Credit balance service charges

sormesher

I recently received a letter from Abbey Credit Card telling me that as I had a credit balance of £4.00 on my credit card for at least the last 12 months, from 30th March 2007 they will be introducing an annual service charge of £10 or if the credit balance is less than £10, the amount of the balance.
They went on to say that if I wanted to avoid such a service charge then I could either 1) ask them to transfer the credit balance to my current a/c (I don't have one with them), or 2) use the credit balance to make a donation to Abbey's nominated charity, Cancer Research UK.
As much as I have no problem donating to a charity with a balance I wasn't even aware of because I haven't received statements showing it, I do have a problem with being charged for having a small credit balance and being forced to take limited steps to rectify the matter.
They did mention something about 'fraud protection' and not being covered when there is a credit balance which is fair enough, but in the current market of banks and credit cards charging for being overdrawn/late with payments, isn't this going a little too far!?
If anyone has had letters to this effect, please let me know, and what you did about it. Thanks.

YorkshireBoy

They'll transfer it to any current account of your choice - it doesn't have to be an Abbey account.

Alternatively, why not simply spend it?

Then again, since you'd obviously forgotten about it, why not take them up on their offer to donate it to charity?

And if you've no further plans for the card, closing it could even improve your credit rating to future providers - especially if it has a high limit and/or you have other active credit cards.

ronaldo175

Statements are sent out to all customers who have any activity on their accounts during the previous month. So when you went into credit you would have been notified of this, unless your statement was lost in the post.

anniecave

It's admin cost to keep an account open with a credit balance
I would just spend more than £4, pay off the difference when the statement comes in, cancel the card and that'll be it!