By CreditorWeb.com

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The credit card companies make billions each year in legitimate interest charges and fees, but are under constant pressure from the shareholders to increase their earnings. To make this extra money the credit card companies sometime adopt some dirty tricks to make this money. As the credit card industry becomes more competative, less money is being earned from each client from interest charges and the number of these dirty tricks increase. To protect yourself against these unscrupulous procedures that steal your money we will list 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients so you’ll know what to expect and look out for. Of course that there are not only 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients but knowing at least these 10 tricks will help you to not be a victim.

The first one out of the 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play is also the worst of them: not posting your payment the day it was received. This is the oldest known trick: the company receives your payment in time but it doesn’t process it immediately; this delay will bring to the company a late payment fee. This is often due to legitimate reasons, but the policies of many credit card companies support a processing time that is not beneficial to you. A second trick is to make you pay late by changing the due date for your credit card payment. For being late the company will charge again a late payment fee and if the situation repeats for few months in a row they can legally increase your interest rate. The third trick played by the credit card companies is a ridiculous one: you can be charged a penalty fee for not using your credit card a certain period of time. As unbelievable as it might seem, this is a new tactic of the credit card companies to take your money. Another two tricks used are in connection with the client’s peace of mind. Both of them are connected with credit card protection and the fees that must be paid. One of them is protecting you in case your credit card is stolen, lost or used fraudulently. Almost all credit card companies do not charge a fee for this service, but there are others that do. The best thing you can do would be to avoid the latter ones. The second credit card protection fee is for protecting you in case you loose your job or die. For this protection, usually, the fees are too high for the benefit received, but many customers purchase it out of fear.

We are getting now to the last 5 of the dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients. The sixth trick is designed to work on the psychological plan: the company is increasing your credit limit. You didn’t ask for a limit increase of your credit but the company gave you the possibility to spend more money. This is a psychological trick to make you spend more money on your credit card trick. Another bad surprise is to come back from your vacation and find out that you have been charged more for the amounts spent during your foreign trip. The commission charged for the amount spent outside the country is much higher than usual.

One of the new scams that have appeared in the last years is the card cancellation fee. This fee was adopted because a large number of the clients of a certain bank discovered the extra charges and they rushed all to cancel their accounts. The bank responded immediately by adopting a policy of charging a fee for closing an account. This practice was also adopted by other companies. There are also other scams like penalization for having a big balance or charging credit insurance fees. It is important to know these procedures so you don't get taken advantage of and you can help put an end to these tricks by giving your business to companies who do not employ them.

This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web. Creditor Web offers great credit card articles available for reprint and other tools to help you search and compare credit card offers.

Published - November 2005