Consumers fight back against fees for inactive credit card accounts

Over recent weeks a number of credit card companies and issuers have been announcing that they will be charging fees to customers that hold credit cards but do not use them.

Card issuers have argued that these customers are actually costing them money because they have to pay administrative costs for issuing statements and administrating accounts, but they are not actually making them any money because they are hardly ever using their credit cards.

However, some think that the fees that are being applied to the inactive or rarely used accounts of many credit card holders are just another way for card companies and banks to try and recoup losses that resulted from the ceiling limit that was placed on credit card penalty fees by UK financial regulators last year.

However, it seems that consumers in the UK are not prepared to sit and take actions such as this from banks and credit card companies any longer, and many have stated that they will immediately close their credit card accounts if the charges are brought in.

Card issuers and banks only made the announcement about these new charges over the past few weeks, and the aim is to encourage customers to either start using their accounts regularly or to close them altogether. Most consumers have stated that they will be opting for the latter.

Many customers feel that they are being penalized unjustly, and that banks and card companies should be more concerned about those that do use their cards but fail to repay the money that they borrow rather than targeting those that occasionally use their cards or don’t use their cards but do not run up bad debt for the bank or lender to have to deal with.

As a result of so many people closing their accounts in the event that the fees do go ahead, the banks and card companies could eventually suffer – after all, many people turn to their credit cards in emergencies or at times such as Christmas, even if they do not usually use it at other times

Tom Smith
25th March 2007