Search
Home 
News Travel Tips How New Credit Card Laws Will Affect Travelers
News Travel Tips How New Credit Card Laws Will Affect Travelers
| How New Credit Card Laws Will Affect Travelers |
| Wednesday, 24 February 2010 | |
|
As you probably have heard by now, new credit card rules went in to effect on February 22, 2010. We have found an excellent article summing up how the new laws will affect your travels. Travelers are a unique group of cardholders and the possible ramifications for travelers will be widespread. Here are five ways the new laws may affect you when you travel, we have provided a summation with a link to the full article. 1. Foreign Transaction Fees This is a hidden fee that credit card holders pay, for the most part, unknowingly. If they have not read the fine print of their credit card agreement, most believe that when they purchase something in a foreign currency, the credit card will charge them in dollars after a currency exchange process. That is true. But some credit cards then add on an another percentage (around three percent) on top of the Visa/Mastercard one-percent currency-exchange fee. 2. Cash-advance fees (using bank machines) For most travelers, these fees come into play when getting cash while on the road using a credit card. These fees are expected to be one of the areas of focus for additional income for banks. For domestic travelers, there is often a double-whammy when the dispensing machine charges a fee and the borrower’s credit card charges an additional fee. 3. Tighter frequent flier and membership points rules Once-generous “points programs” will become less generous. In some cases these once-free programs will only come with an annual fee. Many travelers use certain credit cards as an intimate part of their frequent flier and frequent stayer programs. Many not-so-frequent travelers amass more points from using credit cards than from flying. 4. Higher priced luxury card programs Travelers will be deluged with new offers of additional perks. These may be provided under an umbrella program or they may be sold on an a-la-carte basis. 5. Fewer free traveler-friendly credit card benefits Credit card holders have a collection of FREE travel-related benefits of which they are barely aware. I’d bet that fewer than 2 percent of cardholders have any idea of the package of free benefits included with the credit cards currently in their pocketbook, wallet or purse. (When consumers don’t even realize they have such coverage, it is easy to remove it.) For more information, please visit the Consumer Traveler website here. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|