If there’s one thing we can comfortably count upon, it’s that the policy members of major corporations are geniuses. We’re not kidding. If they’d turned their attentions away from business and finance and to scientific matters, they would already have invented the time machine and I’d be able to experience first-hand what a great kisser I’ll be in ten years. Unfortunately for us all, instead, they exert their ingenuity to figuring out ways to keep us in massive amounts of debt, even after we’ve paid our bills.

Consider trailing interest, a new concept introduced by Bank of America in which you rack up interest between the period in which you receive your bill and the period in which they finally get around to processing your payment. What this means is you can pay off a bill as soon as you get it, then find out you owe interest from a balance two months old.

According to an anonymous Bank of America employee, the bank’s policy is to charge interest for two months running on accounts that had unpaid balances, even if the balance was fully paid in the first month. Why? Because if they can’t nail you for interest, you aren’t a profitable customer. So why not invent some fees to fuck good customers with?

“Trailing Interest” Snags Bank Of America Customers [Consumer Affairs]

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