A credit card annual fee is a yearly fee, usually ranging from $15 to $300, that's charged by the credit card company for the convenience of the credit card. Not all credit cards have an annual fee. Reward credit cards, premium credit cards, secured credit cards typically have an annual fee. The annual fee increases the cost of having a credit card.
While fewer Americans are receiving offers for credit cards in 2009, more of the offers come with an annual fee, according to data collected by research firm Synovate.
"As issuers continue to cut back offers and the mailbox becomes more superprime we are seeing a proportionately higher number of card offers with an annual fee," said Andrew Davidson the Synovate vice president
Credit card fee history, only in 1990 when AT&T issued a no annual fee credit card did annual fees among credit cards start to decline. Today, most credit cards are annual-fee-free to high-credit customers, with fee-based offers reserved for riskier, lower scoring consumers.
