There’s been some good news this week on the subject of charges made for missing credit card payments.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has ruled that the charges for failing to make the minimum payment on your credit card on time are unfair, and wants firms to recalculate their charges, in effect capping charges at £12, except in “exceptional cases”. Current charges tend to be £20 – £25, and have risen by up to 40% over the past 2 years.
This is good news for the estimated 1 in 5 cardholders who were hit with these charges last year. It’s also encouraging to know that it is possible to reclaim refunds from previous charges, and it is estimated that tis could amount to as much as £1/2 billion. By law, you can challenge the charges you’ve incurred up to six years after they’ve happened.
On the downside though, some think this may be an opportunity for the card companies to look at making money from other areas, and so might mean the end of the 0% credit card deals. It has to be said that banks have a tendancy to maintain thir profits in whatever way they can, and the 0% deals could well be a target.
A practical way to avoid missing your credit card payment is to setup a Direct Debit for the minimum amount.