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By Russell Cavanagh Staff Writer
Monday, 22 September 2008
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Compare Credit Cards for Christmas
Apply for a Balance Transfer credit card:
Egg Credit Card
- 0% on balance transfers for up to 13 months (3% transfer fee)
- More in our Egg review...
Virgin Money Credit Card
- 0% on balance transfers for 16 months (2.98% fee)
- More in our Virgin Money credit card review...
Apply for a 0% purchase credit card:
Related Personal Finance Features and News
See our other recent related news stories:
Is Egg really the best balance transfer credit card?
Before even starting to compare credit cards, we've all heard of the Egg credit card. And while it is an excellent balance transfer credit card, is it really the best balance transfer credit card on the market?
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CHRISTMAS should be a time of joy and celebration for most of us. However, as we all know, buying gifts can not only be very expensive but the credit card bills in January usually arrive with numerous and weighty utilities bills.
To make matters worse, January is a particularly long month before payday arrives and this is even more true if your employer kindly paid December's salary early in anticipation of Christmas.
It pays to compare credit cards for the best deal if you need to borrow for the expense of Christmas.
The most obvious options open to borrowers on a budget are 0% Balance Transfer credit cards and 0% or low-interest purchase credit cards.
0% Balance transfer credit cards
If you are maintaining hefty payments on existing credit, you may want to consider a 0% balance transfer credit card so that you can defer paying off your debts until some point in the future.
This would free up cash in the shorter term.
A balance transfer credit card is also particularly useful come January when your Christmas credit card bills come falling through the letterbox (keep in mind that you usually only have a few weeks after opening a credit card when you’ll be able to transfer a balance, so best to apply for the card just before Christmas so that it is ready for balance transfers at the end of January.)
Egg and Virgin Money credit cards currently provide the best 0% transfer deals with long repayment periods before interest starts.
0% balance transfer credit cards are great for stopping existing credit debts from growing out of control and allowing extra time to sort finances out.
However, it's very important that these types of card be seen as a way of freeing up cash rather than providing plastic for purchasing.
If you make purchases on a balance transfer card, interest will almost certainly be applied to your purchase transactions and repayments will not be credited to these more expensive credit items until the 0% transfer balance is paid up in full.
 You can compare balance transfer credit cards here
0% purchase credit cards
0% purchase credit cards usually give an interest-free repayment period of at least three months - and usually much more – before interest starts.
This can mean that purchases made in December need not be paid off until well after the difficult month of January, when there are usually higher priority demands for ever-spiralling gas, electricity and water bills.
Top card providers in this category include Capital One Platinum, Halifax All in One and the Amazon credit card.
You can compare credit cards with 0% purchase rate here
Summing up
Nearly all 0% balance transfer or purchase credit cards do not charge annual membership fees these days.
However, there may be other fees such as a 2% to 3% of transaction value fee for balance transfers.
Cards like the Capital One Platinum offer a combined 0% interest-free period on both balance transfers and purchases.
However, in most cases your decision should be made on an “either/or” basis – that is, a card solely for purchases or purely for balance transfers.
The useful credit card comparison table here will actually tell you if a balance transfer card is suitable for spending on too.
On no account withdraw cash from ATM machines or request cash-back at stores or supermarkets.
Interest on such transactions is usually significantly higher than the standard headline interest advertised and applies immediately from date of transaction.
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