Universal Default Credit Card Fees

Credit Cards and Hidden Fees

You use that tiny little plastic card to buy any and everything, but have you ever sat down and read that long listed, fine printed paper that came with your credit card application? If not, you might want to get yourself a copy, grab a magnifying glass and look it over, because you can quickly find yourself slammed with more fees than you can total up.

I have always been interested in the latest scams or at least legal but underhanded ways that business and shady individuals love to employ to part us with our money. I then pass it on to people that I know to keep them informed. I was however surprised that no one I talked to had ever heard of a universal default penalty that their credit card companies could slap them with.

Even more is that those people carrying around credit cards don't understand that banks and card companies make their money from the high fees that they charge you for so much as breathing too hard. You have the late fees of course, the overdraft fees, and want cash from the ATM? You can prepare yourself to be hit with even more fees. You buy a $400 TV and in reality you can end up paying two, three, even four times that amount because of fees and high interest rates.

Let's get to the "universal default" fee that I was talking about. This is not known by the millions of people that have a credit card, but this is something that happens when you are late on a bill. If you are late on your electricity bill, car payment, a loan, the credit card companies will charge high fees to your account and can and will raise your APR sky high and they can keep it there for up to a year. It is of course legal and binding but a very bad way to do business and a horrible way to treat your customers. However, credit card companies and banks will continue to charge what they want because people can't seem to stop using them and are falling deeper and deeper into debt.