Be aware of interest free deferred payment credit deals and loans since they may not be interest free at all. Many interest free and deferred payment deals come with traps and pitfalls attached to them that you should know about. In our latest two articles we focused our attention on effective methods aimed at calculating and negotiating best possible discounts from ticket prices in case you prefer paying by cash instead of buying it on a credit deal. In this article we will focus on hidden traps planted into the small print of interest free and deferred payments credit deals which at the end can make them truly very expensive deals.

So, before you sign up for any apparently convenient interest free or deferred payment deal, check the small print or ask the sales person for things in the list below.

Checklist for Interest Free and Deferred Payments deals.

Check No	Check Description	Yes / No
1	Are there any fees included? For example: – administration fee – fee for performing credit check – credit application fee – credit approval fee – account opening or account establishment fee – account maintenance or annual account fee – credit contract cancellation fee
2	If not fully repaid within interest free period, will the interest commence after that period or will be retrospectively calculated from the beginning?
3	Is there any penalty charge if loan repaid early before the end of interest free period?
4	Is there any penalty charge for making voluntary repayments during the deferred payments period?
5	How much will be the interest after interest free period?
6	Are there any compulsory items attached to the deal, like extended warranty, item damage insurance or repayments insurance?
7	For store cards, are there any cash advance or ATM withdrawal fees?
8	For cash advances and ATM withdrawals with store cards does the interest apply only to th amount withdrawn or to the whole credit balance?
9	How much are the late payment and remainder letter fees?
10	Will the interest deal continue to be interest free also after you miss just payment or break just one condition even if you quickly catch up and never may another mishap?

Conclusion

Before you sign up for any interest free and deferred payment deals, make all the checks like you would do before purchasing a car. Do not get caught in a financial trap. Sum up all the fees and calculate the effective interest rate. You may eventually find out that taking another credit option may be cheaper and incurring less interest than the interest free store deal. Also write down all conditions of the loan and make sure that you never break them. Otherwise the whole interest free loan can instantly turn to a nasty interest and fees bearing one.