Is your credit card provider guilty of inventing new charges?

It is no secret that credit card companies having been losing out on money because of the cuts in late payment fees. The ruling earlier on in the year left credit card providers worrying about the huge losses they would face because of the new lower fees. Not able to charge more than £12, the potential losses were quite substantial, but now credit card companies are fighting back.

It seems that credit card providers are determined to gain back the profits that they lost because of the ruling and they have found several ways to go about it. Introducing higher fees for other services and inventing completely new fees are two favourite schemes that providers are trying out. Often people do not even realise that new fees have been invented as they do not check their monthly statements. So could you be paying a fee you are completely unaware of?

Higher fees for withdrawing cash and higher interest rates are two ways in which money is being clawed back. Often people do not notice a slight change in their interest as they do not pay close attention to their accounts. So it would be a good idea to look at our next statement and see whether any extra interest has been charged.

It is thought that more charges are set to be introduced over the next six months too. This means that owning a credit card is now going to be a fairly expensive thing. Of course that could persuade people not to apply for cards and not to use them as frequently which would then reduce the level of debt in the UK. However, it is more likely that people will just put up with the fees and possibly even get themselves into further debt because of them.

Overall credit card companies are finding ways to get back the profits which they have lost. So when your next monthly statement arrives it would definitely be worth checking to see what charges you have incurred over the month.