Not necessarily. If you know that you will have no problems paying off your purchase balance at the end of the interest-free period, the cash advantage you will gain lies only in the interest you can earn by leaving your money in the bank instead of using it to make credit card repayments. Let’s say you accumulated a purchase balance of $20,000 over 12 months. Your average balance would be roughly $10,000, which means that at a savings account interest rate of 3% you would earn $300 by postponing your repayments for 12 months. But there might be a competing card offering only six months at 0%, letting you earn only half as much in interest – $150 – but with other money-saving benefits attached in the form of rewards program points plus a range of insurance cover worth over $500 every year. Calculate the best deal by working out the dollar value of any benefits you would use, including the 0% purchase option. The card with the highest dollar value of combined earnings (from cash on deposit rather than lost in repayments) and savings (from complimentary benefits) will probably get your vote.