UK Credit Cards: 2009

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Bank of Scotland All In One Credit Card

The only credit card you'll ever need

Want more from your Credit Card?

You could start saving today with a Bank of Scotland All In One Credit Card

0% for the first 9 months on balance transfers made in the first 90 days (3% fee).
0% for the first 9 months on purchases with your Bank of Scotland All In One Credit Card - helping you spread the cost of your purchases.

Simply apply today and transfer your outstanding balances from other credit or store cards in the first 90 days and you'll pay 0% interest for the first 9 months (plus a 3% fee).

And you'll get a great rate of 15.9% APR typical variable.

To benefit from the 0% rate, you must stay within your credit limit and make your monthly payments on time. Balances transferred from other Bank of Scotland or Halifax cards are not eligible for the 0% balance transfer offer.

View our Bank of Scotland Credit Card summary box (new window).

Apply now and you could soon be better off

Sainsbury’s Credit Card

Sainsbury's Credit Card

Sainsbury's Credit Card offers you all this:

0% for the first 12 months on Sainsbury's shopping*
0% for the first 3 months on all other shopping
0% for the first 10 months on balance transfers (+3% fee)

16.9% APR typical variable.

Collect Nectar points for every pound you spend

Pay with your credit card and collect 2 points per £1 you spend on Sainsbury's shopping, this is in addition to points earned with your Nectar collector card..

Go to the Nectar web site to discover how you could treat yourself.

See our summary box which shows you the facts and figures

Existing Sainsbury's Credit Card holders

If you already have a Sainsbury's Bank Credit Card, unfortunately you cannot apply for this card at present.. If you require any further information please contact us on 0800 4346 346 explaining that you are an existing Sainsbury's Credit Card customer.

Ready to apply?

It's really straight forward and only takes a few minutes

Personal pricing

As we treat all our customers and their applications on an individual basis, the APR and the interest rates we offer are determined by the details you supply, along with an independent verification of credit and repayment history.

Find out more about personal pricing

Credit available subject to status to UK residents aged 18 or over from Sainsbury's Bank plc.

Sainsburys Bank plc, Registered Office, 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT (registered in England , no 3279730) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Compare Deals on Credit Cards

The UK’s Top Credit Card offers

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Virgin

5 star rating TotallyMoney rating: 5 stars

The Virgin card is currently the market leading credit card, with the longest 0% offer for balance transfers and a competitive interest free period for new purchases

0% on Balance Transfers for 16 months
0% on Purchases for 3 months
16.6% APR Typical (Variable)

Apply

Compare with other top cards

How Virgin compares to the current leading products

Virgin Credit Card

0% on balance transfers for 16 months, 0% on card purchases for 3 months, 16.6% APR typical rate Virgin Credit Card - The card that gives you plenty of breathing space

Thanks for choosing the Virgin Credit Card

Ready to apply?

It takes just minutes to apply online. (Don't forget you need to be aged 18 or over, and a UK resident with a bank or building society account.)

Click here to launch the summary box and tick the box to confirm you've read it.

Articles & Guides - Credit card dirty tricks

Credit card companies don’t exist to be generous, their single goal is to make money. Not satisfied with the revenue generated from their highly inflated interest rates (average is 17.2%, base rate is 0.5%), credit card companies have resorted to some unorthodox methods to generate even more cash from you. Here are some of the sneaky tricks they use.

Articles & Guides - Cash

Never withdraw cash from your credit card if you can possibly avoid it. Ever. Interest on cash withdrawals is charged at a far higher rate than normal transactions – up to 25% in some instances. Adding insult to injury, you’ll also be charged a fee for using the cash machine when you withdrew the money. Even if you pay your off your balance in full every month you will be out of pocket, because interest is charged on cash withdrawals from the day you take it out.

Articles & Guides - Order of payments

Got a nice deal on your balance transfer? Either 0% for a limited period or a lifetime deal for a few percent? Then ensure you never use that card again. Because if you do, you will be charged the card's highest interest rate on the new spending until the very last of your balance transfer is paid off. This is because almost all card providers use your repayments to pay off your cheapest debts – such as balance transfers – first, which means your additional spending collects interest for as long as possible.

Articles & Guides - Use abroad

Your credit card is your flexible friend on holiday, the adverts say, accepted in thousands of shops around the globe. What they don't tell you is that you are charged a fee – generally around 2.75% of the purchase price - every time you use your card abroad. Think 2.75% isn’t much to pay for convenience? Banks made £650 million last year from unsuspecting Brits using their cards abroad.

Articles & Guides - Credit card Cheques

Have you ever asked to be sent a credit card cheque? Credit card companies routinely send them to customers to encourage further spending. That seems very generous, but what’s not immediately apparent is that credit card cheques attract a higher rate of interest and – as with cash withdrawals – this interest is charged from the day the cheque is cashed.

Articles & Guides - Use abroad

Articles & Guides - Credit card Cheques

Articles & Guides - Payment protection insurance

Worried about losing your job or becoming ill and unable to pay your debts? Well then your card company will happily offer you a payment insurance service. The trouble is, these are often expensive, difficult to make a claim against and offer poor coverage - generally only meeting the minimum payment of your card. If you are genuinely concerned about making your repayments if you fall ill or lose your job, then take out a stand-alone policy that covers everything – rather than one just tied to your card.

Articles & Guides - Identity fraud protection

Identity fraud is one of the 21st century's fastest-growing crimes (Image © Getty Images)

Identity fraud is one of the 21st century's fastest-growing crimes. Credit card providers are cashing in by offering additional ‘ID fraud protection services’ – for a fee. What you may not know is that it’s them who are actually liable for any fraudulent transactions on your card. ID fraud costs banks far more than it costs you, and they are working very hard to stop it regardless of whether you pay extra. Generally, checking your card statement and credit report regularly and knowing the number to call to cancel your card is more than enough protection – and costs almost nothing.

Articles & Guides - Low minimum payments

Some card companies are offering to lower the minimum repayments to help customers pay their bills. In reality, only credit card companies benefit from lower minimum payments. Reducing minimum repayments from 2% to 1% could add four years to the time it takes to pay off a £2,000 balance and mean you pay back an additional £1,974.57.

Articles & Guides - Store cards

"Sign up now and get discount," sales staff tell you. Well, you do get a discount, but the only reason they offer one is because they plan to make far more money out of you in the long run. Store card interest rates are far higher than those on standard credit cards, with one "deal" even charging more than 200% interest. If you still want the discount, make sure you pay the bill in full then cancel your card.

Articles & Guides - Shrinking interest-free periods

The length of time between when you make a purchase and when interest is charged on it changes from card to card. And that's a problem. A study by Which? revealed that on two cards, both charging 15.9%, it would cost £83 in interest to pay off a £500 debt on one and just £58 to pay off the same debt in the same way on the other. That's £25 difference in interest, on two cards claiming to charge the same rate, all because of how long – or short – the interest-free period is.

Premium-rate phone lines

You've lost your card or, worse, had it stolen. So you need to call your card company to cancel it. However, while you might think this would cost you nothing, it doesn't. More than that, a string of card firms use 0845 numbers – which not only cost you more, but also make money for the card firm as well as the telephone company.