Credit is a lovely word. It conjures up images of free money, goods which you haven't paid for, and reckless spending. Debt isn't such a nice word. It makes you think of shivering around a Calor gas fire in a dark living room, unable to pay your electricity bill because all your money is being taken up with debt repayments. Endless red letters and phone calls demanding money you haven't got. But the two terms often go hand-in-hand.

While it goes without saying that taking out credit can lead to debt if you're not careful, some kinds of credit can also help with your debt. There are credit cards on the market which offer interest-free periods which can help if you wish to transfer balances from a high-interest card or overdraft. But you need to be careful and read the small print to make sure you know exactly what you'll be getting.

There are some credit cards on the market which offer both 0% balance transfers and interest-free spending for the first month, but these are the ones you should be wary of. The interest-free period tends to only work on its own; when you transfer a balance from one card to another you'll find that the repayments you think are going on your spending are actually just slightly reducing the transferred balance, thus negating the 'interest-free' period. The money you've spent on your card just 'hangs in the balance', accumulating interest until the transferred balance gets cleared in full.

Perhaps the best solution is to get two cards, one for general spending, and another for balance transfers. If your credit rating allows for this, you could potentially get a long-term interest-free period on your spending card, and a 0% balance transfer on the other card. This can help to arrange your finances and save you quite a tidy sum in interest charges.