I found an intriquing book while in Philadelphia. Dayna loaded up my iPod with the latest NPR PodCasts and they had a piece on Bob Sullivan's Gotcha Capitalism. It was such a compelling story that I had to pick up the book in the airport. I was instantly captivated.
The theme of the book is how Credit Card, Phone and Cable companies and those like them are completely unrestrained by any government regulation to reign in the fees and the interest rates they subject their customers to.
I will include some details from the book regarding how these companies get away with this, but I thought I'd share something I learned in the book that I did not know ( at least the extent of it ).
Not only does the Credit Card company hit you with interest and fees, but everytime you use your card, the business in which you are making the purchase from must pay a fee for accepting the credit card. Apparantly, the typical contract is for the business to pay .20 cents AND 2.65% for each transaction.
So, if I make 100 purchases in a month at an average of $20 a purchase for a total of $2,000, then the credit card company has made $73 off me from the businesses I use.
That's 100 purchases times .20 a purchase = $20 plus
$2,000 times 0.0265 = $53
For a total of $73
Wow !!!
