• Home

Six Top Tips to Avoid Credit Card Charges

We all have a love-hate relationship with credit cards, we love the convenience, but hate those sudden rate hikes, sizable fees and higher minimum payments that the credit card companies impose. If you are looking for a way to avoid credit card charges, read on for a few good tips.

In the past few months many consumers have experienced higher interest rates and fees, as well as increases in minimum payment amounts. If this was not bad enough, the credit limits have been lowered, which raises the risk of unwittingly exceeding your credit limit.

* If you carry a balance and want to transfer it to a low rate card, look out for those hefty balance transfer fees, which can be as high as 5% of your transferred balance.
* If your interest rate increases, you can always call your bank and negotiate. If you have never been late on your payments, have not exceeded your credit limit and have paid more than the minimum, you have a great chance that they will lower your interest.
* If you are in the habit of exceeding your credit limit, the best way to avoid over the limit charges is to set up online accounts for your credit cards and monitoring them daily.
* Pay your bills on time. This is an obvious tip, however even paying a day late can cost you up to $39 and you will have to pay $15 if you want to avoid late fees by paying over the phone.
* Sign up for automatic bill paying. This will definitely help you avoid credit card charges, especially if you often forget to pay your bills.
* Watch out for mail from your credit card bank and be sure you read it, as many banks are mailing notices of raising interest rates or are imposing new fees and subcharges.

The good news is that by the first part of 2010, a new law benefiting consumers will take effect. This new law will restrict when credit card companies can increase rates on existing customers. Similarly, banks will be required to alert their customers about the risk of exceeding their credit limit before they make a purchase.

Copyright © 2008 www.bca-finance.com | links |