Fantastic Plastic or....Not

One of my credit cards arrived today. I expect the other will arrive either tomorrow or early next week. The one that arrived first is to be used for expenditure at a particular supermarket chain and its affliated stores. Contrary to instructions to activate the card via an activation webpage, the only way I could activate the card was by telephoning them. It turned out the site was down and they knew about it.

As with any other financial product, the credit card issuer (GE Money in partnership with said supermarket) is obliged to enclose product disclosure information. Reading the literature that came with the credit card bothers me. I'd done a bit of research before signing up for the card. What was not clear at the time of application though, were several bothersome clauses including the following:

1. A payment handling fee of $1.50 will be charged to your account on each occasion on which you make a payment on your account other than payments made in-store which accepts in store payments, by mail, by direct debit or by BPAY.

Now this is confusing as hell. I asked about this when the customer service guy was activating my card and he cheerfully replied that paying via electronic/internet banking each time would incur a $0.50 charge. Just for paying the balance on the credit card!

2. A special promotion fee of $25 will be charged to you account on each occasion you make a purchase subject to a special promotion unless the conditions of the special promotion state that the fee will not be charged.

Ai Yiii!!! I tend to look out for special promotions when buying items. I hope I haven't been charged that $25 just for buying a satin quilt set on special....

There are other horrid terms and conditions laid out and now I'm considering cancelling this card. I'm going to have to call up their hotline and clarify all these terms and conditions. It'd be horrid to be hit with unknown fees that form part of the closing balance especially since the interest charged on this card is 20.25% and I definitely want to pay in FULL on this card before the interest free period ends. Getting "customer loyalty" points just ain't worth it if it's going to cost me more.