Are You Aware of The Hidden Fees Credit Card Companies Charge You?
Written by DebtFree on May 27th, 2008A very interesting story surfaced today on CNN.com. In fact it made the top news on CNN today. The story is about Don Cressman, an average individual, 53 years old, who fell into a huge trap of credit card debt, while also discovering the many tricks that credit card companies have towards squeezing out every last cent from their customers.
Do you know what happens when you are late on making a payment? Are you aware of all the hidden fees and charges that you can be charged against you? Sadly, did you know that Americans hold $850 billion in credit card debt, and the average balance per card-holding household is $8,568, according to the Consumer Federation of America.
Did you know that even borrowers who pay their bills on time can fall victim to deceptive practices used by the card issuers and get slammed with rising interest and hidden fees? In this wonderful article written By Jessica Dickler, CNNMoney.com staff writer titled, Getting squeezed by credit card companies.
I learned all too quickly how innocent people are getting squeezed by credit card companies for every last penny they have. People don’t read the fine print. There is a reason for that too and credit card companies know this. The fine print is not very easy to understand. Among the 15,000 words in the hidden fees, credit card companies will stuff in one or two vital sentences that totally change everything about your contract that would make you really reconsider doing business with your creditor if you had the chance to go back.
Eric Jilson from iStockAnalyst.com mentions that it requires much perseverance in working towards becoming debt free.
In a recent article released titled, Credit Card Debt Elimination Requires Perseverance, Jilson said, “Despite the conventional wisdom, getting out of credit card debt is simple. Not easy, maybe, but simple. It requires only one thing: will power. No matter what the amount owed or the APR on the credit cards, consumers can overcome their cash flow problems, avoid the temptation to make unnecessary purchases or buy things they don’t need, seek assistance and plan for the future.”
I believe this to be true. The first line of action against getting trapped is in forcing yourself to read the fine print. If you can’t interpret the terms and conditions, I would recommend hiring an attorney to review them for you. The cost of an attorney is nothing compared to the years that you could spend paying off a credit card debt with mysterious hidden charges. The second line of action is just as Eric Jison mentioned, you have to have self discipline and be very strong when tempted to make unnecessary purchases.
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Tags: Credit Card Debt, Credit Card Debt Advice, Credit Card Debt Reduction, Credit Card Debt Statistic, Credit Card Hidden Charges, Credit Card Hidden Fees, Credit Card Interest Rates, Hidden Fees In Credit Cards
May 28th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Sadly I got hammered with credit card fee’s once. I had an account from Helzburg (HSBC) and had a remaining balance of $100 and 1 month on their 0% for $12 months. I basically made the payment ahead of time, and had a receipt from my bank of when the money was with drawn but HSBC did not “Process” it in time. What this meant was I was first subjected to a late fee (~$30) Then interest on top of that. They did not notify me, or anything. Next month comes around, I get another $30 plus interest on top of the $130+interest making me owe roughly $300. Now, I had the money up front for my purchase but figured I would keep the money in my pocket just in case. Turns out I should have just paid it off and I would have saved about $300. Oh well.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Wow… that sucks Ed. See just goes to show you how credit card companies make their real money.
May 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Credit Cards can turn your life upside down alright and wince when the phone rings with another call about when the next payment is coming. A strategy some people
are using is doubling up on your payments. Brings down your balance in a hurry if you are consistent.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Hi Gord,
I agree, if one can indeed double their payments that would be ideal. It would allow forks to chip more away at the principle rather than just making interest only payments.