How much interest can credit cards legally charge?

I am a new york state resident with a credit card that just sent me a bill with an APR of 32.24%. I am in good credit standing (make all my payments), but am carrying too much debt relative to income. The last payment for this particular card was 1 day late, but late charge and APR/Finance charges are listed seperately so I don't think that had anything to do with it. I am wondering whether or not to go to the attorney general on this one. Please let me know what all of you out there think.

Check your cardmember agreement. Usually the "Default APR" is listed on there, and if your payment was a day late, that's probably what you're being charged. I don't know if making an attorney general complaint will help, but what you can do is stay on your credit card company, requesting that they lower your interest rate.

MOre than around 35%

Unfortunately, I don't think there is any limit on what they can charge you. They may have raised your rate (in addition to charging you a late fee) because your payment was late. But if you write to them and ask them to lower it, or at least remove the late charge, they sometimes will do it.

Unfortunatly, they can charge whatever the law of the state allows them to charge!

Check with the better business office in your city.

That seems very high. The worse I have seen is around 21%.

around 35, but depend on your credit and the company policy

Legally what ever you are willing to pay. They want you to NOT pay off your credit card every month and they want you to be at least one day late so you can be hit for late fees. Caveat Emptor my friend.

credit card companies can charge you up to the terms dictated by the rate agreement you capitulated too. usually it's US Prime + some percentage.

your company may have raised your rate because if you're carrying too much other revolving (i.e. credit card) debt, you present a higher risk profile & hence, a greater chance for default.
you may have even been late on some OTHER bill, like a utility or car payment, & they found out about it & ticked up your rate.

and yes, it's legal for them to do so. the best advice & I'm sure you've heard it plenty of times, is pay off the credit cards every month. It sucks not being able to instantly go out & buy that big screen, but the aid you'll get on your credit score for future loans will be immense.

With a charge as bad as that, I'd take it as a signal to start looking for different card provider so you can tell them where to shove it........ there's some excellent advice on Credit cards at this site: http://www.fool.com/ccc/ccc.htm + they also do a couple of credits if you do consider looking somewhere for a better deal: http://www.fool.com/landing/card/decide....

chase did the same thing to me a few years back my credit limits were to high to roll them into a lower APR. Chase laughed at me when i threaten them with going to another card, because i bet they knew somehow. I got proactive and pissed off enough worked on the weekend doing remolding jobs with my brother, made enought money to pay those SOB's down. Then when i had it down to an 1/8 of the credit limit got an offer with bank of America 5%APR with a limit of 20k rolled that over and told chase to buzz off then all of a sudden they where offering the world to me. Now i don't have any stink-in CC with balances.
I wish you well, i am felling your pain!

I would consider calling them, Sometimes they forgive for 1 day, you could argue it was in the mail and it should not be your fault for thier processing taking too much time.

Another suggestion is going to creditcards.com and trying to transfer the balance to someone else at a low or no interest rate. American Express is offering 4.99 fixed for life if your score is high enough you may qualify for that.