I got a credit card offer from a major bank in the mail today. It piqued my interest because it was offering 0% interest for a year. 0% interest? Me? Wow! I don't exactly have stellar credit, so this was exciting. Then I read the fine print.

Good thing I did, too, because it turns out that the 0% was on balance transfers only, not on purchases or cash advances. Those would incur 14.99%. But if --- and a big if --- you slipped up in any way, such as being late on your payment, etc., the interest rate would shoot up to whatever the prime rate was + 23% and 28% interest, which = more than 30%. Wow. I was speechless. I could imagine the bankers watching me, waiting for me to mess up just so they could charge me their sky-high interest. Yikes.

I was invited to apply, of course, but there was no guarantee that I would be accepted. So I quietly tore the offer in half and tossed it in the trash. To give the bank credit, they did state in their cover letter the part about the 0%, but the rest was buried in the back of the letter.

All I can say is, good riddance.