Released: December 15, 2006

Credit card fees surprise consumers

Source: Kathy Chu, USA Today

René Rodríguez of Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, paid late on his August credit card bill for the first time in years. A simple oversight: He misplaced his bill.

But the fees Rodríguez was hit with were hardly simple. First, Citibank charged a $39 late fee. And even though he paid his full balance, the bank dropped his interest-free grace period. Then it began charging interest, compounding daily, at a 24% annual rate. All told, it cost him nearly $100. The policy “is perplexing,” Rodríguez says. “It’s probably somewhere in the contract, and whether it’s fair or not, once the company puts it there, you’re stuck.”

Remember when most of us paid only an annual fee on credit cards? Today, late fees and over-the-limit fees are replacing that annual fee. Add in a dizzying array of extra charges: for phone payments, “expedited” online payments, credit card use overseas and balance transfers from other cards.

At a time when Americans wield more plastic than ever — 692 million credit cards, with $711 billion of debt — fees and policies have grown so complex that even regulators struggle to grasp them.

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