The San Francisco, Calif.-based consumer advocacy organization released its nationwide survey in March. Credit card issuers are notorious copycats. As if rising late fees aren't bad enough, more issuers are zinging late payers with sky-high penalty interest rates as well. Sixty-nine percent of the issuers surveyed by Consumer Action will raise interest rates when a customer pays late, compared to 47 percent in 1998. Associates National Bank, Direct Merchants Bank and Household Bank are among the issuers charging penalty APRs as high as 29.99 percent.
Additional penalties popping up Some issuers have a one-strike penalty policy.
Other issuers have adopted a tiered pricing scheme for rule breakers. GE Select Platinum Card, issued by Bank One's First USA, has a 3.9 percent teaser rate followed by a variable APR of 15.4 percent. Pay late during the introductory period and the APR immediately shoots up to 15.4 percent. Pay late twice in any six-month period and an APR of 19.99 slams into place. The NextCard Plus Visa has a fixed APR of 9.99 percent.