Credit Card Fees For No Usage
24th May 2007
According to a leaked internal document, Barclaycard is considering following Lloyds TSB and introducing an annual or monthly fee for customers who do not use their Barclaycard Visa credit card enough.
In a statement, Barclaycard, which has almost 10 million UK customers, said: “We are considering a fee for a minority of customers that simply do not use their card. Details are not yet final but we expect the amount to be between £10 and £20 – less than £2 per month.”
It is estimated that Barclaycard may have as many as 1 million inactive customers, who may have switched to another credit card but maintained their Barclaycard, and it is thought to cost the company a lot of money to issue cards, maintain accounts and send out statements to these customers.
The fees could be in place by September this year and are expected to raise about £20 million a year. Barclaycard said it would write to customers with a low usage before the charge is introduced warning them that they must use their card more, face a fee or close their account. “We think this is a fair approach and gives customers a choice” said a Barclaycard spokesperson.
