Barclaycard set to introduce a new low fee to minority of it customers

May 30, 2007

If you have a Barclaycard and if you do not use it very often then you should prepare yourself for a small annual fee. The fee of £20-£30 per year is set to be introduced by the company to the minority of its customers who do not use their card frequently enough.

Talk has been made previously by many banks to introduce such charges and it is Barclays who are looking to start the ball rolling with them. The idea is to get the consumers to either spend more on their credit card, or risk having to pay a fee for not using it. Either way, the bank gets money and it is just one of a number of ways in which they are looking at improving their profits.

Obviously if you do not use your credit card then you are not accumulating any interest. If you are not accumulating interest then the bank is not earning anything from your credit card. So Barclays have decided that in order to get at least a little profit they will now charge these consumers extra fees. It is a move which will outrage this ‘small minority’ of customers as it is not as though Barclays is struggling for money and all of the charges they already get away with should earn them more than enough.

It is not only Barclays who will be introducing these new fees however. Many banks are thinking of doing the same thing and once Barclays does actually bring the new fees into force, it is more than likely that others will follow suit.

Overall fees for not using your card do not really seem very fair but they are unfortunately going to come into force. So if you do have a credit card but you do not really use it then the best answer would be to cancel it before any charges do come into play. That way you will owe the bank nothing and you will lose nothing either as you do not actually use the card.