Credit Card Fee Watch: Now There's a Fee For NOT Buying Stuff
Credit card issuers are an inventive bunch, always creating new ways to entice consumers into signing up for cards, and to charge those consumers all sorts of fees for using those cards. I'm constantly shocked by the number of letters we receive in the mail from credit card companies—these guys have to be keeping the postal service in business—with a new card promotion or just a new call-out to sign up for a card.
Since a new law passed restricting how credit cards can increase rates and who exactly they can market their cards to (no more flooding college kids with credit card offers), the companies are getting even more inventive, as USA Today reports. Charges for annual fees and purchases abroad are up, and companies like Fifth Third Bank have introduced inactivity fees: $19 if you don't use your card over a 12-month period. They're basically asking people to cancel their accounts, or perhaps the goal is to winnow down the number of smart (conscious?) customers and only keep those that are dumb enough to pay something as absurd as an inactivity fee.
There's also something that Citibank calls a "reinstatement fee":
Citigroup, meanwhile, has rolled out a policy where certain credit card borrowers who pay late are subject to a "reinstatement fee" to be able to redeem accumulated points for rewards. This fee is currently $0. But it won't stay that way, predicts Robert Hammer, who consults with the industry, if Citigroup finds cardholders aren't objecting to the policy. Citigroup spokesman Samuel Wang says, "We currently have no plans to raise it."
Um, duh, if the idea was that the fee was always going to remain at $0, why the heck was it introduced in the first place?
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[...] Oddly enough, card issuers may also be charging you money to not use their cards—via an "inactivity fee." [...]
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citibank has canceled my card and when i called them they were very rude to me and got an attitude. chase canceled my card after 9 months of inactivity. i called them specifically to ask them about this before the 9 months and they told me that i only had to use it once a year. its definitely a dishonest industry. one that wasnt worth bailing out.
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[...] only—would be a means to avoid getting hit with fees. Most of the time, that would work. But some credit cards have added an "inactivity" fee. In other words: a fee for not buying [...]
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[...] Credit Card Fee Watch: Now There's a Fee for NOT Buying Stuff [...]
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[...] profits, credit card issuers counter legislative reform efforts by adding fees, including one for NOT buying stuff, and jacking up interest [...]
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[...] Credit Card Fee Watch: Now There's a Fee for NOT Buying Stuff [...]
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[...] to some nutty card fees being introduced, annual fees seem standard, expected even. Witness the rise of the "inactivity fee," in which you're charged for not spending [...]
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[...] report after a few years. Just keep the card, file it away, and save your high credit score. But now, some credit card companies are putting that advice on the skids. Fifth Third Bank is charging a [...]
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[...] Third Bank is charging a $19.00 fee on credit cards that are inactive for a 12 month [...]
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[...] But now, some credit card companies are putting that advice on the skids. Fifth Third Bank is charging a $19 inactivity fee if you don't use your card for a year other fees to look out for. [...]
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I suppose they're under the gun to replace the revenues they will lose when they are asked to use more fair credit practices. I use my Citi card all the time but I never run a balance so they don't get a dime from me. The day they start charging me for not carrying a balance is the day I cancel my card, though. If they start charging me an annual fee I will cancel the card. In short, if they do anything to try to get money from me, I will cancel the card.
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"they don't get a dime from me"
Is this really true? Don't the credit card companies charge a fee to the restaurants where you dine and the grocery stores where you shop? Those fees are ultimately passed down to the consumer, you, through price increases. Now, I am not saying that the credit card companies shouldn't charge for the services they provide, just that they are definitely making money from you. The only way you could have avoided giving them money was by not using the cards, and now that avenue is also closed. Ofcourse giving up the cards is still an option.
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[...] But now, some credit card companies are putting that advice on the skids. Fifth Third Bank is charging a $19 inactivity fee if you don’t use your card for a year. [...]
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That's pretty lame. You know if you read the fine print I think at the bottom of all those credit card offers, there is a way you can opt out of getting them. It's probably been 2 years since the last offer I received in the mail (so that's why I don't quite remember how to do it).
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