13 very long interest-free credit cards

Choice is returning to credit-card customers with there now being 13 deals lasting 13 months or longer. Neil Faulkner examines the pros and cons of each credit card.

The number of credit cards offering deals of 13 months or longer has ticked up a little in the past four months from seven to nine. Take a look at the first two columns in this table:

Deals of 13 months or longer

*This deal lasts till 01/04/10, so if the application is processed in two weeks it'll be a 13 month deal, but if it takes four it'll be more like 12-and-a-half months.

All the cards in this table charge a balance-transfer fee of 3%. (Or 2.9% for some, but let's not give in to that primitive psychological trap.) I've not bothered with a 'Typical APR' column to show you the interest you'll pay after the deal expires. Suffice it to say the interest is outrageous (the lowest you'll pay is 16%), so you must have a plan to exit before the end of the deal if you're unable to pay off the whole debt before then.

50% more choice for card tarts

Those of you who've shifted your money around to avoid interest (who are often called 'card tarts') find the overall number of cards less important than the number of 'groups' issuing them. If you go for a Bank of Scotland card, for example, but you already have a Halifax card, you'll probably be rejected, not because your credit report is bad but because their cards are issued by the same issuer.

If you look at the third column in the above table, you'll see that there are six different groups, which means half-a-dozen possibilities for those who have several credit cards already. Last October there were just four groups, so that's an extra couple of choices, which takes off some of the pressure from those of you with multiple cards.

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Further choices with tied credit cards

There are some extra credit cards out there that you can only get if you have other products with the card provider (usually a current account). Here are those with deals of 13 months or longer:

Deals of 13 months or longer (tied accounts)

Again, these all come with a 3% fee and horrendous APRs after the deal expires.

The four cards in this second table aren't part of any groups in my first table, so they increase choice for many card tarts, too.

Other stuff worth knowing

Many of these cards don't just offer 0% on debts that you transfer to it. They also have a 0% on new purchases deal. For the most part, these double deals are just expensive traps. You can read about how the trap works here.) You can avoid the trap by either looking for a credit card that has a balance transfer deal and a purchases deal of equal length, such as the Sainsbury's Finance Card, or by getting one of the rare cards that doesn't have this trap in the small print, such as the Nationwide Card.

Please consider carefully before racking up more debt with a combined card and remember that the more you borrow (or, rather, the more fees and interest you pay) the less stuff you'll be able to buy in your lifetime.

Won't you please think of the children!

Well, at least think of what'll happen to you and your card debt in 13 months' time. There's a fair chance that lenders will reduce credit offers again later this year, so it's best to get one of these deals while you can and also to make sure you have a plan for what to do after the deal is over.

Remember not to keep too many card accounts open when you transfer the balances away. Firstly it won't help your credit rating and secondly you never know when holding such a card will prevent you from taking advantage of a new great deal from another credit card in the same group.

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