Kathy Chu at USA Today writes about the host of new, nontraditional fees being added to credit card accounts over and above the classic interest rate hike. Watching out for these fees will do your account justice, especially if you’re in the financially unfortunate position of revolving a credit card balance from month to month. If there was any more need of a reason to aggressively pay down credit card debt, here they are:
- fee for NOT using a credit card in the past 12 months
- percentage fee for buying goods and services on a credit card from outside of the United States — over and above the currency conversion fee
- new annual fee for popular credit card options — imposed on selected account holders
- fee for regaining access to rewards points after missing a payment deadline
- the addition of traditional credit card fees to checking and savings accounts
In short, watch out for the new fees that can be added to an account, keeping in mind that rather than being ready to help account holders, lenders are fundamentally in the business to make money off of your accounts and particularly the debt you may carry with them. The fine print in the mail from lenders can be boring, but now is the time to read it and understand it well, more than ever before.
Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs. DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.
Tags: credit card debt fees, credit card fees, lender fees, new credit card fees
