First Union National Bank increases fees
Effective 4/1/97, First Union National Bank has changed the terms
of its Cardmember Agreement, which applies to its Visa and MasterCard holders.
The following fees are being raised:
- Late payment fee: Raised from $20 to $29
- Overlimit fee: Raised from $20 to $29
- Returned payment check fee: Raised from $20 to $29
- Stop payment fee: Raised from $20 to $29
- Returned access check fee: Raised from $20 to $29
- Cash advance fee: 2.95% transaction fee is unchanged, but the
maximum amount has been eliminated.
On a $2,500 cash advance, the fee is raised from $29.50 to $73.75.
But a call to their service center at 1-800-339-6600 resulted in a candid
response revealing a change that is not printed on the notice
of change of account terms:
the customer service representative that Cagey Consumer spoke to stated
that previously, customers had a grace period of several days before the late fee
would be imposed.
With this change, this grace period has presumably been eliminated.
As recently as 12/95, First Union's late payment fee had been $18, meaning that
there has been a 60% increase in these fees.
The consolidation in the banking industry was supposed to reduce costs.
Unfortunately, the reduced competition has had the more significant
effect on the ultimate cost to the consumer.
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