The best all-round credit cards

Robert Powell takes a look at the credit cards that offer zero interest on both purchases and balance transfers...

How flexible is your credit card? And I’m not talking about its primitive butter spreading and ice cream scooping abilities!

Yes, recently our flexible friends have become a tad rigid in functions. Granted, there are now 20 month 0% balance transfer cards and lengthy interest-free purchase cards, but these credit cards don’t always offer everything to everyone.

So what can you do if you want a good all-round credit card?

Well, fortunately, there are some credit cards around that allow you to transfer debt across from an existing card and pay no interest on that debt, as well as let you spend on the card interest-free!

Let’s take a look...

All round cards

Halifax today dropped the rates on its All in One MasterCard by extending the 0% periods on both purchases and balance transfers from 12 to 13 months. The bank does actually have a couple of other credit cards floating about that offer 13 months on purchases and balance transfers, but they have only thus far been available for existing Halifax current account customers.

Halifax’s move pushes the All in One Card ahead of the 12 month purchase and balance transfer deals currently offered by Barclaycard and Sainsbury’s Finance (as well as the 12 month account available through Halifax’s Bank of Scotland cousin).

Here’s a round-up of the best all-round deals that are currently available on the open credit card market...

As you can see, Barclaycard, Sainsbury’s and Bank of Scotland are hot on the tail of Halifax, followed by the Tesco Bank Clubcard Credit Card MasterCard – the market leader for interest-free purchases. In fact, as well as being the best all-round credit cards, the cards in the table above are also the best deals if you’re after a 0% purchase card.

All of these credit cards are available to everyone, but you will have to hold a Nectar card and have swiped it in-store within the last six months to be eligible for the Sainsbury’s Finance deal. You’ll also have to be over 25 years of age if you want to pick up the Creation card.

There is actually a further 13 month all-round card available from Natwest, but like the older Halifax deals, you have to be an existing current account customer to be eligible for it.

Balance transfer trap

If you are planning on making a balance transfer using any credit card, you should always check the overall issuer of the account before you apply for the card. This is because many different brands of card are often issued by one lender. And most lenders do not accept balance transfers between their cards, even if they are branded differently.

For example, you are not able to transfer debt between Bank of Scotland and Halifax cards, as they are both owned by HBOS (and in turn are both part of the Lloyds Banking Group, although you are able to shift debt between Lloyds TSB cards and HBOS cards and vice versa). Similarly as MBNA and Virgin Money cards are both issued by Bank of America, you are not able to transfer debt between these accounts.

For a full breakdown of who owns who head over to The secret truth about your credit card.

And this isn’t the only trap you need to steer clear of if you’re planning on taking out an all-round credit card...

Order of payments

The sly trick of negative order of payment may have been banned earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean that credit card payment allocations can’t still cause problems for borrowers. To take a step back, negative order of payment was the odious practice of allocating credit card bill payments to low interest debt. Thus leaving high interest debt untouched and subject to spiralling charges.

Lenders can’t outwardly peddle this trick anymore, but a couple of providers are still not going completely by the book. Read Credit cards that bend the rules to find out which lenders you should be keeping an eye on.

Despite the competitive all-round deals detailed above, for large transfers of debt, a designated balance transfer credit card will almost certainly offer the best value. Although if you do plump for one of these deals, make sure you only use it for balance transfers and get a separate purchase card if you want to spend.

Here are some of the best balance transfer deals around at the moment...

The best balance transfer cards

So Barclaycard currently has the top two balance transfer cards offering 20 and 19 months at 0%. But don’t plump straight for the 20 month card if you are planning a balance transfer. That's because with the 0.5% fee refund on the 19 month card, you’ll probably be better off with the shorter 0% account. Just make sure you can do without the extra interest-free month.

It’s a good idea to work out the balance transfer fees for the various cards before you start applying, in order to get a fuller idea as to the real cost of each account. Also, bear in mind that if you are transferring over £3,000 you’ll be eligible for a £20 fee discount with the 20 month Barclaycard. This brings the fee down to £76 for a £3,000 transfer, just £4 more than the fee would be for the 19 month card on the same level of debt.

And as I mentioned earlier, remember to check the overall issuer of the card before you start applying. The last thing you want is to get a card home only to find out that it can’t eat your debt!

More: Get a 0% credit card | Five reasons to pay by card not cash | The best cards for balance transfers