before you sign up for a zero percent balance transfer deal check the small print about exit charges and then work out it the deal is still as attractive.

When looking at zero percent balance transfer cards, customers should make sure that these cards really suit their purposes, because new prurchases added to the card will be charged at the card's standard rate, which in some cases may not be that competitive.