Credit Card Fees Soar In 2004

[jeffrey]

Credit card companies love their fees and credit card holders keep forking over more and more in these fees each year. Americans paid more than $24 billion in credit card fees last year, an increase of some 18% over 2003.

What's more, the $24 billion in fees did not include balance transfer fees, foreign exchange fees, ancillary service fees, or miscellaneous fees. If these fees were included, credit card companies likely collected well over $30 billion in fees from their customers last year.

Of this $24 billion in fees, $14.8 billion of it was from penalty fees such as late payment fees and over-limit fees. Credit card annual fees collected rose $100 million from $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion. Fees charged for cash advances fees reached $6.1 billion, up from $5.6 billion in 2003.




Reducing some credit card fees may be as simple as making a phone call. Studies have shown that the annual credit card fee can often get waived by calling your credit card company and asking the fee to be removed. Getting credit card interest rate charges reduced can also often be done just by asking for a reduction.