Owners of Best Buy credit cards (via HSBC) are being charged $15 to pay their bill on time online. The only way to avoid the fee? Pay at least two business days early.

When we called customer service to ask about the fee, the very nice Montesa told us that online payments took a day or to process and the 2-day period assures that it’ll arrive on time. Huh? Shouldn’t the due date be two days earlier in that case?

Wait. I just thought of another way to avoid the fee: you could always pay off the balance and cancel your Best Buy credit cards. Zing!

(Thanks, David Berube!)

Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine .

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