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Credit Card Surfing 101 And How It Can Affect Your Credit Score
By: Alan Bernstein
With the tremendous competition building up, many credit card companies have
started offering introductory 0% APR credit cards. Aimed to attract new credit
card applicants, no interest charges are applied to outstanding balances during
the 0% APR period. With this, users can afford to pay only the minimum each
month without being charge hefty interests until the promotional period is over.
This situation forms a loophole that can be exploited by credit card surfers.
Purchases are made with their 0% APR credit cards till the maximum credit limit.
Only the minimum amount imposed by the credit card company will be paid each
month without incurring the cost of interest charges. Once a card is maxed out,
credit card surfers will make an application for another 0% APR credit card and
repeat the same cycle.
Sounds like a great way to get free cash, doesn’t it? Well while you may be able
to surf through a few cards, sooner or later you are bound to come to a road
block. With huge debt piled up with interest rate charges imposed after
introductory 0% APR rate period, credit card surfers will have to face
snowballing debt once interest rate charges come into the picture. The exception
to this is when credit card surfers pay off all their outstanding debt before
this happens.
Otherwise, with multiple credit cards in their hands, each of which are charged
till the maximum in credit limit, any default or late payments will result in a
bad credit score. Now, what are the consequences of a bad credit score?
Well, now that you are labeled as a high risk lender, you probably won’t be
entitled for any more regular credit cards. The only ones that you could acquire
are high interest credit cards catered specifically for consumers with bad
credit reports. This puts you at a disadvantage as you are now paying higher
interests.
Apart from that, getting your loan approved for a car or a house will also be a
challenge. You probably will have to pay much more in interests than others. In
the end, it may be best that you don’t make the purchase until your credit
report is set straight. This will only happen if you pay off your outstanding
credit card debt and maintain a good payment history for the next 6 months to a
year. This is the hard part as you need to work harder or take on another job to
get your debt cleaned up.
About the Author:
Alan Bernstein recommends Find Credit Cards to apply for an American Express
credit card today. See http://www.findcreditcards.org/issuer/american-express.php
for more information. |