By Charlotte Beugge

Nationwide is the latest entrant to the credit card 0% market - and it's zoomed right to the top of the charts.

Britain's biggest building society's new Select credit card comes with 18 months at 0% on purchases and 17 months at 0% on balance transfers with a 2.95% fee. This beats the next-best combination 0% deal by three months.

The Select card is on offer to Nationwide members who use the Nationwide FlexAccount as their main current account. New customers can also have the card if they open a FlexAccount as their main current account.

Cardholders also get commission-free purchases abroad and 0.5% cashback on sterling purchases - not including cash advances.

The longest 0% balance transfer deal is currently from Barclaycard with 24 months interest-free and a fee of 3.2% - there is three months at 0% for purchases. British Airways has one of the longest 0% purchase deals at 15 months.

But the new Nationwide deal is currently the longest for both 0% balance transfers and purchases: Halifax has 15 months for both at 0%.

Graham Pilkington, Nationwide's director of banking, says: "As we start the New Year, the Select credit card, with its market-leading 0% for 18 months purchase and 0.5% cashback offer, provides people with the ideal opportunity to take advantage of those bargains in the sales.

At the same time, by offering a competitive 17 months 0% balance transfer offer, the Select card also caters for those consumers who are looking to transfer pre-existing balances."