Zero Percent

A free lunch. Free interest. Not 5 percent. Not 10 percent. Zero percent. And...what do they say about free lunches? Yeah. No such thing.

Zero percenters are usually teasers from credit card companies sold to takers who did not take Shmoop Finance. Why? Because there's almost always a catch. Like...you get zero interest on your cards for the first 3 months, but then rates go to 12 percent for 3 months, and then to 30 percent...and you're obligated to carry some minimum balance for at least a year.

So if you do the math, then the minimum you'd be paying in interest on these "zero percent" cards would be something like 14 percent. There's a reason credit card companies and the banks they partner with have really awesome corporate jets.

Our thought: Don't fund more of them.