Credit Card Agreements: Do You Read, Understand Them?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Did you read your credit card agreement before using that bit of plastic? Or was it too wordy to even bother?
Nearly half of us refuse to read those lengthy agreements says Matt Schulz -- Senior Industry Analyst at CreditCards.com:
"The most important thing is for people to at least understand a few basic things about their credit card agreement, the interest rate, the fees that are involved, because if you don't at least understand that, you're just asking for trouble."
He says those who do attempt to wade through them can be confused:
"The average one is written at about the 11th grade reading level and that doesn't sound like it would be any big deal, but the truth is that only about half of consumers read at a 9th grade level or below, so that's a lot of people who wouldn't be able to read their credit card agreement."
He suggests if you don't understand something, call the company and ask.