About one month from now, the new credit card reform bill rules will take effect. The new rules are intended to protect consumers against seemingly unfair banking fees and other practices. The rules become effective on February 22nd, 2010.
This sounds like a great move for cardholders, but according to the banks, they are stating that they’ll be losing money as a result of these new rules. In order to make up for these losses, they are expected to increase fees.
Whilst these new rules are designed to protect consumers from seemingly unnecessary fees such as a pay by phone fee, and high interest rates, the banks will have to make up for this deficit in some way by coming up with other creative ways to apply fees.
So in addition to the recent hike in interest rate, consumers may possibly face a jump in fees.
According to this article on the CBS4 website, financial expert Mark Gilbert says that "The fees have not been specifically addressed by legislation, so there’s no prohibition." Gilbert continues to say that he expects the banks to raise fees in almost every area.
Based on this, it’s not too difficult for the banks to increase fees in areas that are not addressed by the new rules of the credit card reform bill. For example, fees associated with transferring balances to a new credit card, or higher late fees.
According to this article, one fee that is being considered by card companies is an inactivity fee which will be charged to cards that are not used for a period of time.
As with any opportunity you may have when it comes to credit cards, it always makes sense to shop around. Especially now given the potential increase in some of these fees. It makes sense you look around for the best credit card offer. Further, at a time when so many consumers have poor credit as a result of the recent downturn in the economy, it’s even more important now to have good credit. Most of the best credit card offers and terms are only made available to those who have good to excellent credit.
Of course, the credit card companies will notify you prior to any increase in fees, so pay attention to these notifications if they arrive in the mail. Ultimately, at least the new credit card bill will help save us money in certain areas, but we still have to be aware of potential other increases that may follow.
