Credit Cards and Their Hidden Fees
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credit: le
Recent tips at CNN Money about the surprise fees on your credit card had a few reminders of other ways your credit card debt can mount up. Luckily, they also provide a few tips on how we can either avoid or minimize some of these costs.
- Rising interest rates. Remember that your credit card company can change the interest rate on your card whenever they want, but they do have to tell you about it. The important thing to look out for here is an option to accept a higher rate or close the account. Usually, if you receive the information and do nothing, the company will assume you accept the new rate. You generally have to write a letter if you want to close the account.
- Late fees. You can pay your credit card bill an hour late and be charged a late fee – starting from $35. Make sure you have a good system in place – either automatic payments or a failsafe system for you to make the payment – to avoid late fees. Remember that if you pay late, the credit card company might raise your interest rate.
- Extra charges and transfer fees. Minimum payments can rise, so if you are not paying the credit card bill in full, pay attention to the possibility of the payment rising. If you try to move your high interest rate debt to a lower interest rate card, double check first about what the transfer fees will be. They used to be limited to around $75 but are often higher these days. Make sure it’s worth your while.
Tags: Budgeting | Credit & Debit Cards | Fees | Finances | Interest | Saving Money
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under Credit & Debit Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
