Released: December 02, 2006

$9 fee just for paying credit card bill online

Source: David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle

Look beneath the hood of your typical credit card and you’ll find unexpected fees - and, sometimes, more. Our story today begins with Foster City resident Harvey Silverman, who wanted his teenage son to develop good financial habits. So he shopped around before settling on plastic that he hoped would serve as the foundation of a sterling credit record.

Silverman picked a Visa card from 1st Financial Bank USA, a South Dakota company that specializes in issuing plastic to college students. Silverman liked that 1st Financial’s card came with no annual fee and provided only a modest credit limit of $250.

Then a problem arose. Silverman’s son, Ross, was injured playing rugby in Santa Barbara, where he’s attending school. What Ross thought was only a minor scrape turned into a serious infection, and he remained hospitalized for about a week.

“His roommate was supposed to pay his credit card bill for him, but he forgot,” Silverman told me. “We discovered this on a Sunday morning, so we figured we could just go online and make the payment.”

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