Are you paying attention to your monthly credit card bills? Have your read the three or four paragraphs about explaining finance charges? Have you noticed that you can pay on time every month now and get a finance charge? If you haven’t done any of these things, I suggest you do so.
Your new dividend from the government for spending your tax dollars to bail out the banks is a new finance policy. Don’t read the four paragraphs, they are the worst of weasel worded legalese. If your bill is due, 1-7-10, for example, but you have charges that have been on your bill longer than 30 days, you will be charged interest even if you have paid every bill before the due date.
This is obviously a new idea to gain cash flow from customers who pay every month on time to pay back the TARP money to get the government out of their lives so they can get back to paying big bonuses to top management for hosing you.
The new term is daily periodic rate computation. Sounds like something from college chemistry class. It’s from your ammended agreement with your bank. Amended by them for them at your expense.
To avoid paying these new charges you would have to time purchases so none are on the front or back end of the billing cycle, primarily the front. Or, you could give the bank your cash ahead of the due date.