Visa And MasterCard Win Again

Some time ago, the Retail Council of Canada had gone to the Government Competition Bureau to fight the fact that credit card issuers force them to take every credit card offered, no matter what their discount fee. It’s about the $5 to $6 billion a year in fees for Visa and MasterCard. But they’ve now got a ton of higher-end cards with more perks. Well, guess who pays for those perks? Merchants through much higher credit card fees. And the Competition Bureau just ruled that’s just fine – and their reasoning is confidential. Two and a half years to make a decision and…can’t tell you why…

It made my head explode. Are you kidding me? Now, they claim it’s a regulatory issue for the government and….the Finance Department says they’ll study it. What that likely means is, we’ll stall until it dies off. What was the response from the card issuers? We’re please that we can continue to protect consumers from unfair charges. Hmmm…pleased to help consumers or pleased to protect $6 billion of income? Nice try.

Since we’re on the credit card theme, I received an e mail last week from someone pretty mad. Their credit card issuers dinged them for a $20 inactivity fee. Yup – it’s legal and can happen if they’ve disclosed it on the original application – and it’s getting more common. If you don’t use your card for a year, you may get hit for $10 to $25. Even worse, you may have your account closed out from under you. That’ll have a huge impact on your credit score – your credit rating. It’s another reason to always have two cards from two different issuers. One may get lost or stolen while you’re traveling and you’ll be stranded or one may turn on you and close the account.

To keep your credit card active and part of your credit score, you should use it twice a year. It doesn’t have to anything beyond $20 but it needs to stay alive and any activity will do that.

If you’re looking for a credit card or just want to compare your fees and/or perks to others, there’s a great interactive site at the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Here’s the link for it:

http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/resources/toolCalculator/creditCard/index-eng.asp

By the way: If you search by rate, there are currently 12 credit cards with interest rates under 10%! If you often carry a balance, that’s the only factor, along with no annual fee, you should input and decide on.

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