Hidden Costs

Hidden Costs of Credit Cards by Peter Davidson.

4. Two-cycle billing. While most card issuers use the standard one-month method to calculate interest charges, some use a method that calculates interest on two previous months’ balances. Companies compute interest charges on your average daily balance by adding each day’s balance and then dividing that total by the number of days in the billing cycle. Some do it on a monthly basis, but others use the average daily balance over the last two billing periods. If you carry a balance this usually means that you’ve lost any grace period on your new purchases. Unless you pay off your balance for two months in a row, the two-cycle method will include the prior cycle’s average balance in calculating your finance costs even though you paid off that cycle’s balance in full. You don’t face that expense with a single-cycle card.

PhdComics . What if Charlie Brown was a graduate student?

Alex Ross on symphony websites:

many sites actively conceal whatever novelties the orchestra might have deliberately or accidentally perpetrated. Premieres, like deformed Victorian children, are hidden behind a screen

John Sinnott on Munchausen (the 1943 Germany production).

Dr. Mercola reveals that raw or undercooked eggs isn’t a significant source of salmonella.

Terry Teachout on how advancing technologies is causing us to let go of cultural objects:

A lot of middle-aged writers I know think I?m wasting my time blogging, especially since I don?t get paid for it. Of course they may be right. But the U.S. Postal Service thought Aunt Minnie would live forever?and now it?s going down the drain. The major classical labels thought they could ignore the long-term implications of digital recording?and now they?re reduced to making crossover albums, the classical equivalent of smooth jazz. A septuagenarian anchorman thought he could ignore the sniping of the blogosphere?and now he?s being forced to spend the twilight of a long, prestigious career eating rancid crow in an election year.

Are you a likely voter?


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