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1. A Fee for a Credit Limit Increase

The good news: With several Congressional hearings on credit-card industry practices over the past few months, the government is finally taking note of excessive credit-card fees. The bad? The increased attention isn't stopping credit-card companies from finding new, inventive ways to ding you.

Take the RewardZone MasterCard from Best Buy. (The card is issued by HSBC.) Sure, for those who frequent the electronics store, the rewards are great. You earn 4% for each dollar spent at Best Buy, 2% on special promotional categories (say, dining) throughout the year, and 1% everywhere else.

But in the fine print you'll find you could also be charged a fee for requesting a credit limit increase that equals a whopping 50% of the increase amount. "A lot of people looking to improve their credit are eager to request credit limit increases," says Curtis Arnold, founder of the credit-card information web site Cardratings.com. (Under certain circumstances, increasing your credit limits can boost your credit score. Click here for more on this tactic.) But with this 50% fee, he adds, "they have the right to hit you with a $500 fee if you get a $1,000 credit limit increase." Whether or not you're charged a fee depends on your creditworthiness, according to the card's Terms and Conditions.

While credit limit increase fees aren't common with bank credit cards (those not affiliated with a department store or retailer), according to Arnold, they are common with so-called subprime credit cards, which target consumers with bad or no credit history.

There are other fees to watch out for with the RewardZone credit card. The card's minimum finance charge is a whopping $2.50 (most credit cards start at 50 cents to $1.00), which means that no matter how small the balance you carry, you'll pay $2.50 in interest a month. Should all that encourage you to close the card, if you still have a balance to pay off, you'll be charged $3.50 a month -- a new idea in the world of fees, Arnold says.


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