With the new credit card laws quickly approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to outline some of the changes to the fee structure.
A card member will be notified forty-five days in advance of any fee changes.
Annual Fee The annual fee cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the credit limit.
If a person has poor credit they can no longer be hurt by a large annual fee and a low credit line.
Application Fee Like the annual fee the application fee won't exceed twenty-five percent of the starting credit card limit.
Late Fee Each statement will have a notice that explains what will happen to your account if you have a late fee.
An example could be a thirty-five dollar late fee and an increase in interest rate.
The payment due date will remain the same every month.
Over-the-Limit If a card holder is about to make a purchase that will put you over the limit they will be informed that they are about to go over the limit.
They can chose not to use that card or they can chose to go over the limit.
If they chose to go over the credit limit they will be charged a fee but can only be charged once per billing cycle.
If a person goes over the limit several times in one billing cycle they will only receive one fee.
This is one of the better changes especially if a person is in an emergency.
These new changes are designed to help reign in consumer spending debt.
Hopefully people will be able to take advantage of this new law and be able to pay off credit card debt.