Let’s make a deal!

But make it a good one. I’m offered a lot of bad deals, as are most people. At least every other day I get one or two more credit card offers in the mail. I know the mass-mail truck stops at every other house on the block, too.

As with most unsolicited offers, these are generally very bad deals. They’re couched in encouraging language: &#8220Get your NEW card NOW! Overnight delivery! Start spending TODAY! MONEY! Money money moneeeee ….

It’s money, all right. But not coming to you. Look past the happy promotion page to the required legal disclosures – the big blocks of small text on the back. I did on one such I got last week, and saw 23.99 percent interest, a $72 annual fee, $99 application fee … this is a bad deal.

The trouble is that these offers are aimed at people who aren’t good with numbers. I’m not very good with math myself, but you don’t have to be a calculus nerd to figure out just how bad a deal this can be.

For starters, there’s the interest. The legal maximum is 24 percent in Kentucky, so my most recent junk mail skirts the line. A decent rate, especially with today’s low interest rates in general, should be far below that.

And watch out for &#8220teaser” interest rates that start out low, perhaps around 3.99 percent – but shoot up near the max after a few months, says Jenny Russell, card service manager for Service One Credit Union.

&#8220You want a low, fixed interest rate,” she said.

Service One started out serving Western employees and students, but has since opened its doors to just about anyone with a local job. It offers credit cards, too, without trying to rake in the bucks that national companies like Capitol One want from you.

A card worth having shouldn’t charge an annual fee just to keep it in your pocket, Russell said. In fact, it ought to offer some sort of reward program, whether for cash back, merchandise discounts or travel points, she said.

Some mass-marketed cards may also charge huge late fees and dramatically higher interest for payments that arrive even a day late, Russell said.

Many of the high-interest cards aim at catching people with little credit experience, or with a history of poor credit choices. Of all people, those are the ones who should play it safe with a basic card from a reputable – preferably local – financial institution.

Service One, for example, does issue cards to those trying to establish or reestablish credit.

&#8220It does have a little bit higher interest rate, but it’s nowhere near 24 percent,” Russell said.

A good credit rating, which will eventually qualify you for a better card with lower interest and a higher spending limit, can be built through a secured card. Applicants have to deposit money in a special savings account to back their new training-wheels card, but the effort of putting money into savings for a while is a heck of a lot better than having to mail the same amount, or several times more, off to cover jacked-up interest on a bad card.

I’ve had one card like that, but only briefly: On campus, a company was handing out high-interest big-monthly-fee card applications with free two-liter bottles of soft drinks. An acquaintance of mine on his way to class was thirsty, so he grabbed an application and some Diet Coke. And signed my name.

Shows you how desperate these companies are to line up the suckers – they didn’t check the bogus Social Security number, or ask why the middle initial didn’t match. I just found a card with a $500 limit in my mailbox one day. Along with a first month’s bill for about $50, just for &#8220applying.”

It took me three calls, about 40 minutes on hold and another five minutes of yelling, to get the company to cancel the card and bill.

That’s another good rule for discerning bad offers: If they have to give you something to induce you to sign up, it’s probably not something you’d do on its own merits.

But credit card offers are far from the only seeming route to riches that can turn into a dead end of debt. Some years ago I switched home phone service from AT&T to another long-distance carrier, and this touched off an intense but poorly planned effort to woo me back into Ma Bell’s arms. I promptly received a check for $50 from AT&T, telling me that I was suuuuuuch a valued customer that they wanted to give me FREE MONEY!

The moment I cashed it, you see, my phone service would automatically be switched back to AT&T. Now, I like $50 as much as anyone, but since I was saving about $10 a month on my phone bill through another service, I figured that within just a few months I would once again be on the losing end. So I tore up the check.

Two weeks later I got another offer from AT&T. It seems I was suuuuuuch a valued customer that they wanted to give me FREE MONEY! Enclosed was a check for … $25.

Now, if I didn’t bite for $50, why did they think I’d go for $25? Perhaps this explains AT&T’s declining market share: Their recruiting and retention efforts were based on the presumption that their customers were getting dumber.

It got worse. Eventually I got a check for $10. You know the drill.

But some people probably fell for it, or the marketing campaign wouldn’t have gone on as long as it did. Like free two-liters, an offer of cash up front is usually cover for bigger expenses later on. Companies don’t give away money for nothing, if they want to stay in business.

They don’t give away appliances, either. Or furniture. Rent-to-own businesses are an established part of the commercial landscape, but they too thrive on customers’ poor math skills.

Want to watch the World Cup on a big-screen TV? Need furniture for a brief stay, or extra for visiting relatives? In that case, short-term rental can be a good deal. Pay a few bucks up front, get what you need … and RETURN IT.

If you want to keep the TV or sofa bed, start saving and buy it. Plan ahead, if only for a few weeks. If you want it nownownow, you’re going to pay through the nose for instant gratification.

I looked up Rent-A-Center, perhaps the best-known name in the business, but the same setup applies in general.

As an example, I shopped for a Zenith DVD/VCR, a standard item available for about $16 a week. Not bad, right?

At least Rent-A-Center does the math for you, if you scroll down their Web page and read the dull black-and-white below the big color picture.

Yeah, it’s $16 a week. For 91 weeks. The DVD/VCR can be yours for only $1,455.

What’s it sell for in stores? Oh, $80 to $85. Hold off on rental payments for a month and a half, and you can buy it outright.

Daily News staff writer Jim Gaines can be reached at jgaines@bgdailynews.com .