Credit Card Fee Penalties Rise

[jeffrey]

Interest rates charged to cardholders who miss payments, exceed credit limits, or otherwise default in some other manner, have increased from an average of 23.26% in April 2001 to an average of 25.88% for last month. Since many of these rates are variable, any future increases in the prime rate will drive these rates even higher, in some cases above 30%. Over the past three years the prime interest rate has dropped from 8.00% to 4.00%, thereby raising the spread of these punitive rates by more than six percentage rates, from 15.26% to 21.88%. During this same period, major issuers have widened their definitions of a "default" to include a "default" with any creditor, also referred to as "universal default." For example, miss a car payment and you could be considered in "default" of your unrelated credit card accounts... [read more at cardweb.com]

To learn how to reduce the fees associated with credit cards, read the SavingAdvice.com article Reducing Credit Card Fees