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If you are looking for loans or credit cards, the best place to start is the Centrro site.  The site is really easy to usesimply check which you want (loan or credit card) and you’re away!  It’s really easy to Get a Credit Card with Centrro by using their really easy online system.  With over 50 different offers to present to you, you are sure to get exactly what you are looking for with Centtro.

It’s also really easy to Get a Loan with Centrro.  The form is a little more complex than the Credit Card form, however the results speak for themselves, and the information is nothing that you wouldn’t know off the top of your head anyway.  Getting a load with centrro is easy with their simple process.

Why not look into what is available in credit cards and loans to you today?

Many websites offer credit card comparisons to try to help you select the best credit card to suit your needs. (although, as we shall see, Magazines are better.)

You have to be VERY careful when using these websites as often the credit card company gives the website owner a financial incentive to get you to select their card.  This means that there are many cards that may be a better match for you out there - however the website may not list the card company if there is nothing in it for them!

So, short of doing all of the work yourself (which is a bit of a drag) how do you find the best credit cards?

The best way to find a credit card that is right for you is via off-line magazines.  Magazines have a reputation to uphold so they are more invested in being unbiased in the information they are providing.  They are paying someone to write that article and they want to get the best information they can get.

SO head to your local newsagent or library to do the reasearch you need, before locking yourself into a credit card!

Unfortunately it’s almost impossible these days to live without a credit card of some type - especially if you spend some of your time online and want to take advantage of online shopping.

The banks have responded to this need by creating debit cards - these act just like credit cards but the money comes directly from your savings or cheque account rather than being put into a credit arrangement.  These are great for new purchases if you are trying to pay off old credit card bills.

Using a debit card automatically links to your savings giving you a built in limit - with none of the fees attached to a regular credit card.

Many cards these days are being offered at an interest rate of 0% for a balance transfer.

By moving your balance around from card to card, you cna definitely reduce the amount of interest you are paying.  I recently telephoned my bank and they reduced my interest rate from 17.25% to 10.99% just because I asked them too!

Don’t be afraid og going elsehwere to do your banking to get the best honeymoon rate.

There are, however, two points to be wary of if you are shopping for credit card rates: firstly, if you swap credit card companies too often, this may impact your credit score.  So plan to get your credit card paid off within the honeymoon period.

The other issue can be what happens when the honeymoon is over.  Often the rate when the honeymoon is over is exorbitant - the company makes money by betting that you will not pay your credit card off when you are getting the cheap interest rate.

So if you do decide to shop around, just be aware that you will need to pay your card off as fast as you can once you are on that honeymoon period!

One thing I have noticed about credit cards these days - the interest rates are fantastic, but the fees and charges they now attract are horrendous!  It used to be that if you tried to charge something to your credit card but it would take you over your credit card limit - the transaction would be refused.  These days, my credit card company will let me go above my limit, but they will charge me a $30 fee to do so!  They also charge me around $75 for the priveledge of having each card.

All of these fees and charges add up - it it is all possible, the best things to do is to try and consolidate all of your credit card debt onto the one card.  This will reduce the fees and charges you incurr because you have been running multiple cards, with multiple fees and yearly charges.

Don’t wait for your credit card bill to arrive if you want to pay if off as fast as possible.  Although you only receive a statement once a month - interested is actually calculated on a daily basis.   So if you are paid weeky, pay some off towards your credit card every week, as this will save on the interest charges you accumulate.  It’s not alot but every little bit helps and you will definitely find yourself paying off your credit card bill faster this way.

If you have a number of credit cards then focus all of your efforts onto paying off the credit card that has the highest interest rate, before the other ones.   The  best way to do this is to pay the minimum on all cards except the one withthe highest balance - throw all of your extra cash onto that one!  Don’t try paying of a bit extra on all of them, just concentrate on the highest one until that is paid down.   Pay that card off in full first, and once you have done that - move onto the next highest one, and so forth until they are all paid off.  

Just remember - you need to “pay as you go” when you are running a credit-card debt.  Don’t buy anything you don’t need and certainly don’t put any more $$ onto your credit card!

by consistently paying off more than the minimum balance.

Credit cards usually require a minimum payment every month equal to three or four percent of the balance.  More recently, they can go as low as one percent.  At these rates, it can take many years to pay off a credit card if you only pay off the minimum each month.  You fill find paying the minimum often only covers the interest and will hardly chip into the original amount owed, if at all.  So pay as much as you can possibly afford each and every month over and above the minimum.

You will see your repayments exceed the interest charges and your original debt will start to shrink!

Further to my earlier post of today.. I thought I’d better explain how the interchange works..

When you buy something at the store, the store owner pays a fee for his bank to talk to your bank, to take the miney out of your account and to put itinto his account.  He is charged a fee for this.  All of the fees that the store owners are charged are basically built into the cost of the goods you are purchasing.

It is these fees that VISA is increasing.  The store owners will then have to increase the cost of the goods and that gets passed on to all consumers.

This is why I recommend paying in cash and asking for a discount - especially for large purchases such as whitegoods etc.  You have some bargaining power with the seller by saying “I’m willing to give you cash which will save you money on credit card fees.  I don’t believe I should be paying for fees for a service, that is, charging a credit card, that I’mnot using.  Therefore I want a discount for paying cash.”

If you ask nicely enough, this is pretty much irrefutable logic and most times you will receive the discount you are after.

If you are like me, you are trying to pay off your credit card balance.

Increases in credit card interchange rates announced by Visa last week average only 0.6 percent, but the $36 billion in total interchange fees consumers paid in 2006 will probably increase close to 20 percent this year, the Merchants Payments Coalition said today.

This makes running a credit card balance even less appealing, and adds more to the incentive to pay it off as quickly as possible.

So what are your “pay uour credit card off” tips?  How do you approach it?  Do you pay the lowest balance off first as per Dave Ramsay, or the higest interest rate as per Suze Orman?  Comment ont his post and let us know!