Credit card is one of the most beneficial and useful tool to increase your financial convenience. It comes with various offers and benefits to give you advantages on your spending. These cards offer you advantages such as increased purchasing power, balance transfer, reward points, cash back, emergency funding, cash withdrawal and much more. Apart from plenty of benefits and advantages these cards have some disadvantages too, if not wisely. Banks impose special fee and charges on your transactions and on billing amount. It is really important to understand what kind of charges are mandatory and charges you can avoid paying. Let’s take a look at some useful tips regarding how to avoid credit card fees.
Annual fee: Most of the banks charge annual fee for the convenience of carrying the card. Generally, these banks offer you card for free and publicise that there will be no fee levied on your card. In most of the cases the situation is different. These banks don’t charge annual fee if you spend amount upto a specific limit mentioned by the bank within a year. In case, you failed to achieve that threshold, then you have to pay the annual fee. Therefore, you should look for a card which don’t charge any annual fee or charges minimum annual/renewal fee from the customers.
Balance transfer fee: Balance transfer is a very good option for those who are paying high rate of interest on the outstanding debt. This way you will ease your financial burden and transfer high paying debt to low payments. Before, switching balance transfer option read all the terms and conditions carefully. Many banks charge a balance transfer fee ranging between 1-5% of the total amount transferred. Besides, they also charge processing fee along with balance transfer fee. It is really necessary to calculate all the added charges and fee linked with balance transfer and the amount you actually saved after opting to balance transfer. You can ask your bank to waive the balance transfer fee or reduce it to minimum to get maximum advantage.
Foreign transaction fee: Foreign transaction fee may be charged when you make transaction with card outside the country. The fee may vary for different cards. You should pay attention to such fee even when you are not travelling to any foreign country. Foreign transaction fees can apply to transactions you make at home if they are processed by an overseas merchant. The best way to avoid such fee is to find a credit card which don’t charge any foreign transaction fees.
Cash Withdrawal fee: Using your credit card for cash withdrawal can add extra fee in your overall billing. A flat fee or percentage is charged by banks on every cash withdrawal done by credit card. Many banks charge more fee on cash withdrawal and there is no free credit day on cash withdrawals too. The day you withdraw the money, the bank will start charging interest from that day only. Therefore, you should avoid using your credit card to withdraw cash. If you have taken a cash advance, try to pay off that as quickly as you can to eliminate your high-interest balance.
Late payment fee: Making late payments for your credit card bill or paying less than the minimum payment amount can result in higher interest and charges along with late payment fee. If it is your first time you have missed your payments call your bank executives to waive off late fee for missing payments as a favour. You should apply for a credit card which offers an extended window on due date or charge minimum fee on late payments. If you have signed up for auto bill pay always ensure the billing amount is not less than the minimum amount and transaction is scheduled for a day or two before the last billing date.
Over-the-limit-fee: An over-the-limit fee may be charged if you have crossed your upper purchase credit limit. You must authorise your credit card to allow you to go over the limit or issuer can’t charge you this fee.
Cheque collection fee: Many banks charge special fee for cheque collection or cheque bounce fee. These fees vary for different banks. Therefore, you should try to make online payments or send a cheque on time to avoid any kind of penalties.