American Express Introduces Fees For Dormant Credit Cards

It seems that, everyday credit card holders are finding out more and more things to be on the lookout for with their credit cards. Rising interest rates, dropping credit limits and new penalties being introduced while current penalties get increased. Well, it seems that American Express is adding one more penalty into their credit card line: dormancy fees.

It seems that credit card companies have noticed and are targeting credit card holders who are getting conservative on their credit card spending and are stopping credit card purchases without really giving it up. These people are usually keeping their credit cards as a reliable backup in case they find themselves in some financial trouble. Well, credit card companies have wised up to their practice and are now going to charge their dormant credit cards fees.

Charging dormant fees is just another step towards American Express, and other credit card companies’ goals of securing themselves against what happened when the economy crashed. Because of the effect of the economic crisis, credit card companies are now busily securing their business, plugging up any leaks and basically making sure that the disaster that they escaped a few months earlier, when they had to be saved through government bailouts, don’t happen again.

Credit cards that are dormant cost credit card companies extra. Even worse, they do not earn anything for them either. Dormant cards cost a lot to keep open and, without seeing any profit from it, credit card companies see that as a loss. Considering this, it is easy to see that the dormant credit card penalty is just a move being made by credit card companies to encourage credit card use among their card holders.

Credit card holders may find the dormant credit card penalty fee inconvenient but it is quite easy to avoid having to pay it. To avoid getting charged with the dormant credit card penalty fee, all a credit card holder has to do is to use his credit card to purchase items once in a while. To avoid building up a debt, credit card holders can just charge minimal amounts on their credit cards and pay off the balance fully every month.

Another option is to look around for a credit card that does not include these charges. However, this move may be a bit extreme for a problem that can be easily taken care of. Besides, most of the major credit card companies are also introducing their own version of the dormant credit card penalty.