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Multiple Rate Types on Credit Cards

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

Multiple Rate Types on Credit Cards

I'm entering my APR's for dthe ebt reduction calculator and a few of my credit cards have multiple rates due to balance transfers.  (for example: 4.99% for the balance transfer and 11.99% for "purchases" (or remaining balance).  Do I enter these amounts separately?
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MattH
Senior Contributor

Re: Multiple Rate Types on Credit Cards


@Anonymous wrote:
I'm entering my APR's for dthe ebt reduction calculator and a few of my credit cards have multiple rates due to balance transfers.  (for example: 4.99% for the balance transfer and 11.99% for "purchases" (or remaining balance).  Do I enter these amounts separately?

 

Yes, treat each portion of your balance and the applicable rate as though it were a different loan.  If you think about it a little, mathematically that's the only way to make the interest calculations come out correctly.  Unfortunately for you, the credit card companies nearly always apply payments to whichever portion of your balance carries the lowest rate of interest first (which is one of numerous "gotchas" in the balance-transfer game).  Remember The Large Print Giveth and the Small Print Taketh Away so read the small print with great care.

 

One reform I would like to see but will certainly not happen is one that says the size ratio between the largest print size appearing anywhere in the mailing divided by the smallest print size appearing anywhere in the mailing may never exceed two.

 

Famous type designer Hermman Zapf once told an interviewer he wanted to see a legal maximum size for type used in commercial outdoor signs so they would not distract motorists from functional street signs, on grounds both of aesthetics and public safety; that won't happen either.

 

TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
If you dunno what tanstaafl means you must Google it
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