Five Great Credit-Card Deals!

If you'd like to try some fantastic plastic, one of these cards is sure to be right up your street.

Nerdy facts: a credit card has an area of roughly six square inches, and there are around 75 million in circulation in the UK.

Hence, if we placed all of our credit cards together, they would cover an area of 450 million square inches, or 3,125,000 square feet. This is enough to cover almost 1,484 tennis courts (which measure 78 feet by 27 feet). That's a lot of plastic!

However, although two-thirds of adults have at least one credit card to their name, most of us don't have the right plastic to suit our needs. That's hardly surprising, given the catalogue on offer, because we have over 1,300 differently branded cards to choose from!

Anyway, here are five cracking credit cards, courtesy of the Fool's search wizard (which is powered by independent financial researcher Moneyfacts) in the credit card centre:

0% ON BALANCE TRANSFERS

If you are paying interest on your credit-card balances, simply transfer these debts to a 0% credit card and enjoy up to a year's interest-free credit. Two table-toppers in this category are:

1. The Barclaycard Flexi-Rate Visa, which offers 0% for a year in return for a transfer fee of 2.5% (minimum £6.25) and 14.9% typical APR on purchases; and

2. The MBNA Platinum Plus Visa, which offers 0% until November 2007 with a 2% fee (minimum £3), plus 0% on purchases until February 2007 (15.9% typical APR).

0% ON PURCHASES

If you're planning to make a big purchase, or would simply like to enjoy extended interest-free credit on your spending, then try one of these beauties:

3. The Halifax One MasterCard offers 0% on new purchases for a year (12.9% typical APR), plus 0% on balance transfers for a year (3% fee; minimum £3); and

4. The Sainsbury's Bank Platinum Visa card offers 0% on new purchases for ten months (15.9% typical APR), plus a lifetime rate of 5.94% APR on balance transfers until they are repaid.

CASHBACK

If you always pay off your monthly credit-card bill in full and would like to earn as you spend, simply take a cashback credit card with you when shopping. Recently, I received a cheque for £115 for one year's spending on my cashback card, which works out at almost a tenner a month! One of the table-toppers in this category is:

5. The Morgan Stanley Platinum MasterCard, which pays introductory cashback of 3% on spending up to £2,000 and 1.5% on £2,001+ until 01/02/07. The normal cashback award is 1% on spending up to £2,000 and 0.5% on £2,001+. The typical APR is 15.9%. Spending £500 a month on this card would earn you £110 in the first year, which isn't to be sniffed at!

So, what are you waiting for? Ditch and switch your plastic today!

More: Use the Fool to find superior credit cards, personal loans and savings accounts!