Watch Out for New Credit Card Fees
January 5, 2010 by Jim
rd Act of 2009 looming, its rules will go into effect in February, credit card companies are starting to institute more fees ahead of the rules changes. A new Wall Street Journal article cites several of these new fees including $1 processing fees for printed statements, reduction in rewards programs, and fees for inactive accounts. We first talked about some issuers charging fees if you didn’t meet a certain spending threshold last August.Much like with banks, leave them if you don’t like it. I thought the comment by Christopher Moss, who holds a card that will start charging $1 for statements, that he was “prepared to cut up the credit card even though he likes the loyalty rewards that come with it” was a little silly. Just get electronic statements and you can keep your rewards and not get charged the fee.
In the end, banks and credit card issuers will need to make money to keep their shareholders happy. If they can’t get it through overdraft fees or some of their other existing fees, they’ll get it somewhere else. Now I can’t wait for the rash of people complaining about how they opted out of overdraft protection and start seeing their checks bounce (banks were making a ton of money on overdrafts for a reason…)
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