0% Interest Credit Cards, What They Are, How To Use Them.

By Thomas Goldman

No interest at all is charged for a certain period, with these 0% interest credit cards. The card issuing company makes its profit by the interest they charge on outstanding balances and fees as well. Many companies have found that they better entice people to use their service by giving them no interest for an initial period. This initial period is typically a year. The period of zero interest sometimes applies to balance transfers, sometimes to purchases, sometimes to both.

In 1950 the first credit cards were invented. They are now common through most of the developed world although more so in some countries than some others. For example, America is one of the top users along with Canada and UK, where as in Japan typically only very large corporations use them.

Card issuing companies make their profits by charging interest on outstanding balances, as well as various fees, but have found that they get more customers by offering this initial period of no interest.

Cash advances are sometimes treated differently from other uses, sometimes having a higher interest rate. Also, the interest might be charged from the date the cash is obtained rather than from the date that the bill is considered due. Also, it is sometimes true that any repayments made on the credit are preferentially applied to all other forms of usage before the cash advances.

A zero interest credit card is often used to reduce payments by transferring a balance from another card where interest payments are due to the zero interest card and thus avoiding the need to make any interest payments on that balance for a certain period.

0% interest cards can also be used to make money, by transferring the balance into a bank account which pays interest, or occasionally another form of investment. Cards have even been used to fund part or whole of the startup of businesses, although this is an unusual and somewhat risky form of business start-up capital. There is a rumor that the Google company was initially funded using credit cards, as well as a few movies (such as "clerks" and "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming") and other successful business ventures.

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