Ireland Credit Card

There is a lot said and heard about it in newspapers, television, internet, chat forums and just about any discussion on credit cards. Credit card debt consolidation is often regarded as the first step towards credit card debt elimination. We see it all over the sky ads, in fact, its everywhere. All those loan repayment offers that are springing up all over Ireland!

Put simply, credit card debt consolidation is about shifting (transferring balance) your debt from one or more of your credit cards to another credit card. Generally you transfer balances from the higher APR credit card to the lower APR one. This obviously means that you are trying to reduce your outgo on the interest component of the credit card debt and hence reducing the rate at which your current debt is building up (this, of course, doesn’t include the new debt created by new spending). Other, less significant, reasons for balance transfer could include things like additional benefits on the new credit card, ease of debt tracking, lower annual fees etc.

So what are the things to look for when going for debt consolidation?

First thing, of course, is to do some research on what credit cards can give you a lower APR. You can gather this information quite easily by looking over the internet or newspapers or visiting bank branches. You can also phone the credit card suppliers and request them to post brochures to your address. Newspapers and televisions are full of advertisements offering balance transfers at attractive APRs. So getting all this information is really easy.

Once you have all this information, just check what benefits each one is offering and evaluate the benefits in the same way as you would do for a new credit card. You might like to decide the parameters of evaluation at first and then prepare a comparison table filling in the data from various balance transfer offers. This will help you in quickly and easily comparing the various balance transfer offers and making a decision on which one best suits your needs.

Note that sometimes the offers might look very attractive on the face of them but actually have twisted terms and conditions at the back. For example, some credit card suppliers might be offering a lower APR only for a short term. Their long term APR rate might actually be more than or equal to that of your current credit card(s). So unless you are fully confident of wiping out your debt in the lower APR period, such an offer would not mean anything to you. Some others might offer a lower APR but charge a hefty balance transfer fee, thus making them unattractive.

Also read the fine print of terms and conditions carefully. This is even more essential for you since you already have enough problems on hand and don’t want any more.

You might also want to check with your current credit card supplier(s), if they can lower the APR rates. If they make you an offer, you might like to evaluate the same against the hassle of shifting to a new credit card. It’s a good idea to cursorily check the balance transfer offers available in the market, before you query your credit card supplier for the same.

Another option is to contact a debt assistance company for professional advice.

However you do it, debt consolidation is surely a step in the right direction.