If you are like most Americans, you have a pile of credit cards bulging in your
wallet. The credit card companies make it easy for us to open more and more card
accounts, each with a higher credit limit. Start using them and you will be in
trouble fast. You may start out using them because they have low interest
rates, but before you know it the six month introductory period is over and you
are paying through the nose to use that money. It certainly would be nice if
that zero percent offer applied all of the time instead of just during the first
six months, but that is not the way the credit cards make their money.

Each day’s mail brings at least one, and usually two or three credit card
offers. Every company, from American Express to Capital wants to put their
credit card in your wallet. They almost seem in the business of advertising
credit cards, instead of the business of lending money. Just think about all of
the paper they are wasting, because most of those offers go in the round file
anyway, right? But maybe you hold onto a few that offer the special low or
zero rates, just in case you want to switch. Because the credit card companies
know how the human mind works, they will give you a zero percent card, but it
only applies to balance transfers. If you make purchases, you will be charged
the higher rate. But they know you will make purchases, so they do not worry much
about that. And once the introductory period is over, the higher rate will apply
on the balance transfer, so they will really start to make money then. Unless
you move fast and put the balance on another credit card with a low rate.

How to keep up with this? Go online and you will be able to find all of the
deals you need to get lower interest rates on your credit cards. The rates and
the offers change constantly, so you can always be up to date when you are
shopping online. But just remember to just move the balances; if you start to
charge on these cards, you will be falling into the trap that the credit cards
want you to fall into and paying them their high interest rates.