Credit Cards
Time To Revisit Your Bank Accounts
By now you should have received a multitude of letters from your various credit cards or bank accounts. These letters should detail major changes that are taking effect soon as a result of the CARD act. They could include things such as overdraft fees, what will be paid, interest rate changes and fee schedule changes. Don’t just toss those things aside! Pay close attention to the changes and how they might affect you.
One of the changes that I noticed on my Chase account is a fee for charges that end up pulling money from my overdraft protection. I’m also going to be charged a fee for their points program. You know what is going to happen to that account? Say bye bye. There’s no sense in keeping it at this point. I’ve already changed my direct deposit at work to one account and will head on over to Chase during my lunch break to close that account.
In the meanwhile I’ve shopped around for another account. I’m going to shock myself by saying this, but after reading all the fine print, Capital One seems to offer the next best deal. You could not pay me to open an account at Bank of America. I’d be setting myself up for a fall. From their horrible customer service alone I wouldn’t open an account there. The Capital One account isn’t going to be convenient for me since there’s no Capital One bank near my home, but there is one right around the corner from my job. I’ll just put my emergency money in there and continue to add a small amount from direct deposit to keep the account with no fees.
And be sure to pay attention to the fine print. I actually bought a magnifying class to be able to read some of the stuff they send. You almost need a law degree these days to understand things.
