No big news flash there, huh? Making a financial mistake by nature means it will cost you, but have you ever considered all the potential mistakes you could make and just how much they could be costing you? We make literally billions of dollars in mistakes every year. I’m not talking about bad financial habits, but about genuine, one-time (hopefully) bad moves. For example:
Late payments
Penalties and fees on credit card accounts topped $20 billion in 2009. Simply missing a payment by one day can trigger additional charges just because of a foul up.
Unclaimed tax refund
Billions go unclaimed each year according to the IRS. Just for the 2006 filing year, the IRS is still holding over $1.3 billion. While not necessarily a “foul up” in the classical sense, failing to claim money that is owed to you is definitely a mistake.
NSF checks
According to an FDIC study, banks collected over $37 billion in various “foul up” fees from their customers in 2008. A similar study in 2007 found that virtually ALL people experiencing an overdraft on their checking account were not aware of it until after the fact.
