The credit card companies are still free to charge interest at the agreed upon rates, but now they can’t add a $50 fee on top because of what is a banking error for most people (they had the funds but perhaps in a different account from the autopay).
If this change actually affects the companies bottom line, I would imagine we will see a small increase in the interest rates being offered to cover the expense. Realistically though, banks make all of their money from the interest on the cards and the late fees are icing on the already overflowing extravagant cake.
> Realistically though, banks make all of their money from the interest on the cards and the late fees are icing on the already overflowing extravagant cake.
Standard accounting principles make it much more black and white. The banks' financials already account for late fees taken in. Removing the late fees alone would decrease revenue and hurt financial projections. They either eat this out of the kindness of their hearts, or more likely find other ways of taking a similar amount of money from customers or merchants.
If this change actually affects the companies bottom line, I would imagine we will see a small increase in the interest rates being offered to cover the expense. Realistically though, banks make all of their money from the interest on the cards and the late fees are icing on the already overflowing extravagant cake.