3. Consider the following statement •Jf consumers don't pay off their credit card balance each month, that's their decision, and they shouldn't complain about the interest they are charged. They should just stop spending so much money and pay off their bill each month (or just stop using their credit card).

Demanding more restrictive legislation on credit card companies Is not the answer. Consumers gat into debt because they spend mora than they can afford." Do you agree or disagree with the statement.

Explain your reasoning. Do you think that you're credit card savvy? Do you know what's in the fine print in cardholders' agreements?

Meet four people who got so fed up with hidden fees and rising interest rates on their credit cards that they decided to do something about it.

David Caldarelli was mistakenly charged double for a highway toll. When he sent in his monthly credit card payment, he did not pay for the highway toll overcharge. When he got his next statement, he was shocked to discover that he had been charged $23 dollars in interest (even on the part of the total bill he had already paid). When he inquired about the charge, he was informed that since he had not paid the entire bill, he was charged Interest on his total month's charges.

He discovered that if you don't pay every penny you owe on your monthly statement, the next month you will be charged interest as if you hadn't paid anything.

He was therefore being charged interest on money that he had already paid back. He discovered that this provision was in his cardholder agreement, but these agreements are complex (almost as if they are written by lawyers for lawyers). David complained about this, and was successful in getting the $23 charge cancelled

(a one-time goodwill gesture, he was told). David learned to beware of the partial payment