People can say what they will about the blogosphere, but one thing that gets proven true over and over again is that many blogs often beat the mainstream media to the punch by days, weeks, and even months. Such is the case with a recent story that appeared on abcnews.com regarding balance transfers.
For about six months, our site has been writing about this issue and reading the article by Rich Blake leaves us wondering if he stopped by to learn about the subject before writing his own article. In it, he points out the issues we have been hammering home since the beginning of spring, namely, 0% rate periods are on the decline, balance transfer fees are increasing, and more and more consumers are having difficulty getting approved for 0% deals.
To get a sense of just how far behind the news curve ABC is, take a look at 0% Interest for 1 Year – Not for Long, first published in May. Or perhaps Balance Transfers Bite the Dust published in June. You’ll find the very same ideas published today at http://abcnews.go.com/Business/credit-card-balance-transfers-ending/Story?id=8767730&page=1. However, when Smart Balance Transfers published these stories, consumers still had time to act.
With mainstream media reporting stories five months after bloggers, it leads one to understand just why these companies are struggling-they are failing to deliver timely information to readers. In this case, the failure to timely report on the issue of 0% balance transfers probably cost consumers tens of millions of dollars. And this is just a small case.
