Everyone gets mad at the credit card companies when they asses late fees or finance charges to their accounts. Some credit cards have finance changes that go up to 28% APR. I find that ridiculous considering that they can get access to cash from the feds (that is your money and mine) for almost 0% nowadays. What is even more interesting is the late fee charge. It seems that the "standard" of the credit card companies today is $35. So if you have a $500 bill and you are lat you get hit by $35. That is 35/500 = 0.07. This adds up to 84% APR. Add that to the 28% and you get 112%. I do not know what you invest your money in, but 112% is one hell of a deal.
Does that scare you? Well let us look at your utility bills. The "standard" there is $5 at least. So on a $100 bill you pay 5% which brings the APR to 60%. That is less than what your credit cards stiffed you with. But this is supposed to be a utility company, not a bank. What is even funnier is that nowadays companies like phone or TV are charging in advance for their services. So you pay for December service in November. That means they have your $100 for a whole month, year around, for free. But when you are "late" you are assessed a "late" fee. How can I be late if I am paying a month in advance?
At least the credit cards give you their cash and give a grace period. So potentially you could be using few thousand dollars for about 40 days for free. But the damn utilities, take your money and use it for free and still want to turn around and screw you over. Yet another example of how the American consumer is being ripped off.