I used to think a bad credit card was one with a high interest rate. However, the more cards I look at, the more I realize those aren't the bad cards - they might be expensive, but they also usually have a correspondingly large set of features and they appeal to a certain market.
No, the bad cards are the ones that offer poor value - the cards with medium interest rates and fees who try to get away with offering low-end features for mid-range cost.
The St George Starts Low Stays Low is a bad card. It's fairly cheap, but like an increasing number of credit cards, it just doesn't offer any value.
The 12.24% interest rate is low-ish (I guess 'Starts Average Stays Average' didn't quite have the same ring to it), but it's far from the lowest rate we've seen. On our table, it's the tenth cheapest and in the Cannex table it's 84th out of 319 cards (just outside the top 25%).
To be clear, I'm not condemning the rate. 12.24% may not be brilliant, but it's still quite good. I'm condemning the value, or lack-thereof.
The annual fee is $69 which is the second-highest out of the ten cheapest cards on our comparison table (and the one card with a more expensive annual fee offers travel insurance).
You do get 55 days interest free, your choice of four colours, up to 3 free additional cards and membership in St George Instant Benefits (St George, stop calling it a rewards program, it really isn't).
But that's it.
It isn't just cards from other banks which offer better value. St George themselves offer the
Vertigo MasterCard which has a lower interest rate and cheaper annual fee. In fact, the Vertigo is superior to the Starts Low Stays Low in every way, except in the number of free additional cardholders (3 instead of 1).
The verdict: don't bother. There are at least nine cards which offer better value than the Starts Low Stays Low (including St George's own Vertigo).
