When people look for a credit card option to help them through Christmas or a holiday, over half the time they just take the first credit card deal thrown their way. Some people get an application in the mail and fill it in without even checking the details, only to be amazed when they get their card to find it has a tiny spending limit, or it’s secured and requires money to be deposited, or it has an interest rate in six months time that hits 20%.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Some of the best credit card deals are right under your nose – you just don’t know it yet.

Some credit card companies offer ‘honeymoon rates’ that give you six months of a year of interest free, or low-interest, purchasing . These can be 0% APR to 4% APR, which looks like a great deal, but the devil can be in the details. MBNA, for example, will give you six months of no-interest spending, but whenever you withdraw money from an ATM, they’ll hit you up for $7 in fees, and apply 19% interest to that withdrawal. When you get your statement and wonder where this interest came from, you’ll find the fine print says your 0% credit card deal only applies to over the counter purchases – writing checks on your card (with those ‘convenient’ check books they send you) will see you paying 19% interest AND $10 per check in fees. And if you think that’s a scam, it gets worse.

MBNA will call you up a few months into your credit card account and offer you ‘credit card insurance’ – a deal where, should you get sick and not be able to pay your monthly payment, they’ll cover it for you for a while. That sounds like a good deal, especially when they say “it only costs 75c” – what they avoid letting you know is that it’s 75c PER DAY, and that you’ll soon be seeing $50 per month coming off your credit card balance to cover it. And if that puts you over your limit – then they’ll charge you ANOTHER fee – a late payment fee – of $25. Not much of a credit card deal, eh?

Of course, MBNA is not known for being charitable. In fact, they recently pushed the White House to put through a new bankruptcy bill that says, if you get cancer and can’t pay your credit card bills, they can now take your home in lieu of payment. Yikes! Your government working for you…

That said, there are some very good credit card deals out there. Look out for any deal that offers you a free 0% balance transfer. What this credit card deal allows you to do is move the $5000 you owe MBNA to another company, at 0% interest, so you can shut that awful MBNA card down and not be extorted any more. Of course, the new card will likely switch that debt to a heavy interest rate within six to twelve months, so make sure to look at the fine print, but in the meantime you can save yourself hundreds of dollars, and when the new interest rate kicks in – just get another card to do it all over again!

While that seems like a never-ending credit card deal of 0% - just switching from card company to card company – do understand that the credit card organizations don’t like you doing that. In fact, after a few transfers they’ll start to show your pattern on your credit report, and that will make you less of an attractive borrower in future. It’s fine to do this a couple of times, but do it forever and they’ll hit you with the credit score black mark.

Additionally, getting another card only works if you CANCEL your other card as soon as the balance is zero. Keeping it open ‘just in case’ will inevitably lead to you racking up a SECOND credit card debt, and that’s no deal at all.