Sat 27 May 2006
There are many things that individuals need to consider while shopping around for a new credit card. One of the things you should really look out for are credit cards with multiple APR’s.
What is an APR you might ask? An APR or, Annual Percentage Rate, is the way that companies issuing credit cards state the interest rate the consumers will pay should they carry over an existing balance, take out a cash advance from an ATM or transfer a balance from another credit card.
There are many credit cards that have multiple annual percentage rates. For example:
There would be different annual percentage rates for product purchases, cash advances and balance transfers. Cash advances on credit cards with multiple annual percentage rates generally have the highest rates compared to other transactions.
Some credit cards with multiple APR’s may have a tiered percentage rate. This means that the annual percentage rate would depend on the amount of the outstanding balance you are currently carrying.
There could be a penalty APR which would mean if you where a certain time period late in paying your credit card bill you would then be paying the penalty interest.
There are also introductory annual percentage rates and delayed annual percentage rates with many credit cards. An introductory annual percentage rate is a generally lower interest rate offered for a set period of time for new cardholders. If a credit card has a delayed annual percentage rate that usually means that no interest will be offered of a set period of time then the credit card holder will have the normal APR in effect for their card.
Being well informed about any possible multiple annual percentage rates a credit card may have is the best possible way for consumers to determine if the card will meet their needs and is worth them getting.