Complexity and Unfairness Pricing schedules for services are often quite pricing schedules sometimes result in complicated complex. Changing circumstances Consider the credit card industry that are difficult for consumers to interpret. Traditionally, the banks that issue these cards received revenues from tw sources: a small percentage of the value of each transaction (paid by the merchant), and high interest charges on credit balances. As credit cards became more popular, costs started to rise for the banks on two fronts. First, more customers defaulted on their balances leading to a big increase in bad debts. Second, as competition increased between bank marketing expenses rose and gold and platinum cards started offering more affluent customers features like free travel insurance, emergency card replacement, and points expenses were rising, more customers redeemable for air miles. But as marketing started to pay off their monthly balances in full and competition led to lower interest rates, resulting in lower revenues. So the banks increased other charges and imposed new fees that were often confusing to customers. Details of charges by one major bank for its platinum card are shown in the box entitled "Charges, Fees, and Terms for a Platinum Visa Card"
Another industry that has gained notoriety for its complex and sometimes mislead ing pricing schedules is cellular telephone service. Consumer Reports has warned its read ers about such practices as rounding up calling time to the nearest minute, misrepresen- tation of "free" service elements that turn out not to be so and b