Report: Credit Card Late Fees Average $35

Using data from a cross-section of major and minor card issuers, IndexCreditCards.com found that late and over-the-limit fees ranged from $0 to $39. However, most nationwide issuers charged between $29 and $39 in both categories.

In addition, several “no-fee” cards have stipulations that make them less attractive beneath the surface, such as requiring the card to be used for purchases each month, or significantly raising interest rates when multiple payments are late.

“It takes just one false move to get hit,” says Justin McHenry, Research Director for IndexCreditCards.com. “To put these numbers in perspective, the $35 average late fee is roughly equivalent to the monthly finance charge you’d pay if you carried a $2,100 balance at 14% interest -- in other words, fairly steep.

“Over-the-limit fees aren’t quite as high, but to many cardholders, they’re even more galling, the logic being that a card should simply be rejected if it hits the limit. Instead, it may or may not be rejected, but the fee will always be applied.”

This tracking report is the first in what will be a quarterly analysis of credit card fees at IndexCreditCards.com. It complements the site’s other original credit card research, including the weekly Credit Card Monitor, which tracks credit card interest rate trends.