Credit Cards NZ, Credit Cards New Zealand.

Credit cards in NZ are an easy and convenient way to pay for your purchases, but it’s best to pay the monthly statement in full, to bring it back to zero. Otherwise your purchases can become more expensive, the longer you leave the balance unpaid, because of the interest being charged on the unpaid balance.

The best approach to managing you credit card include the following:

1. Interest Rates

When choosing credit cards NZ look for the lowest interest rate, and charges.
The interest rates on common credit cards, typically range from 12% to more than 25% ! Even within the same organisation such as the main New Zealand banks, there are many different plans available, most have different interest rates applying to each different plan.

Interest rates are typically different for:

Purchases – Typically the same as or lower than cash advances.
Cash advances – Often has a higher interest rate.

2. Fees.

Primary fee.

The primary fee, that is usually charged either six monthly or annually and can range from $0.00 to more than $1000, that’s not a typing error, more than one thousand dollars!
Usually the low primary fee is coupled with a higher interest rate on the unpaid balance. This makes it better to go for a lower primary fee if you are going to pay the card balance off in full each month.

Additional fees.

There’s a confusingly large range of potential additional fees, including the following:

Joint/additional account fee.

– For having an additional person able to use the card.

Foreign currency service fee.

– A fee for purchases in a foreign currency, cash advance or returned purchase. Typically a percentage of the new Zealand dollar value.

Over limit fee.

– If you exceed your credit limit on the card. Typically a flat dollar charge regardless of how much over you are, charged at each statement until you are back within the cards credit limit.

Replacement card.

– Usually a flat fee on each replacement card.

Statement copy.

– If you request an additional copy of your statement.

Tip

– You can usually go online to check your statement and can often get a free copy online.

Voucher copy

– If you want a copy of a the voucher, that caused a charge to be applied to your account.

Cash advance fees

– Different fees often apply depending on whether the cash advance is by Phone, ATM or teller or overseas for credit cards NZ.

Late payment fee.

Tip

– One fee to watch out for is the late payment fee. Many cards require a minimum payment on your statement, if you don’t make that payment on or before the due date, not only will you get charged interest on the outstanding balance, but you will get an additional fee. So check out what this fee is before you sign up for credit cards NZ, so you don’t get such an unpleasant surprise, when you forget to pay on time.

Interest free period.

This varies considerably between credit cards NZ providers, from zero days up to  55 days or more. This period is usually affected by the billing cycle that you have. So if you make a purchase just just before the bill is sent to you, the interest free period will often be shorter, than if you make a purchase soon after due date of the account.

Go to NZ Bank From Credit Cards NZ.

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