Credit cards: Practical but expensive

If you pay off your credit card bill and only transfer the minimum partial amount, you can be charged enormously high interest.

Credit card banks charge late payment and credit interest when a customer pays the monthly bill late or pays only a portion of the debt. The card banks charge annual interest rates for credit and default interest of between 9.5% and 15%.

The methods of calculating interest vary widely, are often non-transparent and hardly comprehensible. In some cases, they also calculate the interest over time: namely, even for partial amounts that were paid in on time.

Caution with cash withdrawals
For users abroad, it is particularly important to pay attention to the foreign currency fees. In addition to a processing surcharge of between 0.9 and 2.5 percent, many credit card providers also charge conversion fees of sometimes more than 2 percent of the amount paid. For cash withdrawals in foreign currencies, there are additional fees of up to 4 percent of the cash withdrawn.

"We look at credit cards as a means of payment, not as a means of getting cash."

Do not use the instalment facility at all, but always pay the full amount of the credit card statement, thus avoiding additional interest payment at the highest interest rate and fees.

The danger is great that you spend more money than you actually have.


If you already have one or more credit card debts, we recommend that you pay them off with a loan. This will save you unnecessary interest and processing costs.

 

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