Today I was at a seminar run by the Rich Dad Poor Dad Education group. I’d read a couple of books by Robert Kiyosaki, who started the company, and I wanted to hear their latest thinking.
I was disappointed to discover that the seminar was entirely about property investment, because I had no interest in that. However I decided to stay, partly because I’d have had to climb over ten people to get out. Anyway I know that one can always learn something useful. And I did.
The speaker talked about how to use zero percent credit cards (e.g. 0% interest for up to two years in some cases) as a way of funding the deposit on a property investment, and he made the point “this is virtually free money; yes, there’ll be a fee of around 3%; but as inflation is running around that figure, it’s free money in real terms.
That reminded me that Martin Lewis, the BBC’s famous “Money Saving Expert”, often talks about how to use zero interest cards to reduce the cost of servicing existing debt, so I checked his website for the latest deals. He did not disappoint me.
He has a page on his site called “best 0% credit cards” but he says that the cards on that page are the best ones for “interest-free spending”. (Or investing, as advocated by the speaker at that seminar)
Martin Lewis goes on: “Want to cut existing debt costs? Read the ‘Cheap Balance Transfers Guide’ instead.”
Here’s a link to that guide, which is updated regularly:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards
Two warnings:
- You need to be able to clear the balance on these cards before the free period runs out, or it changes form free money to very expensive money, i.e. the card provider’s “SVR”, (Standard Variable Rate), which in the UK could be up to 29%. (Although the bank base rate has been at an all-time low for years!)
- Your credit history needs to be good enough to qualify for the balance transfer card, so this method will work better for debtors who’ve only recently got into problems. If you already have some defaults on your record, it might not work. If you’re not sure, check: on my blog last March I listed a ratings agency’s guidance on how to check and repair your credit record. Go to https://michaelmacmahon.com/2012/03/repair-your-credit-rating/