Credit Card Fees for Paying Off Balance
People struggling with credit card debt may be accustomed to seeing fees for late payments or going over-limit. But a new fee targets those who use their credit responsibly and pay off the balance in full each month.
According to USA Today, Bank of America will start implementing the “experimental” fee to a small group of its cardholders who manage to pay off their balance each month.
Most card issuers only charge interest for balances carried for over a month, meaning those customers who don’t carry their debt add little to the bank’s bottom line. Until now.
USA Today also reports that Citigroup and other banks have begun charging penalties for cardholders who do not charge a minimum amount, or who go too long between charges.
Much of this is in reaction to the Credit CARD Act of 2009, set to take full effect in February, which limits practices used by banks to charge interest on balances, among other things.
