Don't Be Fooled by Your Credit Card Company
Contributed by Devon Mccollum
Don't Be Fooled by Your Credit Card Company
Is your credit card company charging you strange fees? Do you suffer from mysterious interest rate changes? If so, you are not alone. Millions of consumers who own credit cards find themselves reading their monthly statements several times trying to make sense of the service fees and charges.
Your credit card company may be trying to pull a fast one on you. It happens to the best of us. We get a great deal in the mail for a low-interest line of credit that turns into a nightmare of hidden fees and high interest once the promotional period - also known as the "honeymoon" - is over.
Many of these charges are listed in the tiny print at the bottom of the agreement. The most important part of the disclosure statement is the line that contains the phrase "subject to change". The conditions will change over time, often without your permission or knowledge.
Your credit card company may decide to charge you an annual fee.
You applied for the credit card with no annual fee for that very reason - you don't want the additional charge of an annual fee. But you may be surprised to find that if you are on good terms with the credit card company and you pay your balance in full each month, an annual fee will suddenly appear.
The credit card company is losing the chance to make money off of you by offering a credit card with no annual fee. Most of the time, that money is made up by finance charges by those who only pay the minimum balance on their accounts. When you fail to accrue large amounts of interest on your account, the company will add on the fee in hopes of getting some extra cash from you.
