It's looking quite crowded down in the low-end of the credit card market lately. There are now five sub-11% and eight sub-12% credit cards in our comparison table and the NAB Low Rate Visa is one of the cheapest.
The purchase rate is 10.99%, which along with the
St George Vertigo MasterCard and the
Citibank Clear Platinum is the second-lowest (third if you include the
Aussie Mastercard's honeymoon rate) in our comparison table, behind the
BankWest Lite MasterCard at 10.75%. The difference is so negligible that if you had a balance of $2,000, you would pay only $4.80 more per year.
Which brings me to my next point: $4.80 is a small price to pay for branch presence. None of the other low-end cards are offered by one of the big four banks. NAB's size means it's likely to have better ATM and branch presence in your area, unlike Aussie, Bankwest, Citibank or St George.
Coincidently (?), this card is almost identical to the St George Vertigo Mastercard, except it offers a slightly lower annual fee ($49 instead of $55). They have the same purchase rate, same cash rate (19.99%) and they both offer 55 days interest free and one free additional cardholder.
They also both offer 0% on balances transferred for six months, however on the NAB Low Rate Visa, any unpaid amounts at the end of the six months will attract the cash advance rate of almost 20%, which makes the whole offer rather unappealing. If you're looking for a balance transfer deal, go for a card which offers the special rate for a longer period (or even for the life of balances transferred, like some of the American Express cards).
The card also comes in a choice of colours - silver or pink.
The verdict: although the NAB Low Rate Visa doesn't differentiate itself from the other low rate cards, it doesn't really need to - the size of the bank means they can offer economy in other ways, like having plenty of NAB ATMs so you're not always slugged non-bank ATM fees.
