Last Updated JANUARY 8TH, 2007

Along with the many positives of being a credit card tart there are a few dangers that you have to be aware of to stop yourself from damaging your credit rating.

Let us start from the top for those of you who don’t know the meaning of the ‘credit card tart’ term.

The term is used in the money world to describe those who jump from one credit card to another in order to get the best deals. The biggest outlook of this is in terms of balance transfers.

We don’t want to be spending money on unnecessary interest if we can switch the balance to an introductory 0% balance transfer rate for up to 12 months. This means we can all have a loan at essentially no cost.

We have no ties to credit card companies so as soon as the introductory rate is approaching its end (8-6 weeks before) we make moves to transfer the balance to a new, 0% balance transfer rate.

This is great if you have are strict enough with yourself to make sure you transfer your balance in advance of your introductory rate ending.

You must be thinking how on earth the credit companies aren’t aware of this loophole in the market? Well they are aware of it – but the business they gain from it at present makes up for the loss that they take on the credit card tarts out there.

Lately credit card companies have started to come up with measures to start and cope with the constant balance transferring. They have started introducing balance transfer fees. This is usually a percentage of the balance being transferred. Some balance transfer handling fees have a maximum charge but you have to watch out for the odd provider who has no limit! You could get stung.

The charge may not be all that bad if you calculate it correctly. You will usually get 0% on your balance transfer for 12 months which could still save you some money rather than pay a standard rate of interest on your balance if you left it where it is. Work out to see if there is a benefit. There usually will be if your balance is rather large.

There are still a few credit cards out there with no balance transfer fee. They are now certainly becoming few and far between but it is still a great way for any credit card company to get new customers so we should still see them around for a while longer. Usually the 0% introductory rate will be for a lesser term of around 6 months compared to credit cards with a fee.

That’s not to say that these offers will be around permanently and you should always be aware of that. They will be around for the foreseeable future though because it is the only way they can attract customers as consumers become more aware of the opportunities available to them.

That’s great I hear you thinking but there are areas of potential danger you have to be aware of if you are going to take advantage of this money saving trick.

The problem generally comes when searching about for the best credit card deals available on the money market. We all want to get the best deal for our own pockets.

When searching around credit card companies you could authorise them to do a series of searches on your credit report without knowing! When anyone looks at your credit report it keeps a record of all searches and actions that have occurred.

There are many reasons for this to happen. Companies obviously want to know the risk of loaning money to individuals because at the end of the day, they want to make sure they will get paid.

But what does that mean if they do put their big footprints all over your personal credit record?

It means a great deal. If you try to get a credit card, loan, mortgage etc your credit record is checked and if a potential service provider sees lots of credit footprints all over your record, they may believe that you are overstretched in credit terms and decide you are a risk which they are not willing to take on.