Archive for June, 2011
Shopping had never been lousy since the advent of credit cards. Since then, people had always been indulging into various cashless shopping due to the convenience of the credit card.
However, most people get credit cards only for the sake of shopping. They do not even read the fine print on their credit card and the least that they have considered is the one with the low annual percentage rate or APR. Most of them did not even know how interest rates could affect their billing.
On its general since, low APR credit card are those that have lower APR. This means that the cost of the interest rate will be according to the purchases obtained by the customer.
Normally, APR vary from 6% to more than 30%. Of course, it would be clear that the card with the lowest APR credit card is those that have 6% or lower.
But consumers should remember, that APR can be very tricky especially if the consumer have no idea what interest rates mean.
Basically, credit card companies would offer the consumers very low APR credit card so as to get the consumers on the hook. In fact, credit card companies could lower their APR to as much as 0%.
Low APR credit cards are usually expressed during the introductory rate so as to entice new credit card holders to sign up to them; and once they are all hooked up, the credit card company would start changing and increasing their credit cards.
People should know what makes a low credit card really low and the best option for retaining that low APR even if the introductory offer is over.
First, they should know that APR has two faces: the fixed and the variable.
The fixed APR has more stable interest rates than variable rates. Variable rates, on the other hand, can start really low but it all depends on the prime rate of the Federal Reserve. This means that at any point in time, it may increase.
Needless to say, there are really quite a few credit cards that have low APR. The reason behind it is that APR is actually where the credit card companies get to earn a living. If they continue to give people the low APR that they used to claim, chances are they wouldn’t be in the business for so long.
The bottom line here is that consumers should be really conscious on their APR and other interest rate. Low APR credit cards will not be very beneficial if it will only last for 6 months or so.
If you own or operate a website in conjunction with your business, consider posting a Visa logo, or even Visa / Master Card logos on your website. Visitors browsing the site will be more apt to linger and shop when they know you offer the convenience of buying on credit cards.
To display Visa or Master Card logos on your site, you will need to apply for a merchant account. This is a special account set up by a financial lender that allows you to accept credit payments via credit and debit cards at your point of sale. For website owners, this is a terrific way to get customers to buy now and pay immediately to avoid the risk of losing a sale or late payment. While some website operators simply have customers dial a toll-free telephone number to make automated purchases, more and more vendors are choosing to open a merchant account to facilitate customer sales online.
It’s easy to apply for a merchant account so you can use visa and credit card logos on your website. Simply work with Merchant-Account-Quotes.com so they may find the best merchant account provider for you. Many are merchant service providers are waiting to accept and approve your application. When approved, you can start promoting the fact that you now accept credit payments by posting a prominent ad for a Visa logo or combination Visa and Master Card logos. Customers are conditioned for this uniform display, and they will be looking for it when they visit your site.
Make it easy for visitors to find the Visa and Master Card logos. Place them in an prominent area of your website. Depending on your site layout, this area for credit card logos might be somewhere near the top or side navigation bar. Or you might want to put the logos at the bottom of the page if the page is not terribly long, and if you are reasonably sure customers will read to the end and thus find the Visa and Master Card logos.
Another way to promote this service is to feature it in a box somewhere at the side of the home page, or on each page of the site. It shouldn’t be too large, as though a Visa or Master Card logo were the most important detail of the page. But neither should it be too small, where many hurried customers could easily overlook it. When copying it onto your website page, check before making it live to ensure the graphic image is clear and well defined. A sloppy credit card logo can be a total turnoff for customers in search of professional vendors.
Adding Visa and Master Card logos to your company’s website marks you as someone who cares about customers’ needs and technologically competent. Find out how you can add these credit card logos to better enable your business to conduct e-commerce while observing contemporary payment trends. Your customers will appreciate the courtesy of credit payment options, and may show their gratitude through repeat business or positive word-of-mouth referrals.
If you’re of age and with a permanent source of income, maybe it’s time to own a credit card. If you haven’t ever considered owning a credit card, maybe it’s time to do so. There are a lot of good things that could be made possible simply by owning a credit card.
First, credit cards could be of utmost use in times of emergency and unplanned events. If your car breaks down and you don’t have cash with you, the words “credit card” may never sound more beautiful to anyone’s ears than yours. If you find yourself accidentally breaking an expensive crystal vase in the mall and once again you don’t have enough cash with you, guess what alone could help you if there’s no one to lend you some money? Your credit card of course!
And those are just necessity-related-advantages of credit cards, mind you. We haven’t yet gotten to the best part of credit cards yet and that’s how it allows us to indulge and pamper ourselves from time to time. Say, you just got out of a very bad relationship and you want to relax and enjoy yourself for a while after feeling down for so long. If you don’t have enough money to make your plan to self-indulge possible, your credit card could always come to the rescue!
And of course there’s the fact that credit cards let you shop for the more expensive things that you used to allow yourself to drool about only and never own! Well, guess what again? Owning a credit card would allow you not just to drool but own those things as well!
Convinced then? Good, because it’s now time to pick what type of credit card you should apply for.
There are just two main types of credit cards – the type that offers reward and the type that doesn’t. We’ll be picking one from the latter category to discuss and this type of credit card is called the 0% intro rate credit card. Sounds nice so far, right?
Well, a 0% intro rate credit card, as we mentioned, is a non-reward type of credit card so that means you don’t get to earn reward points each time you utilize your credit card. On the other hand, you do get to enjoy 0% interest rate for all your purchases. That’s right – all your purchases shan’t be charged with any interest whatsoever!
What’s the catch? Well, the 0% interest rate isn’t a forever thing and once the time limit expires, you go back to the normal rates. The good news: if you have something expensive that you need to buy NOW then the 0% intro rate credit card is the optimum choice for you!