Are you REALLY Saving by Changing Credit Cards?
By SJW
January 23, 2007 • Fact checked by Dumb Little Man
When you see this picture, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
My answer? Oh, I immediately think of running in the other direction. This image looks like an advertisement for some credit card and we all know that I only use my American Express card that gets paid in full each month.
However, in this case I would be wrong. The image you see comes from a site named Credit Card Clients. They’ve built a cool tool named the Savings Agent that is basically an ad-free way of analyzing a ton of credit cards simultaneously.
The Savings Agent simulates what would happen if you switched over to a different credit card. It takes the fine-print of an alternative credit card offer, including multiple interest rates; balance transfer fees; annual fees and more, and utilizes financial calculations to compare the projected balance with the one of your current card. It then repeats this process on a large database of credit card offers and presents you with the 10 cards that can save you the most money.
Not bad and you are not asked for any personal information so I gave it a shot. I entered a fake balance, my FICO score, and an interest rate and they recommended a card for me along with the savings I could anticipate.
If you must use credit cards, choose a good one. If you don’t know what a good one is you can refer to 9 things to Consider when Choosing a Credit Card or Dissect a Credit Card deal to read about a few things to watch for.