What’s Draining Your Wallet?

The Center for Responsible Lending released The Real Cost of Credit Card Cash Advances 

Apparently only 3% of consumers understand the differences among introductory teaser rates and rates on purchases and on cash advances.

Hall of Shame

The Center for Responsible Lending released the “Hall of Shame” of alleged deceptive and abusive business practices. It concludes that credit card issuers consistently choose complex pricing tactics that exploit borrowers’ lack of information.

Priceless or Just Expensive? The Use of Penalty Rates in the Credit Card Industry

Among the findings:

• 10% of credit card balances carry a penalty interest rate the cardholder doesn’t understand or know about
• more than 50% of cardholders paying penalty rates do not know it
• the spread between borrowers’ regular interest rates and their penalty rates, averaged 16.9 percentage points in 2008, more than double from seven years ago