Credit Cards

Often used instead of cash, Credit Cards from companies such as VISA can be used for all sorts of purposes. Credit card debt is a type of short term loan and is available from many financial institutions including your local bank. You will find that you will often be able to transfer debts on your credit cards to one of the bank loans on offer from your bank.

There are three main types of credit cards which are your standard credit card, prepaid credit cards and store cards.

Standard credit cards include the likes of VISA and are used to lend the card holder money which is later paid back. To be able to use a VISA card you will have credit checks and history checks carried out on you to ensure you are a suitable candidate to use the credit cards.

Prepaid credit cards on the other hand have money put onto them up to the predetermined limit by the card-holder and no checks are carried out for the use of this type of card. You will find that you are not charged any interest fees with prepaid credit cards. Store credit cards are cards issued by a particular store that can only be used in the designated store; interest rates tend to be high on store cards.

As a whole the interest rates on credit cards are higher than normal loans but lower than that of a store card.

You will also come across other credit cards whereby football teams and charities have teamed up with the likes of MasterCard to provide club and charity credit cards where the clubs benefit every time the cardholder uses the card.