The new scheme is to charge “good” customers an annual fee. That’s right, if you are one of the remaining responsible customers who manages to pay off the bill in full religiously every month, you are in danger of being penalized for doing what you are generally encouraged to do.

From a financial perspective, paying off your bills each month is purely beneficial to you, not the credit card companies. They make their money mostly off of interest payments, and since you aren’t paying them any interest, they aren’t making any money off of you.

In fact, while most people are getting behind paying interest on the consumer debt they’ve accrued, if you charge items on your card and then pay off the bill in full at the end of the month, you’ve actually been leveraging the credit card company’s money instead of the other way around.

In other words, you were able to keep the money you would have spent until the end of the month, ostensibly to earn interest in your savings account or the stock market (though perhaps not so much in this economy), and as a way of earning incentives from the credit card companies like cashback rewards for all that stuff you charged.

The credit card companies recognize that people who don’t pay them interest are essentially a losing proposition, so in order to even the score, they’ve decided to “experiment” with the idea of charging an annual fee averaging $29 to $99 per year.

For the individuals who do pay off their balance every month, this is probably not an unreasonable sum to expect, but it does seem rather arbitrary to issue an annual fee that specifically targets those who pay off the bill each month. Even though these are not individuals paying a lot of money in interest, they have proven themselves to be reliable customers, and that seems like exactly what the credit card companies need in a time of uncertainty.

One of the main reasons for this new move is the pressure of new legislation in Congress that will seek to restrict the ways that credit card companies can charge their customers.

In a way, this is probably a noble gesture, as anyone who is suffering from consumer debt in an economy like this should avoid having even worse conditions sprung upon them. Doing this would undermine not only that individual’s financial integrity, but the integrity of what’s left of the economy as a whole. Nevertheless, it is troubling what happens if you disagree with the annual fee and want to cancel your card.

With the credit crunch still in full swing, credit card companies are simultaneously more likely to charge you more in interest and fees, and more likely to reject new applicants for a card. This is because the companies have to be careful about giving out credit to anyone who cannot demonstrate the ability to pay it back.

At the same time, though, they are mulling over the possibility of alienating the very customers who can and do pay off the balances each month. Fortunately for the loyal customer, credit card companies who do require an annual fee might still be willing to negotiate or waive the fee. Hopefully the benefits of being “good” customers don’t disappear in the months to come.

One of the things that will help you towards establishing an excellent financial future is credit. If you pursue your options with the intent of developing good credit from the start, then you’ll be paving the way towards financial stability and a life of easy options that good opportunities. Credit goes a long ways towards securing loans that are advantageous to your needs. It even affects your insurance. If you have a good credit score, you can expect banks to cooperate with your needs and for premiums to be lower in most cases.

Even if you have bad credit, you can reverse it. Whatever the case may be, getting good credit just means that before you make any kind of purchase, you should thoroughly consider what you can really afford and pursue the option that allows you to pay back what you owe on fully and on time. If you already have debt that you need to clear, you should develop a plan to pursue that and put off any future purchases. It’s all about choosing to have good credit and changing your behavior to pursue it.

Good credit is definitely something you should make happen. By building your credit score, you’re basically lubricating and expanding your financial options. Things are much easier to handle when the loans you obtain come with low fixed interest rates and are given to you without hassle. Financing a new vehicle can come with greater bonuses in the form of low or even zero percent APR. These sort of opportunities are possible with good credit.

Pursuing financial decisions with the intent of developing good credit also means developing good habits for life. You’ll be looking at all the details involved in every transaction, planning ahead of time to prevent yourself from falling in debt, and making certain to control your expenses all around. You’ll limit what you spend to a level that’s well below what you make, and you’ll learn to save the rest and put it towards taking care of future emergencies or benefits.

If you let your credit slide, you’ll be confounding your lifestyle and making things harder on yourself. Higher interest rates and premiums means more money spent and less money in savings, which can become a very stressful way of living life. It’s better to take care of things ahead of time and to prevent bad credit from occurring, because it can only reduce your financial options and increase the difficulty of making ends meet.

No matter your situation, you can always start fresh by making certain that your next financial decision has your best interest in mind. This involves determining how it will affect your credit score and to choose the option that improves it.