Released: June 11, 2006

Beware: credit card interest can double

Source: By Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press

A 40-year-old [Michigan] mom got a shock when she opened her credit card bill.

Ida Warshay discovered that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation’s second-largest credit card issuer, was charging her an annual rate of 29.99% instead of 15.49%.She didn’t get a phone call. She didn’t get a letter. Some bigger numbers just popped up on her monthly statement. And for the first month, at least, she didn’t even spot that her credit card company had nearly doubled her rate.

It’s a little story that consumers should remember as they pull out their credit cards. They may not have those bargain-basement interest rates anymore.
And you may not know it.

Sure, by now, most of us know that many credit card companies can hit us with extra fees and charge us higher rates if we’re often late making payments."Many consumers assume that paying late is the only way this can happen to them,” said Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for Consumer Action, a national nonprofit group that monitors credit card troubles.

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