Once again it pays to look at the small print with regards to what fees you are paying on your store or credit cards – and you thought your card was fee-free…? Credit-card providers are introducing sneaky new fees in an effort to squeeze more profit from customers. Chief among these are dormancy fees and foreign-exchange charges. Some are being quietly introduced alongside new consumer-protection measures, which come into force on January 1 under the Consumer Credit directive.

This week it was revealed that Santander is charging all store card customers a £10 fee if they do not use their cards for six months. Customers who signed up with House of Fraser, Debenhams, Laura Ashley, Topshop and Dorothy Perkins may all be hit if they only used their card for the introductory offer. The bank says it is bringing store card customers into line with its credit card and Zero card customers, who are charged a £10 dormancy fee if they do not use their account for six months.

My advice…? take advantage of any discount offered when you take it the  pay the balance in full at the end of the month and cut the card up or cancel it.

The Amex platinum cashback card also has a dormancy fee of £20 per year if no purchases are made within 12 months. Meanwhile, Tesco has started setting its own exchange rate for credit-card customers, which means transactions made abroad cost more. Most credit-card providers use the Visa and MasterCard exchange rates, which are close to the wholesale market rates and published on their websites. But Tesco can charge more than this, as well as a 2.75 per cent foreign-exchange fee. So this week £1 bought €1.195 with Visa but €1.164 with Tesco. it does not publish its daily rates online. NatWest and RBS also calculate their own exchange rates and none publish their rates online.

To get the best exchange rates when abroad, use the Halifax Clarity card or Santander Zero, as neither make a charge for foreign exchange. Saga, Post Office and Nationwide also have no foreign usage charge, but the latter charges 1 per cent elsewhere.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I was astonished today to see a mum at my kids school take a huge wad of cash out of her handbag and sit counting it – the wad of cash was so thick it must have contained  around £1000 worth of 20 pound notes…and then she stuck the whole lot in her back pocket and walked away!

I could only assume it was money saved to do her Xmas shopping, it seems many people are now spending cash rather than using credit. Sure enough, if you have saved wisely all year then now would not be the best time to apply for a credit card as you only know you’d overspend on it, even if you were tempted to do so. This year is about the first where we will be spending our hard saved cash rather than using the plastic but that is due to the stupidity of our bank in reducing our credit limit on a card that we have used for years and paid off every single month in full. That’s how they reward you these days…

Popularity: 7% [?]

There have been times over the past two years where we just could not fathom out the mentality of those pulling the strings of the credit card industry. Where other people were seeing their credit card limits increased – without even applying – we had limits on two of our cards slashed…despite those same cards being paid off EVERY month on the dot for well over 12 years! but we were not the only people to have this done to them and at a time when spending was being encouraged we were being discouraged…or so it seemed.

Big changes are now afoot in the credit card industry and these changes are aimed at making the industries practices more transparent and the consumer more informed. This is also a good time – just after Xmas – for making a credit card comparison and seeing where you can start paying a lot less money. The best way to do this right now is to opt for the balance transfer route – but bear in mind you don’t want to simply ‘start over again’ – you want to be paying less than before and to achieve this you need to take a look at and compare the 0% balance transfer credit cards that are on offer right now.

The best deal so far – and has been for quite a while now – is the Virgin Credit Card and to date this deal has outlasted all the other 0% balance transfer offers, which means it is not a ‘first in first served’ kind of deal in that it has been on offer now for 16 months. Often consumers will be so desperate to wipe the slate clean and take their balance elsewhere they will overlook the high interest rate they are being charged – it will simply take longer to pay off and be more expensive in the long run. The Virgin deal looks set to last for a while yet and I’d say plenty of new years consumers have already signed up with them and taken advantage of the 0% interest deal. And remember – aim to pay off the balance, pay MORE than the minimum each month.

Popularity: 42% [?]