Many card issuers charge interest from the date a charge is posted to your account. This could be a day or two up to about a week after the date of the actual transaction. However, some creditors are charging interest from the date of the purchase, days before they have paid a merchant on your behalf. In other words, they are charging consumers interest from the date that a transaction was made, a practice known as “backdating” (going back in time). If you carry a balance, the result is a higher cost for consumers and additional interest income for credit card issuers because the average daily balance on which interest is charged is increased.
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