subject: How To Avoid Extra Charges On Credit Cards [print this page] When it comes to credit cards, avoiding extra charges is, at the very least in the opinion of many commentators, very much the point.
What constitutes an extra charge, in the opinion of these people, is any charge at all.
In their minds the best practice for credit card holders is to borrow and then pay back quickly - either within a monthly interest free period or within a longer interest free period of a number of months - and, of course, pay back on time and make the payment at least the minimum to avoid any fees or charges being levied on the account.
Out in the real world, however, as, for example, when one goes to do a credit card comparison, it's clear that it's not so simple.
Lengthy interest free periods are only open to those with good or excellent credit reports yet it's only by borrowing that one builds up an excellent credit score so this is of little use as a piece of knowledge in itself.
It's also clearly not usually possible to borrow small and pay back quickly since, first, borrowing is determined by whatever you're borrowing for rather than some rule determined by a personal finance writer and, second, in the vast majority of cases, if you could pay back almost immediately you wouldn't need to borrow in the first place.
In addition, when it comes to products such as 0% balance transfer credit cards extra charges are unavoidable.
In almost all cases nowadays, moving a credit card balance from one place to another requires a percentage of that balance to be paid up front.
When the movement of balances is very swift - for example with instant decision credit cards - this can mean extra charges very quickly.
So, in all, let's define the term extra charges to mean any fees which are not part of the interest on the borrowing or are otherwise avoidable by switching to another product in the marketplace.
For example, at the moment a balance transfer fee isn't an extra charge because there's no card that doesn't apply it. However, if a card came out tomorrow with no balance transfer fee it would count as an extra charge.
So, how does one avoid these charges?
In the first instance one compares the market, as mentioned above, to find the products that don't levy such charges.
In the second instance, one reads careful credit card terms and condition are sticks by them to avoid fees.
