Fees | Credit Card Topics

6 Options for When Your Credit Card Interest Rate Rises

By: Marcie Geffner, 11/16/2018

There's no doubt about it: Credit card interest rates are going up, and these rate hikes can hurt consumers who don't pay off their card balances every month. Rates are rising because the Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark federal funds rate earlier this year. Consumers don't pay this rate directly, but when it goes up, market rates — the rates consumers do pay — also tend to move higher. Interest Rates Have Risen More than 2 Percentage Points In November, the Fed decided to... read more »

Banks and Credit Unions Turn to Allpoint to Provide Customers with Access to 55,000 Surcharge-Free ATMs Worldwide

By: Ray FitzGerald, 3/16/2018

In a Nutshell: Consumers who are searching for a new financial services provider no longer use name recognition as their deciding factor. With more options than ever, the institution with the lowest fees and convenient accessibility often attracts the most new customers. More than 1,000 card providers, including banks and credit unions, partner with Allpoint to eliminate ATM surcharges, one of the most common fees incurred by customers. The Allpoint surcharge-free ARM network features... read more »

17 Cheap Credit Cards with Low Interest and $0 Fees

By: Brittney Mayer, 12/26/2017

When you think about it, fees are a lot like the ninjas of the credit card world. They're excellent at hiding, they can sneak up on you when you least expect it — and they can cost you a limb if you're not careful. But while ninjas are notoriously difficult to best, most credit card fees can be defeated simply by choosing the right card (and using it wisely). The key to minimizing the costs of your credit card is to select a cheap card to begin with. This means choosing a card... read more »

18 Best No Annual Fee Credit Cards (2018)

By: Brittney Mayer, 6/2/2017

Looking at the cardholder agreements that come with new credit cards can be a bit intimidating, full as they are with descriptions of the copious fees for using the cards' features. On the plus side, many of the fees that come with a credit card can be avoided through responsible credit card use. Simply paying off your balance every month, for instance, can eliminate the need to pay interest fees, and skipping the cash advance will also let you skip the fee. Unfortunately, some... read more »

12 Best Chip-and-PIN Credit Cards in the U.S.A. (No Foreign Transaction Fees)

By: Linsey Knerl, 3/15/2017

Credit cards haven’t had a makeover in years, but all that changed with the introduction of EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) technology. EMV offers a much more secure shopping experience in that every time the card is inserted into a chip-enabled checkout device, the purchase generates a unique transaction code that cannot be used again. There is an important difference between chip-and-PIN and chip-and-signature transactions, both of which are offered with EMV. Most of us will... read more »

14 Best “No Fee” Credit Cards (Balance Transfer, Prepaid, Annual & More)

By: Amber Brooks, 9/9/2016

For me, one of the most frustrating things about moving to a new apartment (besides hauling my couches around while my brothers complain) is all the fees that get tacked on. "There's a cleaning fee," my old apartment complex tells me, so I pay that. "There's an early move-in fee," my new apartment complex explains, so I pay that too, using a debit card, which adds another fee. Then, there's the dog fee, the turning-on-your-power fee, the security fee, the paperwork fee, the... read more »

How Credit Card Companies Calculate Your Minimum Payments

By: Eric Bank, 5/4/2015

One of the first things you should consider when exploring new credit cards are their methods for calculating minimum payments because there are multiple techniques the credit card companies use. The minimum payment is the amount you must fork over each month based upon your unpaid balance, interest and fees. The Credit CARD Act of 2009 created new rules regarding how issuers must report information about minimum payments. Percentage Methods Typically, credit card companies... read more »