How we verify

Deals

Our research runs every morning across credit cards, auto, equipment, retail financing, buy now pay later and Metro Detroit dealers. Every deal carries the date we last confirmed it, when it ends, and one of these labels:

  • True 0% Equal payments, interest can never be backdated.
  • Intro 0% Zero for a set time on a card, then normal card interest on what is left, going forward only.
  • Deferred interest Not 0%. Interest accrues from day one and is charged in full if any balance remains at the deadline.
  • Not guaranteed 0% Advertised as low or zero, but the rate depends on your credit.

Rows marked "Confirm before you buy" were confirmed by a reliable secondary source or a dealer rather than the original program page. Deals drop off automatically on their end date. If we get something wrong, we fix it. We never accept payment to list, rank or describe a deal differently.

The interest clocks

  • Federal interest this fiscal year counts from October 1, 2026 at the fiscal 2026 pace of gross interest expense on the public debt, $1.36 trillion (Treasury), about $43,125 a second. It is an estimate between Treasury's monthly releases.
  • Interest vs defense uses net interest, the budget measure that subtracts interest the government earns: $1.05 trillion against $965 billion for national defense in fiscal 2026 (Monthly Treasury Statement, budget functions 900 and 050). Net is the conservative figure, so the comparison holds on the stricter measure.
  • Households' interest runs at the 2025 annual total of personal interest payments, $1.19 trillion (BEA via FRED), from January 1.
  • Credit card interest runs at $160 billion a year, the amount the CFPB reports was charged in 2024, from January 1.
  • Per American: fiscal 2026 net interest divided by the U.S. population of 341.8 million (Census) is about $3,072 a year, or $12,288 for a family of four. It is a share of the cost, not a bill anyone receives.
  • National debt comes live from Treasury's Debt to the Penny with the date Treasury recorded it.
  • State and local debt is bonded debt outstanding from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, fiscal 2023, the latest complete year. It excludes unfunded pensions.