3 Naughty Credit Card Tricks to Scour Your Fine Print For

Think that the balance transfer rate, the purchase interest rate and the quality of the rewards program are the only factors you need to consider when getting a new credit card? Think again … there are actually quite a few naughty tricks that some card providers play on customers. They are all in the fine print – today we check out the 5 most common tricks that you’ll either need to account for in your spending habits, or scour the fine print of your contract for.

Ultra-low minimum repayments

It seems like credit card providers are being generous when they say that you only need to repay 2% of your credit card debt at most. The reality is, though, that if you repay any less than 2.5% of your total debt, even without putting any additional purchases on your credit card, your debt will slowly grow and will never actually be paid off. 2.5% is fairly standard across the industry, but the Jetstar credit card’s minimum repayment is 1.5%, and the Aussie credit card’s minimum is 2%.

Balance transfer rates reverting to the cash rate

On about half of credit cards that offer an introductory balance transfer rate, when the intro period ends any money still left owing reverts to the cash advance rate for that card. Given that most card charge over 20% for cash advances, it’s easy to get a rude shock on your first statement after a balance transfer period ends!

‘Mean’ Interest calculation

Tricks like backdating your interest to when you made the purchase, if you don’t repay a balance in full by the date specified are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways that credit card companies can manipulate your terms and conditions to get more cash out of you. There’s a Choice survey detailing which cards are ‘fair; and which are ‘mean’ in their interest calculations.