Credit cards fees aren’t something new, as most issuers charge you various amounts of money, depending on your activity. Sure, sometimes these can be pretty scary and keep away customers, especially those who don’t want to pay each month just to carry a card.
On the other hand, we have some good news: there are a few tricks you can do in order to avoid them. And if this is exactly what you’re after, you’re in the right place!
Below you will find three of our favorite secrets for paying smaller credit card fees.
Use the autopay feature
Being just one day late with a payment could translate into extra fees from your card issuer, not to mention that going 30 days or more without paying could affect your credit score. But there’s a very simple way of avoiding such situations: setting up automatic payments, each month.
Simple as that and without any risks of forgetting to make payments!
Lower your cash advance limit
This is something a lot of users aren’t aware of and it’s a real shame since it can be very effective in reducing credit card fees.
Technically speaking, a credit card cash advance is when you’re relying on your card to get cash. Also, it doesn’t apply only when you retire money from an ATM, as any kind of transaction could be considered a cash advance. The bad part is that these have fees and higher APR, not to mention that your issuer can start charging interest immediately.
Our recommendation is to set the cash advance limit to the minimum, which, usually, is between 0$ and $100. By doing this, any cash advance transaction that’s more than the set amount won’t go through.
Get a card with no foreign transaction fees
And finally, let’s talk about those nasty foreign transaction credit card fees – most of them around 3% – and how to avoid them.
As you probably know, they apply to all purchases that go through foreign banks and made in other currencies than USD. Usually, such situations occur when you’re shopping online or traveling outside the US, that’s why we recommend considering a card with no foreign transaction fees.
There are several options available right now, with travel reward cards being a great starting point!
