[Updated at 1:59PM AEDST 16 January to reflect interest rate change]
With the Honesty Experiments, we set out to create real, everyday situations that truly tested honesty. We lost wallets on a Sydney footpath, set up a coffee cart in Melbourne that gave back too much change, and dropped twenty-dollar notes on a busy city street.
The results proved that Australians are an honest lot, and they deserve a credit card with no nasty surprises.
Balance transfers are commonly used to reduce the interest you pay by transferring your debt to a new card with a lower interest rate for a set period. But when that set period ends, some banks hit you with higher cash advance interest charges that can seriously add up.
Unlike some banks, a NAB credit card reverts to the lower everyday purchase rate no matter what.
Here’s an example, if you have a balance transfer on a Commonwealth Bank Low Rate Credit Card, after the balance transfer period ends, the interest rate you pay will go to the cash advance rate, currently 21.74%p.a.1. With a NAB Low Rate Visa Card, this would go to the lower everyday purchase rate, currently 13.24%p.a.2. So it saves you money.
We believe that it’s the honest way to do balance transfers. What do you think?
Compare our credit cards, or see what else makes our credit cards honest.
- Sourced from commbank.com.au. Rate current as at 10 August 2011 and subject to change.
- Rate current as at 10 January 2012 and subject to change. Fees & charges apply.
- Approval is subject to NAB’s credit assessment criteria. Terms and Conditions available from nab.com.au
NAB should compare apples to apples to make a comparison fair.
CBA “CASH ADVANCED RATE” should not be compared to NAB “PURCHASE RATE”.
Any cash advanced rate on a credit card is known to attract a very high interest rate.
Hence this comparison is deceiving!
Yes this is correct, in some instances a cash advance rate is higher than a purchase rate. That is why this example compares what happens with a NAB Low Rate Visa Card compared to a Commonwealth Bank Low Rate Credit Card after a promotional balance transfer period ends. With any NAB Credit Card that balance reverts to the lower purchase rate on that card, in this example 13.49%, unlike Commonwealth Bank whom revert to the higher cash advance interest rate on that card, in this case 21.74%. This is why NAB has changed the way our balance transfers work, treating any outstanding balance transfer amounts as a purchase rather than a cash advance so that our customers save money. Hope this helps! Cheers, ^KT
Could the implications of this upset the economy?
Hi Tasha, could you clarify your question so we can try to help? Cheers, ^KT
That’s a really misleading answer above. Balance transfers never get treated as cash advances by any bank. BT’s go to the purchase rate not the cash advance rate, and to suggest otherwise is either dumb or misleading.
To compare a cash advance rate with a purchase rate is wrong…
The cash rate on the low rate card is 21.74%, actually the same as the CBA card. ANd no I don’t work for CBA and yes i have sent the screenshot of your page to the ACCC.
Best
Dave
PS I thought you killed the asterisk. they’re everywhere!
Hi Dave, thanks for your feedback. Our statement is correct. CBA declares on its website and in its disclaimers that the Balance Transfer revert on CBA credit cards is the Cash Advance rate. You can see this at http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/credit-cards/low-rate/rates-and-fees.aspx – point one in the Important Information section: “at the end of the balance transfer period, the interest rate on any outstanding transferred balances converts to the cash advance rate current at that time.” Cheers, ^KT