Consumers threatening to close credit card accounts if charged

From all the recent reports and media coverage it seems that many banks and credit card companies in the UK are determined to get all they can from consumers in terms of fees and charges, and even those that run their accounts sensibly are now being penalized by various credit card companies. A number of credit card issuers have recently stated that they will be charging card holders that do not use their cards on a regular basis, but it seems that many consumers are now determined to fight back.

In order to justify charging customers that have credit card accounts and do not use the credit cards, these card issuers state that running and administering the account, such as sending out statements, is costing them money, yet they are not making any money from the consumer, which means that they are losing out financially. However, consumers are angry that these credit card companies are targeting people that don't tend to use their cards often when they should be more concerned about those that use their cards and fail to repay the balance.

A number of consumers have stated that they will immediately close their credit card accounts and go elsewhere in the event that these charges are enforced. For those that tend to use their cards for certain occasions, such as Christmas and birthdays, this could still mean financial losses for card companies, as these consumers will them take their business elsewhere. It is thought that these and various other charges are being introduced by card issuers in order to make up for capped penalty charges that were enforced by financial regulators last year. The card companies state that they are enforcing the charges in order to encourage consumers to start using their cards.

Tom Smith

2nd May 2007