Making the rounds in the media from the Associated Press to USA Today is the news that Bank of America -- starting next year -- will be giving credit card users a new fee, ranging from $29 to $99 a year.

What's odd is that not everyone will get this charge. Bank of America has been calling it an "experimental" fee. Spokeswoman Betty Riess told the Associated Press that the customers selected to get the extra $29 to $99 add-on are based on "risk and profitability."

We can only speculate, but that sounds like the people who are mired in debt (high risk) will get it and those are aren't very profitable to Bank of America (the customers who pay off their balances every month).







Isn't that nice? If you do what you're supposed to do and pay everything off like you're supposed to, you'll be punished with a charge. If you're struggling to pay your debt down and constantly failing, you'll also be charged. Except in the latter case it's like being in a gym and walking over to someone floundering underneath some barbells and instead of spotting and encouraging them, you instead added a 10-pound weight.

In completely unrelated news, of course, Bloomberg News reported last week that overdue credit card payments are on the rise.

Bank of America has been cagey with the details of how they're going to use this fee, but Riess told the AP, "We're testing this to see what the feedback is. In terms of any plans going forward, we haven't made any decisions."

So if you're a Bank of America credit card customer and you notice a new fee next year, assuming you aren't happy with it, you may want to call your local branch and offer some feedback.