12 October 2017

Australian Credit Card Choices - As Wide as The Country!

Australian Credit Cards may all look similar but the choices of features attached to those little rectangular pieces of plastic are as wide as the country- and it's a 5 hour flight between Sydney and Perth!
Whether you're talking about the main features of Aussie Credit Cards or the "nice to have" features it takes quite a while to wade through the options, even with the number of Australian personal finance sites and credit card reviewing sites that are there to make life easier.
Of course you will find different purchase rates (APR) as the 35 plus credit card issuers jockey with each other to offer the most attractive deals. Some will have permanently low APRs; others will offer ultra-attractive introductory or honeymoon rates designed to reel you in.
Then there's Aussie Credit Cards offering low balance transfer rates, if you're looking to consolidate debt from a number of high-interest cards on to one with a low interest rate. These will usually be for a 6-month, 12 month or 15-month period.
Other Credit Cards in Australia will sell their No Annual Fee feature as the "hook". Sometimes this will mean the annual fee is waived for the first year and other times it will mean that there is never any annual fee to pay.
Next there is the cash advance rate which is the rate you will pay for withdrawing cash on your credit card from Australian ATMs - standardly this rate is higher than the APR and is rarely included in offers.
The interest-free period offers wide range of choices; sometimes it's non-existent in which case you pay interest from the day you make the purchase; other cards will offer a 44-day or 55-day interest-free period which means that if you pay the balance off in full each month by the due date, you never pay any interest: quite an attraction!
Rewards Credit Cards come in many shapes and forms; some offer lucrative cash back arrangements, others a points scheme that allows you to redeem the points at your favourite retailers or for points with airlines, for example (as with Frequent Flyer Credit Cards.) Others still will provide free travel insurance, purchase insurance, concierge services and so on.
In addition to these there are Aussie Credit Cards aimed at travellers who want to use their card overseas frequently, small businesses that need a business credit card for their travelling staff or office manager, high earners who need the higher credit limits of gold and platinum cards or students who have a low income and maybe no credit history.