I am not the most trusting person when it comes to ads that shout out "Zero Percent Interest" or "Flat Fifty Percent Off". At those times I find myself plagued by a single thought: "Where is the catch?" There usually is a catch. The question is: Does the catch overpower the benefits? That is the question that I ask myself just before I apply for a new credit card or enter a sale. I usually find that the catch is relatively insignificant when you look at the bigger picture.
I usually have a lot of these cynical moments when I am looking for a new credit card. It seems to me that there are too many great offers going. It is as though they are too keen to sell me those credit cards. Why is there so much enthusiasm?
I mean, why would a company offer something like interest free credit cards? How would it benefit them? And what about the zero percent balance transfer credit cards? What is the deal with them?
Well, I think once you do away with the skepticism, you find that most of these deals are more or less true to what they say. Quite a few interest free credit cards present a deal where you don't have to pay interest for a given number of months. After all, credit card companies are bogged down by great competition. Each has to attract more customers than its nearest rival.
A similar logic holds with 0% balance transfer credit cards. The credit card companies want to do business with you. They want to sell you their credit cards. So they have to take the help of gimmicks like this to win you over to their side. In fact, balance transfer credit cards are a prime example of how credit card companies steal away the customers of other credit card companies.
How does this work? Suppose you have a credit card with one company but wish you could get a different credit card that charges a different rate of interest, you could think about getting a hold of a balance transfer credit card. And there will be lots of cards that make you offers that you will never ever wish to refuse.
Competition is everything these days. Everyone is in the rat race to increase their business, and everyone is in the rat race to win. So even though you should not be taking offers like "Zero Percent Interest" at face value, tell yourself that you are a possible customer. In the world today, if you are the customer, you might as well be king!
