Bad credit credit cards, a new world
After a short period, usually just six months, it ends, and now you have to pay the credit card's real interest rate. Student credit cards typically have somewhat higher rates, currently running from about 13 percent to about 20 percent, with default rates that shoot up to about 25 to 31 percent if you pay a bill even a day late. The higher rate is retroactive, so regardless of what the rate was when you bought something, you will be billed at the higher interest rate until you pay your entire balance off. If you let your interest compound, you can wind up paying two or three times as much as the original sticker price. The key to using a credit card well is to pick the card with the lowest regular interest rate you can find, then charge as though the zero percent introductory rate didn't exist and you were paying the regular interest rate.