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June
21, 2006
Credit
Card Late Fees Average $35, Over-the-Limit Fees Top $32
Penalties for misusing a credit card can
be steep, with the average credit card late fee at $35 and the
average over-the-limit fee at $32.24, according to a new IndexCreditCards.com
tracking report.
Using data from a cross-section of major and minor card issuers,
IndexCreditCards.com found that late and over-the-limit fees
ranged from $0 to $39. However, most nationwide issuers charged
between $29 and $39 in both categories. In addition, several
“no-fee” cards have stipulations that make them less attractive
beneath the surface, such as requiring the card to be used for
purchases each month, or significantly raising interest rates
when multiple payments are late.
“It takes just one false move to get hit,” says Justin McHenry,
Research Director for IndexCreditCards.com. “To put these numbers
in perspective, the $35 average late fee is roughly equivalent
to the monthly finance charge you’d pay if you carried a $2,100
balance at 14% interest—in other words, fairly steep.
“Over-the-limit fees aren’t quite as high, but to many cardholders,
they’re even more galling, the logic being that a card should
simply be rejected if it hits the limit. Instead, it may or
may not be rejected, but the fee will always be applied.”
This
tracking report is the first in what will be a quarterly analysis
of credit card late fees and over-the-limit fees at IndexCreditCards.com.
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