The Rate Tart

Have you been charged a penalty fee by a credit card company within the last six years (or five years in Scotland)? If so, you can get your money back.

So what can be reclaimed? Fees for paying late or exceeding your credit limit can be reclaimed. If you've done this a lot over the years, you may be able to get a tidy sum back.

There has been some confusion about this being on hold. Whilst its true that there is a test case pending for bank charges at the moment, this doesn't effect credit cards.

Equally, it has been suggested that credit card companies have been forced to reduce their charges already. This followed a judgement by the Office of Fair Trading in April 2006 that said penalty fees above £12 for credit cards were unfair. Since most credit card companies were charging £35, they lowered their fees.

This opens up an argument in your favour if you want to reclaim charges. It means you can claim that any fees before the reduction were unfair, and so asking for the difference between the £35 you were charged and the £12 back is straightforward.

Don't be put off because you think this is a difficult process: in most cases it involves writing a couple of letters. Check our TheRateTart guide to reclaiming credit card charges, and the sample letters there to find out how.

Even if the banks say no, you don't need to go to Court. You can appeal to the Ombudsman who can decide on these matters for you. Best of all, its free.

There are lots of places advertising 0% credit card deals. It's practically impossible to watch daytime TV without seeing adverts for credit. The business of selling money is big business.

That's because credit cards make huge sums of money for providers, and they're willing to fund the industry of attracting new customers.

But before you apply for a 0% credit card, here's something you should consider. When you apply for a credit card, companies check your credit score. And they have carefully designed processing rules that are designer to point out customers who will cost them money. If it looks like you are desperate for money and have applied for lots of credit in a short space of time, you may end up getting refused for a 0% credit card.

So its worth comparing products. You can find online guides from respected sites that offer views on how to pick the right type of card for you. And when by choosing the right card for you before you start to fill forms in, you won't need to waste your time or run the risk of harming your credit rating.

Do you avoid reading the boring small print on your credit card deal? Do so at your peril. It's the loop holes in that boring small print that could cost you dear.

One of the nastiest wheezes is called the 'payment hierarchy'. This is the order in which your debt is paid off.

Say you have transferred debt over from a previous card, put new purchases on the card and have a cash withdrawal. Each will attract a different rate of interest and a different set of charges. If you pay off some of the debt, which rates get paid off first?

You might think that the fair way of doing this is to pay of the portion of your debt that is charged at the highest amount. But then, if you think this, you've never read the small print.

For the vast majority of 0% credit cards, the payment hierarchy means that the order in which you pay debt off suits your credit card companies' balance sheet, not your financial wellbeing.

Recent research, based on the small print of 300 credit cards showed that just four (1%) had a positive payment hierarchy. One was on the borderline. That left 296 (99%) with the nasty negative payment hierarchy.

This is the reason why companies offer 0% credit cards for both balance transfers and purchases: the card providers want you to use the card for purchases and withdrawals too. And they're banking on you not reading the small print.