There is a credit term call grace period - it's a period within which you may pay your bill without being charged interest. It's usually a period of 25-30days before interest kicks in. Recently, most issuing companies are eliminating this grace period and instead offering a low fixed interest rate. The question now is - which one is better between grace period and low fixed interest rate?

It will be a bit difficult to have one answer that will favour everybody. Some prefer paying their bills in full within the normal grace period. To this group of people the grace period will be better. It will be advisable for them to shop for grace period cards and avoid no-grace-period cards.

Some banks do charge interest from the day they process your charge slip when you use your card to get cash. If you normally pay your bill in full you still need to shop for card that offers very low interest rate plus grace period, if you are to avoid interest charges on your account. However, for those that usually carry a balance each month, the low interest rate will be good for them. If you are in this group you can even shop for institutions that periodically offer cards with no fee for the first year.

Most issuing company often offers "premium" credit cards such as "goldcards" and Premier VISA. They are fancy cards that come with travel insurance benefit and extra protection when your card is lost or stolen. These institutions will rarely use the highly annual service fees which you will be subjected to as their marketing point. So it's advisable to beware of these cards. There is no reason for paying such high service fees. As a matter of fact it did not really worth it if you can have a lower interest or grace period card.