Today, there's no beating around the bush. I'm just going to put it all out there.

I accrued a finance charge.

And I am ashamed.

You see, I pay off my credit card balance in full every month. I never carry a balance. It's even a running joke between me and my best friend Charlie.

But this month, I received my credit card statement in Online Banking and was aghast to see in BIG BOLD TYPE a finance charge of $4.83. How could this have happened?

Turns out I'd had a case of keyboard dyslexia when I made my payment online. I'd entered a two where I should have entered a five. And because this particular bill was substantial (like Dave, I also like to use my credit card to get reward points, and I'd made a couple of big purchases during the last billing cycle), that three-dollar error cost me almost five bucks in finance charges.

Fortunately, you're not required to pay off your balance in full every month—that's just something I do—so the only thing damaged was my pride. But the experience did get me thinking about what those finance charges could've been if I'd made a $30 error or a $300 error—or just made the minimum payment.

So tell me: Are finance charges a necessary evil, or do you go out of your way to avoid them, like I do?