Interest & Fees

Interest and fees

In this section, all the questions you have about credit card interest and different fees are explained. Browse through our menu of topics or go straight to our Balance Transfer, Low Interest Rate or No Annual Fee  card comparisons if you already know what you need.

Interest Rates

Interest charges for credit cards are calculated daily on an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) basis. How much you end up paying in dollars at the end of each month varies according to how high the APR is, and how much initial balance the APR applies to, as well as exactly how many days interest has been applied to a particular purchase or balance amount. There’s a big difference between an APRs of 10% and 21% being charged on your purchases. Over a period of 12 months or more it can mean hundreds of dollars lost or saved. It’s always worth shopping around to find the best deal on interest rates.

Fees

There are all sorts of fees associated with credit cards. Some are easy to avoid by using creditcard.com.au, which presents all the relevant fee information in a clear, easy-to-read way so you don’t have to wade through pages of terms and conditions, or wait on hold for hours to talk to your bank’s computer voice. Here’s a list of the most common fees:

• Annual fees for keeping the card open
• Merchant fees for the privilege of using your credit card (charged by retailers)
• Fees for withdrawing cash or transferring balances
• Fees for reaching your credit limit
• Fees for making a payment late
• Fees for printing extra cards or replacing lost ones