new credit card fees?!!? (payment, visa, mastercard, companies)

[ct4life]

Latest bank fee is for paying off credit card on time every month - USATODAY.com

are you kidding me?! This should be illegal!

[Gandalara]

Glad I don't do business with B of A or Citibank :-)

[Chromekitty]

like the article I posted says....all banks are watching this

[StoneOne]

Sounds reasonable to me. The bank is extending a service (trouble-free means of payment) that presents a cost to them, why shouldn't they seek to cover their costs?

I find annual fees much more straightforward than sudden interest rate increases or changes in minimum payment changes. At least it's not done through deception and fine-print trickery.

The bank is not there to reward one type of behavior or punish another. It is there to make money for its owners. Nothing more, nothing less. If you, the consumer, don't like that, then there is always another legal tender available called cash.

[Pitt Chick]

Yet another reason to avoid Citibank and Bank of America!

[NCyank]

Originally Posted by StoneOne

Sounds reasonable to me. The bank is extending a service (trouble-free means of payment) that presents a cost to them, why shouldn't they seek to cover their costs?

I find annual fees much more straightforward than sudden interest rate increases or changes in minimum payment changes. At least it's not done through deception and fine-print trickery.

The bank is not there to reward one type of behavior or punish another. It is there to make money for its owners. Nothing more, nothing less. If you, the consumer, don't like that, then there is always another legal tender available called cash.

Don't they already collect a fee from the merchant at the time of purchase? They are already earning 2-3% on every transaction. I doubt those who pay in full are costing them anything...but they aren't earning anything extra by way of interest or direct consumer fees and it is all about profit...the bigger the better.

You are right about using cash though....no hassle, no late fees, no overdraft, no annual fees, etc. The trick is in finding a cashier who can count back change properly....heaven forbid if they type the total wrong into the machine and they don't know how much to change to give.

[StoneOne]

Originally Posted by NCyank

Don't they already collect a fee from the merchant at the time of purchase? They are already earning 2-3% on every transaction.

Yes, but if a customer rarely uses the card, the merchant fees are not going to be enough to cover the costs. Maintaining a card costs the credit card companies money (don't ask me how much, but there are obviously expenses like pulling credit records and insuring cards against fraudulent use that firms must bear).

At the end of the day, though, it's business and economics. Cards will charge whatever the market will bear. If some company is able to run its affairs in such a way as to generate enough money purely from the merchant fees, then they'll win on competitiveness.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by Chromekitty

like the article I posted says....all banks are watching this

Let them watch this. If Wells Fargo pulls this on me, I will take out all my savings because of it.

[Chromekitty]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

Let them watch this. If Wells Fargo pulls this on me, I will take out all my savings because of it.

LOL....
pay it off except 10/20 dollars a month...

[Tallysmom]

You young whippersnappers are too young to remember, but all Visa/Mastercards used to charge annual fees. And we gladly paid them for the convenience.

I know in our household we'll close most of our accounts, and just keep two -- one for business and one for personal. And the winners will be the lowest annual fee.

But more importantly I think the whole FICO score hostage drama has to stop, too.