Fees introduced on credit cards?

harrowing_3

About 6 months ago (or was it longer) there was a lot of talk in the press about that Credit Card Companies would be "forced" to re-introduce annual fees. Has anyone's CC company actually done that? Mercifully, mine hasn't - it's GM Mastercard.

ldn-100

Morgan Stanley (now Barclaycard) introduced an annual fee on one of their cards in the last year. Abbey Zero has a dormancy fee, introduced a month or so ago.

anna42hmr

nope none of my cards have done that so far

i currently have lloyds duo, halifax, nationwide and cap one

i also had until earlier this month, mbna, natwest, mint and egg (i decided to cancel cards i didnt use) and none of these had implimented this, or the much rumourd "miniumum usage" charge/clause (well not on my accounts anyway)

harrowing_3

anna42hmr wrote: »

nope none of my cards have done that so far

i currently have lloyds duo, halifax, nationwide and cap one

i also had until earlier this month, mbna, natwest, mint and egg (i decided to cancel cards i didnt use) and none of these had implimented this, or the much rumourd "miniumum usage" charge/clause (well not on my accounts anyway)

Sounds awfully cynical of me, but perhaps the credit card companies are doing rather nicely thank you (i.e not needing extra fees) at the moment with fewer people managing to pay off in full each month.

Geenie

harrowing wrote: »

Sounds awfully cynical of me, but perhaps the credit card companies are doing rather nicely thank you (i.e not needing extra fees) at the moment with fewer people managing to pay off in full each month.

Surely this is only good for CC companys if the user actually pays all of the money owed eventually!!!

If my CC start charging me an annual fee, I would tell them to stuff it up their derriere along with their card! I pay off my balance in full every month.....which amounts to about £18,000 cash a year for my CC company.

harrowing_3

Geenie wrote: »

Surely this is only good for CC companys if the user actually pays all of the money owed eventually!!!

If my CC start charging me an annual fee, I would tell them to stuff it up their derriere along with their card! I pay off my balance in full every month.....which amounts to about £18,000 cash a year for my CC company.

Precisely my feelings. Although I think you'll find CC companies prefer people who pay them stomping amounts of interest. They get all their money back eventually by employing companies who come round and take your TV, Computer etc if ncessary.....
Some time ago Egg controversially cancelled the accounts of loadsa people who always payed balances in full, as no money in it for Egg !

FakePlasticTrees

ldn-100 wrote: »

Morgan Stanley (now Barclaycard) introduced an annual fee on one of their cards in the last year. Abbey Zero has a dormancy fee, introduced a month or so ago.

I never paid this - the money was never added for Morgan Stanley. And as for Barclaycard they said they will waive the fee (for this year anyway) - their terms and conditions say fee is £20 (if applicable) which is a bit ambiguous.

anniecave

credit card companies do get around 2.5% of transaction value in charges off all the retailers who take them. So customers who spend lots but pay everything off each month are a good constant source of income for the card companies... that's why they will do full balance direct debits. And customers stick with them even if there are no incentives (cashback, loyalty points etc).

flyaway

Have just received letter from Monument cc saying they are increasing their annual fee charge from £10 to £29 from end of April 09. This is a change to their t&c effective February 2009.

I think it's a bit too much of an increase for maintenance of an account. What do they do for that sort of money?

I will pay off my balance before April and probably cancel the card.

sarahs999

I think the rumour was right in the sense that the CCs are businesses and have to make their money from somewhere. I reckon in the end, because of the popularity of reclaiming charges etc there will just be a load more tricksy things going on to trap unsuspecting customers into running up fees. Like putting out really tempting offers for 0% on purchases and trapping them behind BTs. Or, as I read on here the other day, getting you to take out ppi when you get a new BT card, and then counting it as a purchase on the card so it runs up interest behind your BT.

Never forget, the companies are not your friends. They want to make money out of you.

flyaway

Thanks for your reply. I've just spoken to Monument and asked them why they are increasing their fees. They said they were not told why but it has to do with the cost of administrating the accounts. I said I did understand a small increase but another £19 was far too much and that I would be paying off my balance and cancelling my card. They said that was fine with them. They obviously do not want customers any more.

When I asked them if they sent out this increase to everyone they said it was a handful of people as they could not cope with the response if they sent it out to everyone at once. I'm not surprised, they will be inundated with people cancelling.