In March 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau banned excessive late fees on credit cards, bringing down the average hit to cardholders from $32 to $8. By closing a longstanding loophole in banking regulations, the measure would have saved people $10 billion each year.

But Wall Street banks filed a lawsuit with the most right-wing regional court in the United States, the Fifth Circuit. The court then prohibited the CFPB from doing its job: protecting consumers from banker tricks.

The delay is costing credit card users $317 every single second that the CFPB is not allowed to do its job. This counter is tallying up the losses, starting from the very day – May 14 – that the Fifth Circuit stopped the junk fees ban from taking effect.

And $317 per second adds up:

• $19,020 per minute
• $114,120 per hour
• $2.7 million per day
• $19.2 million per week
• $76.7 million per month