Why Can We Claim Black Credit Card Charges

The simple question is, ‘does it really cost £35 to send an automated letter when someone’s gone 1p over their limit’?

Over the years that’s exactly what card providers have done whenever people have missed credit card repayment dates or bust through their credit limit. And it’s for this reason that you should be able to get back the last six years’ worth of cash.

Incurring charges combined with not being able to pay off your balance is a danger signal. It means you have money management and over-indebtedness issues. While these charges are worth fighting, it’s also important to turn the spotlight on yourself.

Are you managing your money properly? Are you spending beyond your means? By far the best thing to do is to avoid them in the first place. This isn’t just to save you cash and hassle. If you’ve got fines from your credit card company each one takes a chunk out of your Credit Score. This means you need to do three important things.

Ensure you never miss a payment.

This is easy to do, simply set up a Direct Debit to pay off the card each month. You can do this for just the minimum repayment, and that way you’ll never be fined. Yet only paying the minimum will leave you in debt virtually for ever (see the Danger! Minimum Repayments article), so just consider it a way to ensure there won’t be a penalty – and continue to pay by cheque or card payment each month on top.

Cut the cost of the interest.

The more interest you pay, the less of your money goes towards paying back the actual debt; the more you’re likely to go beyond your limit. It’s easy to slash credit card interest either by shifting your debt to a new card (see Best Balance Transfers) or getting a new card for cheap spending (see Credit Card for Spending). Sort out your finances.

It may be that your debts are simply a symptom of overspending. There are a number of ways to combat this, by simply shifting to better value products (see Give Yourself a Payrise andBudgeting) or simply Stopping Spending). If you are getting credit card fines, this is a good way to deal with them.

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