Everyone makes mistakes. Screwing up is part of being human. But as sure as you can bet on making your share of little, everyday blunders, you can also be sure that someone is there just waiting to make a tidy profit from your innocent, all-too-human errors.
And that someone is often your local city government — or a bank.
For example, since most of aren’t rich, inevitably, every now and then, we’ll make a mistake and overdraw our bank accounts . The mistakes are easily fixed, and usually these days most big banks will help you out — for a fee. The fees may seem small — around 35 bucks usually. But big banks rake in $32 billion — yes, that’s “billion” with a “b” — in overdraft fees every year.
And don’t even get us started on what happens if you slip up and send in your credit card payment late. No matter how solid your credit, the credit card company still slaps you with a fee. And those companies gouge credit card users to the tune of about $12 billion per year in late fees.
Then there’s parking tickets. The cost of forgetting to feed your meter can be mindblowing as well.
Look, we’ll let our friends at BuzzFeed — who never make mistakes — tell you more. Take a minute or so to watch this BuzzFeed video filled with facts about what your common, daily mistakes cost you and everybody else.
You’ll be a lot more careful next time.
