Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994                   TAG: 9405230126
SECTION: MONEY                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

READ THE FINE PRINT ON ALL CREDIT-CARD DOCUMENTS

Typically written in dense legalese and printed in tiny type, the agreements are the rulebooks for credit-card accounts. They detail the interest and fees charged on the card, when the charges apply and how charges can be avoided.

``A lot of the time, you need to be a lawyer, an accountant, a Ph.D. or all three, to understand all of those things,'' says Gerri Detweiler, executive director of Bankcard Holders of America (BHA).

Yet it's important to read them.

Cardholders also should check their monthly account statements for notices of rule changes.

AT&T Universal Card, for example, is notifying customers of a change that means interest will be charged on all cash advances.

Instead of saying that it would now charge interest on cash advances, the notice said merely that AT&T was deleting a paragraph that said no finance charge would be imposed.

Detweiler's group offers a pamphlet on card agreements: ``Credit Cards: What you don't know can cost you.'' To get a copy, send $1 to BHA, 560 Herndon Parkway, Suite 120, Herndon, Va. 22070.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune