Credit Card Penalties

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

What?s the thing that seems to always happen every time you are finding it difficult to meet your credit card payments? You get slapped with a penalty fee. These fees or penalties seem to always happen just at the very moment you need them least. Someone once described a banker as a man who will lend you his umbrella, and then ask for it back as soon as it starts raining. This seems typical of many people?s dealing with the financial services industries.

What are the reasons that you can be hit with a penalty from your credit card provider? Well the most common is that you fail to make your minimum payment on time. This is by far the penalty that most people hate the most and the one that seems to hit customers at the least convenient times. There are other credit card penalties that can occur for various administrative breaches you commit such as writing a credit card check that bounces, or going over your credit card limit.

There are a number of reasons why you may commit one of the acts that cause credit card penalties to be applied to your account. If it is a first time occurrence or a once off, you may be able to call your credit card provider and request them to waive the fee in this instance. They are only likely to do this if you have been a customer of theirs for some time and have been good at keeping your payments up to date. However, it is always worth asking as many credit providers do allow their employees to give once off good will gestures to customers.

It is generally good practice to take the maximum of care to avoid costly credit card penalties. One of the best and most effective ways of doing this is to arrange to have your credit card paid by standing order or direct debit. Obviously this is only a real option if you are certain to have enough money in your bank account, as if you do not, you will not only receive a penalty from your credit card provider, but will probably face another one from your bank!

However, if you can afford at least your minimum payment each month, and most customers can afford at least this much, then you should consider this option as it means your bill will be paid on time every month and you will not have to worry about incurring a late payment credit card penalty ever again.