That's what Consumer Action found when it studied the terms for 83 credit cards from 20 banks, including cards from the 10 largest issuers.

The San Francisco-based advocacy group says the cost of missing the deadline on credit card payments is up only a little from $27.46 in 2005 -- the last time the study was done.

But late fees have more than doubled from $13 in 1995.

Consumer Action also found:

• The average annual percentage rate is 14.53%, up from 12.61% in 2005.
• Penalty rates, which are usually charged on balances after a customer makes a late payment, averaged 24.51%. While that's up only modestly from 24.23% two years ago, penalty rates ran as high as 32.24% on some cards.

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