Consumers try to read a credit card statement
CreditCards.com took the streets of Austin, Texas, armed with a credit card statement from a major credit card issuer. Then, we asked a few people to try and read and understand it. What did we find? Not surprisingly, everyone found it incredibly confusing and hard to understand. Here’s what the people we met had to say.
6 Responses to “Consumers try to read a credit card statement”
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It could stand to be written better, but I can understand it. I don’t care because I only use a debit card! They interviewed a woman who couldn’t figure out what 2% of $10 was??!!! No wonder she can’t understand the rest of it.
The second attorney is wrong on his conclusion, you don’t need to go to a law-school to follow a simple formula.
What is MOST interesting is WHAT is your daily periodic rate. Take your balance, average it, which means divide by the number of days in the month and multiply by your rate, which is the interesting unknown number.
Balance starts with unpaid outstanding charge at the beginning of your billing cycle (a fixed day in a month), add your new purchases in that month, subtract payments.
They are reading the portion on the finance charges as if it is supposed to be read like a freaking poem without thinking about it.
It was a simple formula translated into English, sure it sounds long, but it is just a formula, if you can’t read it, what can you read?
First attorney is WRONG, this was not legal bullshit, it was a simple computational formula!
‘Software developer’ has made me ashamed of being in the same profession as him. If he can’t understand it, he should be fired.
So the minimum periodic payment is the total new balance if the total money is less than $10. Duh. Difficult?
If your balance is greater than $10, pay 2% on what is not above your credit limit.
Obviously they want you to return everything above your credit limit. I guess it happens when your credit is reduced after a charge happens, otherwise you wouldn’t overshoot.
What’s funny is that also they want you to add either $10 or whatever is past due (if it’s greater) to the above payment.
The agreement is not complex, it is just based on a number of rules, which need to be followed, in fact the number of rules is not even that large.
What is the problem with understanding what a ‘minimum period payment is’? Are these people actual retards?
Minimum payment that is done in a time period, which means it is done on the same schedule.
I’ll dumb it down for you:
Credit Card Agreement: Bend over and spread your ass cheeks.
New card carrier: ok